Post as promised!

The Word Fest was brilliant! Music, poetry and prose on a Summer' evening - thanks to all who attended, either to perform or to listen. The raffle, together with generous donations, put £73 pounds into the GOES account. It won't rot away in the vaults of the Co-op Bank - we'll find a good use for it, promise!
Last year's money funded the purchase of the wheelchair mentioned in earlier posts. One thing being associated with GOES has taught me is never to underestimate the creative talents or the generosity of people. Yes, that's two things ... I'll go back to sleep now and dream of Baobab trees ... I'm too old for these late nights (unless I'm dancing to African drums on a beach of silver sand ...)

Vale Royal Writers Group to the rescue!

VRWG, together with the Dead Good Poets of Liverpool, hold their Summer Wordfest tonight in the Blue Cap inn, in a Cheshire village - Sandiway. We'll listen to some excellent poetry and prose, enjoy the company and hope the raffle raises some funds for GOES. If you're up for it bring some of your own poetry or stories along because there will be a few 'open mic' sessions. Writers will sell you their books, the publican will sell you drinks and food - what's not to like?
Naturally, you've already bought the Malinding series of e-books about village life in West Africa? Just to celebrate our heat wave I've put 'The Mechanical Girl' on free e-book offer on Kindle ... and did I mention that all income from sales of the Malinding books go straight into GOES bank account? Yes, thought I did!
If you can't make it I'll let you know how much we raise - and what we spend it on! Lately we've funded school fees, medical help, the installation of a water supply at a clinic, a wheel chair for a young woman, a new back door for a family home - and a few more bags of rice for hungry people. Thanks for your help (if you buy all the Malinding books we can give a mosquito net to some one who needs it!)
Thanks again.

Wheelchair - as promised! (See post dated 17th June 2013)

A while ago we mentioned that we had been asked to help a Gambian family obtain a good quality wheelchair for a young member of their family. Here's the result; the upper picture shows the young lady in her old chair and along side is the new one. The lower picture shows her comfortably settled into the new chair. Thanks to all of you who contributed to this, either by direct donation or by purchasing one or other of the 'Malinding' ebooks from Kindle. This is where your money went!
Thanks also to S***** for bringing this matter to our notice and, of course, to W***, the girl's brother, for organising the Gambian end of the transaction and providing the photographs and permission to publish them.

The sun shines but I go to work!

You might think that at my age I'd have more sense! Still, there's another book to be finished. In it Ed's eldest son, Ed-Lamin, has finished Uni in England and has settled down to live happily ever after with Jane, his beautiful girlfriend. There was a General Election six months ago but the people of England were either too lazy to vote or too disillusioned to care. So, as a result, an extremist party - the Purity People's Party - gained power and set about ridding the country of 'undesirable aliens' by rounding them up into concentration camps. Ed-Lamin is captured by manages to escape by  -  well, that would be telling and I need you to buy the book and support GOES! Anyway, it may or may not end happily!
 So, that's why I've spent a sunny day indoors. The pile of reading glasses donated by kind people in Cheshire for use by short-sighted people in West Africa grows - more please. We're not sure that we'll be able to take heavy stuff like reference books out this time because we've not heard from Thomas Cook about an extra baggage allowance yet. Fingers crossed. Light stuff we can manage in our pockets - mobile phones (always welcome), memory sticks, spectacles and such like, please !