“You may well have heard that here in Tanzania we are experiencing a nation-wide drought. Despite rain falling during the months of September-January, this has been less than half what would typically fall. We haven’t had decent rain since last April/May! The ground is dry and hard, the atmosphere dusty. Grass and plants are dry and shrivelled up. People are walking further and further in search of water and are carrying heavy loads to use what they find for cooking and cleaning. Crops have failed, so the subsistence farming that most people rely on to feed their families is desperate; and I have heard stories of people in villages selling their clothes to get enough money to buy a sack of maize flour to survive, and reports of cattle being sold for a few pounds rather than over 100 as people cannot afford to feed and water them. Tanzania is not a country that you typically associate with drought and its impact on the survival of life. In our five years of living in Morogoro we have never known it to be so dry for so long. Please stand with us in prayer for this nation and neighbouring countries that are likewise desperate for water.”