SCHOOL FOR THE SERENGETI – The story of Issenye

In 1989 David Hope, then Bishop of Wakefield, seconded former USPG missionary and Christ the King parishioner Bill Jones to the Diocese of Mara in Tanzania, East Africa. For seven years Bill and his wife, Maureen, lived in Issenye, a village on the edge of the Serengeti. When the secondment from Wakefield expired, Maureen and Bill rejoined USPG. ‘School for the Serengeti’ is their story – of how Issenye Secondary School and Isseco Health Centre came to be built.

The book also covers their initial recruitment and training by USPG, with one chapter entitled ‘How to be a missionary’. Their job in Africa was to teach, but the learning was a two-way process, and this detailed account, with a foreword by the Rt Revd Nigel McCulloch, Bishop of Manchester, gives vivid insights into the work of the church in rural Africa, including encounters with polygamy, hospitality, poverty, corruption, tribalism, and death.

There are frequent flashes of humour as well, as Maureen and Bill struggle to feel at home in a culture markedly different from that of their Mirfield home. Every word is illumined by a deep affection for and admiration of the people of Issenye, to whose senior citizen the book is dedicated. Available from the publishers, Aliquid Novum, aliquidnovum@aol.com or direct from the author at 57, Shirley Avenue, Gomersal, West Yorkshire, BD19 4NA. £6.99 plus 90p p&p (total £7.89).

 For Pictures and More information see our Mara Pages