Kataoke
Katoke is available through the Anglican Bookroom for $25. For more information you may phone 6344 6893 or contact Ann & Robert Burgess, 46 Brooklands Rd, Atawhai, Nelson NEW ZEALAND robt_ann_burg@xtra.co.nz
Burgess, A. (2005). Katoke: Dear Family... Nelson, New Zealand: Robert & Ann Burgess
Book Reviewed by Katie Stanley
This privately published book tells the story of New Zealand CMS missionaries, Ann and Robert Burgess, who worked at Katoke Teachers' College in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) in the 1960s. Katoke Teachers' College, in the north-west of the country on the shores of Lake Victoria, was run by an alliance of missionary organisations to train primary school teachers.
The Burgesses went to the college in 1963 and returned to New Zealand in 1968. Robert served as a teacher, though also did accounting and maintenance work. Ann was also meant to teach, but spent most of her time occupied with home duties and the education of their children by correspondence.
The Burgess' story is told partly through the letters sent home to their parents in New Zealand. Life in this isolated part of Tanzania was far from the comfortable one that we lead today in Australia. There was initially no electricity. Refrigerators were run by kerosene. All water had to be boiled. Both shopping and medical help were several hours away on unreliable roads. Despite these things we would regard as hardships, the Burgesses spent five fulfilling years at the college.
On their return to New Zealand they went through a period of reverse culture shock, finding the affluence of New Zealand very challenging. Robert moved from teaching into industry. Ann had to adjust to a different kind of life, the children to a completely new and foreign lifestyle.
The Burgess' story is well written and inspirational; a recommended read.
If you are interested in reading more about the work of CMS in Tanzania, the following may also make interesting reading: Bythell, N. (2002). We Have Got Your Message: The experience of a Missionary family in Tanganyika 1944 - 1959. Nelson, New Zealand: The Copy Press