Two schools.

During the course of our latest trip we were able to visit several schools. Most are doing well, even though several are operating in difficult circumstances. It's great to see the combination of eager student and enthusiastic teachers. We were saddened to see that one school, which had been the pride of its village, struggling. The number of pupils had dropped, the classrooms were in disrepair and the qualified teaching staff had left. There was an air of desperation: basic educational materials - paper, pencils, chalks - were lacking. A couple of rooms were occupied with junk, another had not been repaired following damage from a falling tree. A gardener and a caretaker had been dismissed and the school garden, which had previously provided both food for the children and a small income from the sale of surplus crops in the local market, had fallen into disuse. We provided what help we could but it was beyond our means to fund the repairs and wage bill for the little school. It appeared that the people who had sponsored the school for several years had been unable to continue and the villagers had withdrawn many children and sent them to a new kindergarten a short distance away.
 We made a couple of visits to this new school - what a difference. The head teacher already was in charge of a large lower-basic (Junior) school and had decided to provide the youngest children with fully qualified staff, breakfast every day, medical support if needed and a very happy atmosphere. She funded much of the initial cost of this operation from her own pocket. We made a contribution towards the cost of rice, provided a large number of dictionaries which had been presented to GOES (and for which we had paid Thomas Cook a large sum of money as 'excess baggage'!) The school seemed a truly happy, industrious place of learning.
 I'm haunted by that other, crumbling little school. We had known it in happier days, I had sat in the shade of a tree and taught previous generations of teachers a little more about English language and told stories to youngsters who seemed to enjoy hearing - and helping to make up - tales from two continents.

You could support GOES by buying any or all of the Malinding  series of Kindle ebooks. Who knows, you may be the one who enables an autoclave to sterilise an instrument used in an operation to save a life!

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.

Here we go again!

Well, not just this minute - late October! We've booked flights and hotel (the usual one) and we're collecting things to take. We collected some T-shirts and hats while we were in the travel agent's shop this morning! Well done, Thomas Cook people, many thanks.
Stories for Gambian Children is on Kindle free offer for a few days (15 - 19 July 2014) because I heard there's a shortage of stories for ethnic groups and this little book has several examples of Gambian children setting a good example (just as they do in real life).
We're out tonight to a meeting of story-tellers and poets at the Blue Cap in Sandiway. They're a generous hearted group and have done much good by providing money for wheelchairs and operations and stocking village clinics and schools ... we'll see what tonight brings.
Thanks for reading,
Tom

Another busy day

Well, busy if you include waiting as an activity! Waiting for a cheque from HMRC, that is.
Lots of interest in the latest book, 'Chasing Freedom Home' - please will some of you who now have a copy post a nice review on Amazon? If you do hopefully that will increase interest in other books in the 'Malinding' series and so make a welcome contribution to GOES funds!
 The next, and possible final, book in the series is now into its second chapter - about 3,500 words so far. We went to Gladstone's Library for the day - I took 4,000 words with me but I had read them aloud, in private, thank goodness, and I was far from happy with the result! So the scissors came out and there was a severe editing session this morning.
 After lunch, with cake, the muse was a bit kinder and I've re-written several passages - hope they'll sound better.
 Best wishes to you all, and thanks for your interest.
Tom

Sorry, Blog - I've been neglecting you!

But I have been busy, honestly! I'm tangled up with an application for Gift Aid on last year's donations; has to be done on line - and if you've been reading this blog for any length of time you'll have guessed that 'online' and 'Tom' are not happy partners! However, we're on the verge of success: I am now waiting 'ten working days' for a code number which will enable my user number to submit the detailed claim for the tax refund. Hopefully. Fingers crossed. Of course it will.

 Chasing Freedom Home, the latest Malinding village book, is tip-toeing into the sales on Amazon.

As soon as the rain stops J 7 I will go for a refreshing trike/bike ride (and cake and coffee) and all will be well with our bit of the world. Trouble is, of course, that so many bits of the world won't be well. Still, that's no excuse not to do what we can.

 Another thought, offered to me by a friend years ago: the main trouble with growing old is that you forget how absent-minded you were years ago!

 Where did I put the last receipt book for donations????

It's a 24/7 job!

