Matt and Liz Wisbey are literacy workers in the southwest of Tanzania, working with speakers of 10 different languages in the Mbeya and Iringa Regions of the country. They have shared recently about a workshop which is currently in progress:
This week and next sees Liz leading our first Basic Literacy workshop. As I write she is teaching 8 playschool teachers from two of our language groups how to teach their children how to read and write their mother tongue.
A lot of time and hard work has gone into preparing for these two weeks, and the following work and follow-up, and so it is very exciting to finally see the books in the teachers’ hands and the teachers learning these new skills. read more
While helping people to learn to read and write in their mother-tongue for the first time can seem extremely exciting and rewarding, it can also be very tough for a young couple working in a completely different culture. Matt recently posted about some of the challenges they face:
Being a missionary (read ex-pat, anyone living across cultures) can be a lonely business.
As we leave our home culture and dive head long into a new foreign culture we leave many of our safety nets behind. Some of these nets can be found in this new culture, others cannot. Some can be found in the small ‘ex-pat community’ that inevitably exists in any reasonably sized town, others cannot.
Good friends, a community of people who you can share your joy, your despair, your hopes and your fears with, are the hardest things to find.
Yes if you want a network of people who you know, who you can ask for help or advice and who know the practicalities of your life, then this is possible. However I believe there is something deep inside of us that needs more than this. This need varies from person to person, from character to character, but I would argue this need is there in all people somewhere. read more
Take a look at Matt and Liz’s blog to discover some of the realities – both joys and difficulties – of living and working overseas.
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Tags: Iringa, Literacy, Mbeya, Mother-tongue, Tanzania
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[...] Last week we posted about Matt and Liz – Wycliffe UK members who are serving as literacy workers in Tanzania. The basic literacy workshop that they were preparing for has since taken place… here’s what Liz has to say about it: Take place it did… we had 8 preschool teachers arrive in Mbeya to take part – 4 women from the Vwanji language area and 4 men from the Malila language area. They stayed for 2 weeks and were very happy and touchingly grateful to receive this time of training (some had had no specific training whatsoever in how to teach preschool children before starting their jobs!) and the resources that we had prepared for teaching mother tongue literacy (some have hardly any resources whatsoever – no books to guide them or the children, no games equipment or toys and some even have no blackboard or chalk). We tried to come alongside them, equip them and encourage them in the great work they do as it literally can be a thankless task. They struggle with ungrateful parents, little or no pay, huge classes of mixed ages and abilities and little or no resources. I certainly couldn’t do it! We also tried to instill in them the importance of teaching mother tongue literacy as well as Swahili and inspire them in the job we were calling them to do. They left with a box of resources each, thankful hearts and a realization that what they had been called to would not be easy but would be rewarding and eventually could make a huge difference to their communities. [...] [...]