Been away too long - but how to stretch the money for the fare? Every penny GOES receives in donations goes to help people in The Gambia - nothing is deducted for 'expenses'. We're having a furious counting of personal money to try to raise enough for at least one of us to travel. We would like to see the tap installed in the clinic, the open-air classroom in the school completed. We're searching the internet and local travel agents for the cheapest deal. Thomas Cook have been very helpful in the past ...
There is always this dilemma: - which is better for The Gambia - us going there to see first hand exactly what needs doing or sending the money we would have spent on travel to a clinic or school? Maybe the British government will double my pension! Ah, well. Back to Google!
Monday, 12 March 2012
Sunday, 11 March 2012
Looking back?
Hindsight can be quite comforting!
Been feeling a bit down in the dumps recently. Cash hasn't been flowing in and requests for help are increasing. Saying 'no' is horribly hard to do and at times I must admit I've been thinking that perhaps the best thing to do is to close the charity down. Goodbye to GOES? Then I think back to when we started work in The Gambia. One of the first things we did was to provide a boy, a young student, with a bicycle so he could travel more easily to college. His journey prior to this had been long and difficult. The bike in question was not some hi-tech creation, in fact it reminded me of the bike I had fifty years before and on which I rode to school. So, the boy got his bike. He worked hard at school and progressed well. So well that he was accepted by a university in Euirope; the bike was passed onto another student. I'll bet that bike is still, to this day, in good hands and providing much needed transport to some deserving person. Thanks to GOES all sorts of good things are happening. We work in very small ways - we are, after all, a micro-charity! We know the people we help (and those same people help us, with a meal, a glass of Atayah, a bed for the night). A child has school fees paid. Years later that same child proudly shows us their college diploma. We help a youngster who needs medical attention - and the next time we visit that village the same youngster runs up to greet us with a smile. We pass on a pair of reading glasses, and later the recipient is noticed with her head down in a book, absorbed in the world of words. Tiny occurancies, small parts of the tapestry of life, but so important to those individuals. Your good deeds roll on, just like the bicycle we started off this post with. How can we not go on with GOES, at least for a little while longer?
Thanks to all our helpers, past, present - and future.
Been feeling a bit down in the dumps recently. Cash hasn't been flowing in and requests for help are increasing. Saying 'no' is horribly hard to do and at times I must admit I've been thinking that perhaps the best thing to do is to close the charity down. Goodbye to GOES? Then I think back to when we started work in The Gambia. One of the first things we did was to provide a boy, a young student, with a bicycle so he could travel more easily to college. His journey prior to this had been long and difficult. The bike in question was not some hi-tech creation, in fact it reminded me of the bike I had fifty years before and on which I rode to school. So, the boy got his bike. He worked hard at school and progressed well. So well that he was accepted by a university in Euirope; the bike was passed onto another student. I'll bet that bike is still, to this day, in good hands and providing much needed transport to some deserving person. Thanks to GOES all sorts of good things are happening. We work in very small ways - we are, after all, a micro-charity! We know the people we help (and those same people help us, with a meal, a glass of Atayah, a bed for the night). A child has school fees paid. Years later that same child proudly shows us their college diploma. We help a youngster who needs medical attention - and the next time we visit that village the same youngster runs up to greet us with a smile. We pass on a pair of reading glasses, and later the recipient is noticed with her head down in a book, absorbed in the world of words. Tiny occurancies, small parts of the tapestry of life, but so important to those individuals. Your good deeds roll on, just like the bicycle we started off this post with. How can we not go on with GOES, at least for a little while longer?
Thanks to all our helpers, past, present - and future.
Friday, 10 February 2012
Good times coming?
Well, we hope so. I've struggled with the technology and managed to put a short book of short stories - 'Stories for Gambian Children' - on Kindle. It's priced at 77p because I couldn't find a way to put the price lower! Who knows, it may lead to great things! Anyway, any profit goes to GOES. When the final final on the three novels about life in The Gambia has been completed I'll try their luck on Kindle too. Let me say now that none of the characters in any of the books is based on any real person - they are purely fiction!
Meanwhile we're waiting to hear about progress on the installation of a water supply at the clinic in Mandinari, and also that work on the bantaba in the compound of the nursery school is finished (it was only a matter of tiling the floor).
We're looking for a cheap flight to Banjul before the rainy season starts. Can't wait to get back there and meet old friends and new. Best wishes to all,
Tom.
Meanwhile we're waiting to hear about progress on the installation of a water supply at the clinic in Mandinari, and also that work on the bantaba in the compound of the nursery school is finished (it was only a matter of tiling the floor).
