From: "Diocese of Mbeya" <mbeya-diocese@atma.co.tz>
Date:  Mon, 31 May 2004 11:33:50 -0700

My  name is Father Michael J Kelly, I am the Parish Priest of the Parish of St Thomas More in the village of Itaka in southern Tanzania which is in Mbeya Diocese. We are a very large parish with over 35 chapels of ease  covering some 1600 sq kilometers and with a parish population of 13,000 Christians. Our people  for the most part are farmers growing coffee maize and beans, that standard of life here  is very poor with an average income of about $200 . Most of our work is primary evangelization and we baptise on average about 400 young Christians each year, they follow a two year catechumenate before they are baptized.  Since the parish was founded in 1991 we have started a primary school, and we have just opened our new secondary school which will be a technical secondary school. We have one class in form one of 40 pupils and also a preparatory group of two classes. We also have a health centre as there was no health facility here when we started. Out here in the bush we do not feel very much part of the world community. We have no electricity and therefore no telephone service; our roads are  mud roads which are not passable for parts of the year; there is no water supply apart from the river. In spite of these doifficulties, our Christians are dedicated and very happy people. Please give our greetings to your people and pray for us and the work that we are doing here

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