If you ever doubt the unity that is created by the power of music and dance look at our photo of the Ceilidh at Cleator Moor Civic Hall to say farewell to our visitors from Tanzania. Every face glows with the delight of friendship as they dance to the rhythm their African visitors had taught them.
It all began on the first night at Gillerthwaite Field Centre with some of the Copeland Link members, and although worn out by a long journey the Tanzanian party asked that we could all sing and dance together before we went to bed. Communications as old as time, which cut across language and cultural barriers and draw everyone in, worked their magic, and everyone went to bed smiling.

For the Tanzanian group it was an eye-opening experience to spend a normal school day at Wyndham, shadowing year 10s, as well as specific science, drumming, geography, and KiSwahili lessons in Wyndham and Whitehaven schools. Asked whether they would rather live in Tanzania or England, most visitors said they preferred their own country, but they would like to take English schools home with them. Primary schools, too, welcomed their visitors and joined in a fantastic afternoon of dance at Wyndham School.
Karen Storr's photo of Safinia Kajegale modelling the beautiful costumes and headgear of her homeland shows how fashion brought everyone together. The Link combined forces with Egremont Fairtrade group to hold a fashion show in Egremont Parish Hall, showing some beautiful items of Massai jewellery and Tanzanian fabrics brought by the Tanzanian visitors to sell here in Copeland to raise funds for school projects back in Link schools in Rungwe. By the end of the first music day Copeland students were proudly wearing kangas to dance in.
All our ten visiting Tanzanians (six pupils, two young teachers, a call centre worker, and the group leader, an Agricultural Officer) were hosted in local homes. The kindness and generosity of the hosts touched the hearts of their visitors, but the feedback I’ve had from many is that it was a privilege and a joy to have a Rungwe visitor in their homes. "Seeing how happy the Tanzanians are, considering how little they have compared to us, was inspiring and this experience has definitely made me a better person," is the way one Egremont student put it.
Involvement in the Link has inspired young people in Egremont with a passion to open up opportunities for their Tanzanian friends. There can be no greater opportunity than to provide electricity for a rural school where students cannot switch the lights on when it is dark.  The cost of the connection to the grid will be approximately £2,400.  In the name of the Egremont community, Egremont Today will be making this donation to Kisondela School

To read Ashley Napier's account of of the challenges students in Rungwe face on a daily basis, click here.

To read of the remarkable play Link actors presented under charlotte Allan's direction, click here