We're looking for a cheap flight to Banjul before the rainy season starts. Can't wait to get back there and meet old friends and new. Best wishes to all,
Tom.
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Procrastination ...
Being bone-idle by nature is a real blessing! I've had a nice lazy day, doing a bit of this and a bit of that ... Spending time looking out of the window at the clouds racing past, reading the papers, listening to some poetry on the radio. If Radio 4 didn't exist somebody would have to invent it. Sending messages on Facebook, a couple of chats on Skype. Must remember to call my daughter. My print-out of the latest book lies on my desk, daring me to start editing it. Tomorrow. No, not tomorrow. Have to go into town tomorrow. Tuesday? No. Something on on Tuesday. Can't remember what. Wednesday. Definitely Wednesday. I'll go to the library and work all day on Wednesday. My turn to cook. Fish? What's in the fridge? Fish, Sea-bass. What goes with Sea-bass? Onions? Potato? Herbs? Right: no problem. I'll just finish writing this then I'll put my feet up and rest for a few minutes then I'll go and cook. Back to GOES later in the week.
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Mrs Dibba's school
This is a lovely new school in The Gambia. I had the good fortune to visit it and was delighted by the friendly welcome I received. It's a joy to meet such such friendly and polite children. Schools like this are of such a high standard that any English village would be lucky to have one!
Of course there's a snag - such schools have to depend on voluntary contributions to survive. If you are interested in helping, Mrs Dibba can let you know exactly what is required. Teachers have to be paid, uniforms and school meals provided, the school supplied and kept in good condition. This school has water laid on already but you may spot the odd length of cable dangling - power is not yet available - just a problem of finding the money ...
The staff are well trained and enthusiastic. There's a lovely, caring atmosphere in the school - I'd love my own daughter to have been given a start to her education there - pity she's a bit too old!
The sad thing is that only a small fraction of Gambian children are able to attend such a fine school - or any school, for that matter.
If you have the chance do go and see for yourselves. (The children will sing their welcome for you!)
Thursday, 12 January 2012
What happens when we're back in England?
Well, first of all we stop to get our breath back! There's a house to look after, friends and relations to be visited, books to be written and work started to provide things needed for our next trip. We're supposed to be a couple of retired old-age pensioners but we've never been so busy in our lives. The aches and pains of old age slow us down a bit but GOES keeps us on our toes. We're often asked 'What do you get out of it?'
It's a fair question - why do we do it?
Well, apart from the joy of being able to help people the main benefit to us is that GOES brings us into contact with all manner of good people. Look at a newspaper or watch the TV news and you might think that the world is peopled with evil, narrow minded folk who only rejoice in the misfortunes of others.
We know that the world is not like that. We meet a constant stream of people who are good, tolerant and kind.
From the couple who emptied their wallets for us at the airport on our way home last time to the people who have supported us, with funding or goods, ever since we started GOES, we can say that people are good.
Yes, of course there are rogues - but they are in a tiny minority, both north and south of the Sahara.
Thank you to all our friends, here and there.
Well, first of all we stop to get our breath back! There's a house to look after, friends and relations to be visited, books to be written and work started to provide things needed for our next trip. We're supposed to be a couple of retired old-age pensioners but we've never been so busy in our lives. The aches and pains of old age slow us down a bit but GOES keeps us on our toes. We're often asked 'What do you get out of it?'
It's a fair question - why do we do it?
Well, apart from the joy of being able to help people the main benefit to us is that GOES brings us into contact with all manner of good people. Look at a newspaper or watch the TV news and you might think that the world is peopled with evil, narrow minded folk who only rejoice in the misfortunes of others.
We know that the world is not like that. We meet a constant stream of people who are good, tolerant and kind.
From the couple who emptied their wallets for us at the airport on our way home last time to the people who have supported us, with funding or goods, ever since we started GOES, we can say that people are good.
Yes, of course there are rogues - but they are in a tiny minority, both north and south of the Sahara.
Thank you to all our friends, here and there.
Wednesday, 28 December 2011
Mrs Horija Dibba
GOES has been supporting Mrs Dibba while she studied for her first degree, then for her Master's, at the University in Uganda. We helped in a number of small ways and were continually delighted by her successes.We had been corresponding by e-mail for about four years and finally met this December at the Badala Park Hotel in Kotu.
Mrs Dibba works with the charity ChildFund, supervising twenty five nursery schools in The Gambia. Here she is, in her own school, surrounded by fortunate young students at the start of their academic careers.
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