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NEWS FROM TANZANIA
PHOTOS from Graham and Sheila’s trip August - September
Tooth camp (19pics), At night (13pics), building work (43pics), Staff (14pics),
Football (26pics), Netball (41pics), Recording studio (33pics), Singing (16pics),
Play time (12pics), Study & School (13pics), Pre-school (3pics),
Cleaning-washing-cooking (20pics), Time to eat (25pics),
Children in groups (52pics), Children individually (91pics),
Sunrise-sunsets (189pics)
Latest News Graham and Sheila Pountain returned from Bethany Tanzania on September 4th and their news is reported below.
Daniel and Eliada (proposed marriage): As always weddings are expensive - even in Tanzania. Many of the people who met Daniel and Eliada when they visited England have expressed a wish to help them financially towards the cost. We have therefore decided to set up a fund whereby people can send money (instead of a wedding present) which will help with the cost of the celebration and reception. Click here for details of how you can contribute
Tooth Camp at Bethany: On Monday the 23rd August Bethany hosted a ‘tooth camp’ run by Bridge2Aid (www.bridge2aid.org). A few days before, we cleaned up our large 80 seater dining room, repainted it inside and out as well as doing minor repairs and fitting new bigger bulbs for the big day. We advertised the day with 10 posters in the surrounding villages inviting anyone with tooth problems to visit to receive free treatment. Early on Monday morning the people started to arrive most holding their mouths in a great deal of pain. We started up our small generator and ran it all day to supplement the solar power, as the sterilisers use a great deal of electricity. Soon after 9-o-clock the Bridge2Aid team arrived and set up their medical equipment and sterilisers. They were a very welcome site for our 60 plus group of villagers who were eagerly yet apprehensively awaiting. Soon after 9.30 the room was ready and so was the team consisting of Ian Wilson (dentist in charge) with his wife Andie (who served as a volunteer at Bethany for two years in 1994/5) assisted by 3 dental students from Bristol University; Carla Fleming, Jonathan Gollings and Ediz Cakin. Bethany provided 3 volunteers for translation; Onesmo Malundi, Daniel Bujiku and Eliada Magotti and also supplied a little food and clean water. The team worked very hard with just a short break for lunch and left at about 6pm after seeing 64 patients, extracting 104 teeth and to finish the day the children sang a couple of songs, ‘In the Jungle’ and ‘Nagalolela’. We wish to thank the Bridge2Aid team for all the suffering they relieved on that day on behalf of all those who received treatment a very big thank you. A special thank you to all those who support Bridge2Aid financially - your money has been well spent. We at Bethany were just glad to be able to host such an event and hope that we can host another tooth camp in the future some time. Click here for more pictures.
Children: We now have 65 children and our accommodation is pretty full. Our new boy is Elijah Benard aged 10. Both parents have died of aids and he was being looked after by his Uncle who was still studying full time and couldn’t manage to support him.
Bujimbu is much better and we thank you for your prayers. Whilst there little Abel, the boy whose mother is in prison is always climbing and ultimately fell and broke his arm - which now is healing nicely! The children are all at either the local primary school or attending one of the three local secondary schools or the pre-school children being taught on site by our new teacher Mr. Ahmedi. Emmakulata is now attending the new government secondary school just round the corner from Bethany at Sogeska and has been made head girl (because she has the best English). Click here for pics
Water Supply: The level of the lake is still very low and we are having to take one of our old diesel pumps out into the lake each day to pump water into the well as the water is too low for the syphon to work. We have decided to build an underground tank next to our well (sump) which will hold enough water for a days supply of water. This tank is 4 metres square by 2 metres deep to hold 32,000 litres of water. We are also lowering the syphon pipe by about a metre. By doing this we hope that we will only have to pump water from the lake for 1 hour or so every morning until the underground tank is full and then the solar pump will empty the underground tank as it fills the main header tank during sunlight hours. We would also be interested to hear from anyone who can advise on the suitability of a bore hole for the region we are situated in and how we go about costing such an operation. Click here for pictures of the hole being dug for the new underground tank.
Tanz staff changes: Esther, who started working for Bethany nearly ten years ago left to have two children and is now back working as a carer. Click here to see Esther and some of her fellow workers.
UK team changes: Brian Bancroft has resigned from membership of the UK team. We wish to thank him for all the work he has done for Bethany over the years - he will be sorely missed.
Proposed School: Our new teacher Mr. Ahmedi is busy helping to educate our pre-school children until our primary school children return from school. We are still a long way from building a school at Bethany but at least we’ve made a start! Click here for pictures of our new teacher and pupils.
Sponsorship - Finance: We are happy to report that we received another monthly standing order form this month which will help with ongoing monthly costs.
Sponsorship, Supporting Bethany.
New building work: As well as building the underground water tank we have moved the last container which was previously sited where our new girl’s dormitory will be built. We now have three containers in a neat row and have decided to build between these to make two new enclosed secure areas. One will store the charcoal used for cooking and the other should house our new vehicle (if we manage to acquire it).
Future Trips: In October three possible longer term volunteers are visiting, Matthew and Rachel Schofield and Rachel Bacon. November sees a group from OCC visiting and two trips are being planned for January and March next year 2005 when we hope to help build the new dormitory for girls.
New vehicle grant: Daniel has been to see the District Commissioner who is happy to help process our application for tax relief on our new vehicle as he is filly aware that we are a ‘not for profit NGO’ (non government organisation). The new vehicle we would like is a 13 seater Toyota Land Cruiser. The children keep asking when it will arrive. If and when we get it Yitwimila village will be a two vehicle village!
New Songs recorded: We were sponsored (£60 for 3 hours) at the local recording studio at Bulima to record 17 new songs (some we had done before). New recordings include ‘In the Jungle’, ‘Millenium Prayer’ and Nagalolela (Sukuma song). These will be available very soon.
Click here to see the pictures at the recording studio. Click here to see the children practicing
Monthly meeting: Our next meeting will be Saturday 2nd October. Click here for more details
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