Twenty-odd years ago, when we retired from the day jobs, I wondered how I would fill the rest of my life. J was already settled into her new life as a full-time student and I turned to voluntary work. Voluntary works means you do something you want to but don't get paid for. I enjoyed it immensely. The I lapsed into running GOES. The enjoyment increased by 100%, as did the worry about not being able to do more! J joined in too, having reduced her study a little after the third degree ...
 But there are no office hours - which is brilliant. For example, having finished the latest 'Malinding' series book, we thought we would have a relaxing visit to Gladstone's Library. Great idea; good food, good company and lovely surroundings. Quite true, but GOES was still with us! We left with a car full of beautiful clothing donated by a Library friend who had listened to us talking about The Gambia, and decided to help. Some will find its way to West African villages, some will be sold and the money raised will help to stock medical supplies for clinics.
 Still determined to relax we decided to get a new set of wheels for J. We've both been cyclists from the age of eleven (quite a while ago!) and J decided she might be safer on 3 wheels now. So, we toddled along to another beautiful location, the Juicybike showroom in New Mills. We played with an electric trike in the car park and decided to give it a new home. We also were given a set of panniers and a trunk bag (goes across the top of a set of panniers), all superb quality, to help raise funds for GOES. Many thanks to Bob Wales and Sarah (and all the Juicybike staff) for their support, and for the fact they are excellent people who know their trade and how to look after their customers properly.
 Back to work on Tuesday with the Gift Aid claim, the cover design of the book (Chasing Freedom Home) and selling the donations, probably on eBay, the gifts we've been given. None of the money we raise goes into our pockets - every penny and pound will go so improve the health or education of some one in The Gambia who needs help.

Should a Birthday be a work day?

We're off to Gladstone's Library for a few days to help J celebrate her birthday. It's what sses for riotous living when you reach our age! We will be working for GOES of course while we're there - I'll be trying to complete 'Chasing Freedom Home' and together we'll be adding up all the money the charity has sent to The Gambia during the last financial year. We promise you that any donation you have made has used 100% for the purposes of the charity. We pay our own expenses - fares, accommodation, food and so on. We donate a tithe of our incomes to GOES and we claim gift aid on that amount (Gift Aid is a scheme which returns 25% tax to the Charity). That 25% sets GOES up for the next year. It really is very nice to get money back from the Government!

Fundraising - what we've tried so far ...

We have tried sponsored cycle-rides, writing books (five so far - Google 'Malinding'), and selling things on Ebay ( a hat-sizer, a very small locomotive, a 40 year-old Seagull outboard, two scooters, a bike, a boat and an unidentified navigation device, to name a few.) We use Easyfundraising as a search engine, which pays GOES 0.5p per search - it all mounts up. We beg for donations and old reading glasses and new medical supplies: I think people run away when they see us approaching

Just to convince you that we did do some work last year!

...and you thought we only played with the babies and ate huge, delicious meals?

Thinking about another free promotion for two of the 'Malinding' books ...

The first of the books, 'Empty Bananas', and the third, 'The Mechanical Girl' could be put on Amazon's Kindle ebooks free offer again. I thinking about what to do.
'Empty Bananas' was the book that started it all off. The first chapter, about an unhappy little girl, was a short story I wrote many years ago. I read it to my local writing group - Vale Royal Writers' Group - and put it back in the drawer. I kept thinking about the old man in the story and he grew into Ed, the anti-hero of the first book. I was concerned about the little girl, and she became Jodie, a world class wheelchair athlete.
I wrote the book and decided to publish it on Kindle. I was so keen to put it on sale that I published the wrong version; it contained all sorts of mistakes, and made a generally poor impression. Col gave it a very fair write-up and I was encouraged to wrestle with the technology and publish a better-edited version.

I wrote 'The Mechanical Girl' as a fictional autobiography of a youngster in one of the villages who enjoyed making toys out of scrap materials for the smaller children. She showed great ingenuity, making tools to help her in her task. I gave her a different name and wrote a fictional account of what her life might have been. She is the only one of my characters based on an actual West African. All of my other characters, and the village of Malinding itself, are pure fiction.

Right then; decision made. I'll put 'Empty Bananas' on free promotion, some time next week. Probably. I'll let you know! It won't bring any money to the charity (GOES, in case you'd forgotten) but it might encourage the sale of the other books ... hint, hint!

The 'Malinding Village' library!

 Here are the covers of the four 'Malinding' series of books about life in The Gambia - and in England! Perhaps they are love stories, perhaps they are commentaries of social conditions in the two countries. What is certain is that every penny and pound from the sales of these Kindle ebooks goes to helping Gambian people. Please, if you haven't tried one, it's a way of donating small amounts to GOES - and you have a book in return as a 'thank you'!

 Thanks to Amieyo for letting us use her picture for this cover.
 This is amazingly hard work - I've tried it!
 The first book (I hope they have improved ... still, worth 75 pence?)

Where has all the money gone?

Something of a problem - running out of money while, at the same time, the need for it increases.
GOES can keep promises already made but we're unable at the moment to take on new commitments. It's quite heart-breaking to have to say 'Sorry, we can't help you.' We never make promises we can't keep: it would be so easy to say 'We'll see if we can help next month' but at the moment it just would not be true. We can't be dishonest and deal out false hope.
We are aware of young people who would benefit from futher education; there are clinics urgently in need of funds to purchase antibiotics; schools which would make massive strides forward with just one extra, qualified, teacher; families which would be protected by the gift of a mosquito net - the list is endless.
GOES does not thrive on memories of what has been achieved (though, with the help of friends that achievement is considerable) but on thoughts of what is yet to be accomplished.
Please help if you can. These are desperate times.