May we live in interesting times ...

We're back. Seemed at several stages we weren't going to get there, stay there, or get back!
We arrived at Manchester airport in good time, only a few people at the check-in in front of us. Passports? Passports! Of course we knew where they were - must have been left in the taxi. Called the taxi - not there. Must be at home then? Taxi home, passports (and half the GOES money) safe in the hall, waiting for us to pick them up. Up picked, taxi back to airport. Check-in discovered a misunderstanding (mine) about the weight of baggage - and the cost of excess ... already about £300 down before we boarded the plane. Taxis not cheap but Excess is dearer.
Arrived, safely, at hotel. Lost four days due to upset tummies and one fall in the shower-room (mine) and another down some steps (J's). My Banjul belly problem didn't erupt till we were home, or at least waiting by the baggage carousel at Manchester airport ...
Those details apart we had an interesting trip - tell you more next post!
Best wishes and thanks to everybody who supported us (literally, in some cases!)
Tom

Free book!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Happy-Nest-Malinding-Village-Archive-ebook/dp/B017Q5X3NM/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1450441344&sr=1-1&keywords=Happy+Nest


Hope this works - it's a link to 'Happy Nest', the latest in the Malinding village series. It's the village archive, to which the villagers have contributed mini-auto-biographies, poems, and in one case, a short story which relates how the writer, a teen aged village girl with a longing for education and a career as a nurse, encounters Ed, the anti-hero of the series, with hope but little expectation. Happy Nest is on offer, free, at Amazon, for five days from 18/12/2015
Enjoy!


PS
Of course we hope you'll buy the rest of the Malinding books - they fund the charity (Gambian Occasional Emergency Support - GOES) which supports education and the provision of medical care in the Gambia.

Romantic Adventure Stories

Talking to friends at our writers' group last night some of my books were described as 'Romantic Adventures'. I certainly hadn't thought of them in this way but I see the point - they generally have happy endings and they do involve people falling in love ... OK: Romantic Adventure it is. Well, certainly 'Empty Bananas' and 'Mussukunda' and 'The Mechanical Girl' are, mostly. Not so sure that 'Mussukunda' , 'Chasing Freedom Home' and 'Story's End' are quite the same genre. You could read them and let me know? All available on Amazon Kindle eBooks as 'The Malinding Village Series'.
Hmmm. Romantic Travel Fiction, perhaps?
Just a reminder that all proceeds from the sale of the books goes to GOES to help schools and clinics and lots more.

We're back!

There is no Ebola in The Gambia. Not a sign of it - so why are the hotels nearly empty? We stayed at our usual haunt - more staff than guests! The flight going out was cancelled and passengers transferred to the next 'plane - same on the way home and with seats to spare. The Gambians are suffering, not from some vile disease but from our fear of it. Many employees depend on tips to supplement their wages; tips are essential to enable, for instance, them to travel home late at night by taxi and to return to work the next day - apart from buying food to feed the family (one of my friends supports 16 family members on a tiny wage), pay the rent, pay school fees for the children, pay health care costs ... GOES helps many people - 66 students, two schools and a clinic at the last count but the country needs you! Just go and lie on a sunbed for a week and you'll provide employment. Travel about a little, ask to visit the home compound of your waiter/room boy/the gardener and see how people really live. You'll be safe, you'll be fed - you may even be offered a bed for the night. The generosity of the local people knows no bounds - does yours?
Sorry for the rant.
No, I'm not.
Tom

PS - there is no Ebola in The Gambia ...

Going to The Gambia!

Well, we hope we'll be going, and if we are, these are some of the things we've been given to take with us! As you see, mostly medical equipment for the clinics we support. Scary looking stuff some of it is!

The last picture is the usual shot of the spare bed - mainly a few reference books, children's clothing and bags and bags full of reading glasses! We usually manage to take out a few bits and pieces for ourselves - a change of clothes, that sort of thing; sadly, Thomas Cook haven't managed to extend our baggage allowance this year so if we want spare clothes we'll have to wear them on the journey out!
All in a good cause.
Best wishes to all of you,
Tom