Surrey Couple Serve Children
in War-Torn Uganda
 JOHN AND DELYTH CANN |
By EIFION WILLIAMS
VANCOUVER – The recent earthquake in Haiti focused the world’s attention on the extreme poverty and appalling living conditions that are a constant feature of life in many Third World countries.
Frequently overlooked are the many organizations and individuals who labour year-after-year without fanfare to alleviate some of the suffering in these countries.
Among them are Surrey residents John and Delyth Cann, who are familiar with Third World conditions after having been involved for many years with projects in Nicaragua, Mexico, South Korea and Uganda as part of the outreach program of Pacific Academy, an independent Christian school in Surrey.
The Pacific Academy program is aimed at giving every graduating student the opportunity to be involved in outreach to Third World countries.
Such outreach involves providing labour in building, renovating and maintaining school buildings as well as sharing the Christian message through drama, arts and crafts projects and story telling.
According to John and Del, their most memorable assignment as PA teachers was to Uganda, one of the poorest countries in Africa, a country torn by war, where the country’s AIDS epidemic has led to thousands of orphans.
John and Del were assigned to the PA-maintained school in the trading centre of Kibaale in Rakai District. The school looks after the feeding, clothing, educating and medical needs of over 800 children and their immediate families.
John relates how security on the campus was maintained by two African workers who patrolled the grounds overnight to keep the almost exclusively African staff from hostile natives, wild animals and marching ants.
On one occasion the staff encountered a two meter-long black mamba, one of Africa’s deadliest snakes, which was expertly removed by some Africans.
But according to John the things he and Del remember most are not the snakes, marching ants and the boiling and filtering of rainwater but the occasions that demonstrate the people’s fundamental humanity amidst so much suffering.
Del was in the habit of visiting students’ homes on a Saturday, often hiking over three hours one way to a home, accompanied by a student. As she describes it, “The welcome was always astounding and humbling.
“The women would have spent much time the week before weaving a large mat or basket as a gift and often a basketful of home-grown vegetables neatly covered in a cloth.
“One bittersweet memory is of a wonderful afternoon with a student and extended family, playing with their delightful African baby.
“The following week the student arrived at school in tears. The new baby’s mum had died of AIDS, or Slim Disease as the Ugandans call it, because of its wasting effect.”
Del remembers the most beautiful singing by 30 lovely children standing on the open deck of the school’s one-ton truck, which doubled as the school bus.
The singing was spontaneous and harmonious with an African beat that is in their blood. It reminded Del of the instinctive and natural rhythm of singers in her native Wales.
John and Delyth Cann were both born in Wales and have been teaching for a combined total of about 100 years. After teaching in state schools in Birmingham and Somerset, England, the couple emigrated to Canada, where they first taught in the community school for Cominco’s Bluebell mine in Riondel in the West Kootenays.
They subsequently moved to Creston where they raised their two children. John was the founding principal of the pioneering Creston Valley Christian School while Delyth taught Home Economics in Prince Charles Secondary School.
However, according to John, the couple’s most exciting years were those spent at Pacific Academy which led to their involvement in the school’s outreach program. The couple are now officially retired but still work occasionally as teachers-on-call.
John Cann is currently moderator of the Vancouver Welsh Society’s bi-lingual, non-denominational religious service, which meets on the second Sunday of each month at the Cambrian Hall. Visitors are always welcome at these services.
These are relatively quiet times for John and Del after virtually a lifetime of service ministering to the less fortunate people of the world. They still maintain that, “Yes, part of our hearts are still in Africa.”
Further information on the Pacific Academy outreach program can be found on the school’s website: www.pacificacademy.net. The website for the Kibaale Community Schools in Uganda is: padev.hosting.ca.
| 
