MARMBA NEWS
Dear Friends,
I am very sorry to have to report that Revd Francis Shemzigwa has passed away. Many of you may remember him when he visited Tenbury with a group of teachers about ten years ago. At that time, he was the Dean at St Aidan’s Church in Maramba and subsequently took on the position of priest in charge at Mhinduro, one of the parishes within the deanery. He suffered serious injuries due to a motorbike accident and was admitted to Tanga hospital so he could recover. Unfortunately, he was also suffering from diabetes, and it was this disease that was the reason for his death. The funeral service at Mhinduro was led by Vicar General Revd Canon Christopher on behalf of Archbishop Maimbo and I was sent a video of the occasion. A very large crowd attended the funeral and there was much weeping and wailing as the coffin was taken into the church, so typical of a Tanzanian funeral.
I have also been sent a series of photographs of the choir at Kibago church harvesting maize by hand. Nothing mechanical is involved and a very large heap of maize cobs was accumulating at one end of the field. The corn from these cobs is widely used by local families for producing flour which is used as a basis for many of their meals. In the past we did donate some funds to this choir so they could purchase a matching uniform of T shirts to wear in church and now they are asking if we could help them to buy loudspeakers and microphones! Clement Shehiza has been elected as chairman for the Mkinga district council and will now be involved in local politics. He did ask me to write a reference for him but he left insufficient time for me to forward it to him before the election took place.
Peter Metcalfe.
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