Saturday 23 September 2017

Second hand stories :-)

Just discovered my self on eBay. Well, not me myself, that would be silly. Some of my books have got to that stage. Just out of curiosity I bought a couple. Quite surprisingly they arrived in perfect condition! Of course they made no contribution to the funds of GOES, which was the reason they'd been written in the first place, but they can be passed on to new readers who, hopefully, will be tempted to but others in the Malinding Village series. Or I could take them with me when we venture out to The Gambia early next year. It would be interesting to know how genuine Gambians react to fictional ones! Some, of course, feature in the books. The Mechanical Girl was based on a real village girl, and a young Gambian friend allowed us to use her picture for the cover.
I also found that some of my books were on offer at silly prices. Who in their right mind would be tempted to spend nearly a hundred dollars on a copy of Empty Bananas? Not even the hero, Mr Ed Edwards would be so daft!
The second book about Jodie Sonko, the Girl on Wheels, rolls along. There's an element of Sci-Fi in this book, and it's possible that Jodie may find herself independent of her wheels, at least for a while. At the moment she's living in a post-Brexit England. The population has grown to 80 million and there's about to be a famine ... hope she survives! Hydroponics and underground farms may help. Time to leap into action, mow the lawn, tidy the spare bedroom, and locate my collection of memory sticks. Somewhere there's a collection of short stories and poems I'd forgotten about ... I need coffee and cake!

Monday 18 September 2017

Busy doing nothing - well, not much!

We keep a picture of a young Gambian girl on top of the fridge in the kitchen. We caught her on a bad hair day, not a happy bunny. She's an elegant and educated young lady now, and we're proud to know her. The picture, it must be fifteen years out of date by now, serves a purpose. It reminds us, every time we go to the fridge, that GOES works. With your help, friends, this little girl was educated. When she was poorly you, through GOES, cared for her. When her mum's house needed repairs after a dreadful rainy season, you provided the cement and corrugated iron sheets to repair it and make it weather proof again.
And it reassures us that it's worth carrying on. Sometimes it's hard, or it seems so. We're ageing, nearly 160 years between us. We're slower than we used to be, we tire easily, we're forgetful. But when we go to the fridge for a bottle of milk or a couple of eggs, we look at that picture and smile. And we determine to carry on, maybe just a little longer, maybe to help and make friends with another generation of wonderful, intelligent, and caring people.
Before I sat down to write this I had a head full of grumbles and worries but this little story demanded to be written instead. Beware of the picture on the fridge! *

*Young lady in the picture - if you read this you'll know who you are, I think. Thank you.