Do we need a jumble sale?

What we need is a fund raiser! Hopefully HMRC will soon provide a tax refund. That will mend a hole in the fund bucket - cash has been flowing out just a little faster than it's been flowing in recently. Thanks very much to VRWG and Stuart and his friends who have kept the good ship GOES afloat! You know who you are!
The most upsetting part of running a charity is having to say 'no' to people you know have very good reason for asking for help. They are the cause of us worrying our selves awake at night.
 Still, for the moment, we plod on. We've booked flights for our next visit to The Gambia - roll on November!
 If you happen to have a box full of old reading glasses we know a good home for them - Mandinari village clinic! One young woman was given a 'Distinction' for an exam - without the gift of a suitable pair of reading glasses she wouldn't have been able to read the questions! (Yes, a bit of an exaggeration but you know what I mean!)
 We really miss the heat of the sub-Saharan sun, and the smiles of our friends there. Go and see for yourselves, if you can - but be aware: the crocodiles and the mosquitoes bite, but Africa bites harder and won't let go! We went the first time 'just to have a bit of a look and to say we've been' - twenty (or is it thirty?) visits later we're still going ...

Friends and places ...

 

 

 

 

 

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?)

Free Book?

With a bit of luck 'Stories for Gambian Children' will again be available free of charge on Kindle for five days from tomorrow (15/05/13).
We're quite happy to do this for both Gambian and European schools - some of the stories are quite basic about reading and writing but a few others are about learning from one another ... enjoy!

We should never forget the harm ...

 We should never forget the harm our ancestors did to Africa and African people. The best we can attempt is to learn from History the mistakes we made, and never repeat them
 We should appreciate the gentle, smiling, forgiveness and dignity with which Africans greet us, and do what we can, as individuals, to make reparation.
 Something which encourages me is the experience of chatting to Europeans we meet, many of whom support a family, an individual child or a whole school or clinic - whatever their resources allow. This puts so many first world governments, including our own, to shame.
 Look out through the archways which over look the great river at a peaceful country, inhabited by people on whom, one day, our futures may depend.

Sorry - must get my facts right!

Had a look at the blog. The donation was from M's cousin S, not from a relative of the wheelchair girl who is W's sister. Complicated!!
Thanks for the correction, Stuart!
I shall write out 50 times 'I must get my facts right!'  - when I have time to spare!
Off to Gladstone's library to work on the fifth book in the Malinding series - provisional title 'The Fifth Book'.
It all started off as a very short story - the opening chapter of 'Empty Bananas' - then I wondered what happened to the old man and the girl. A third of a million words later ...
Anyway, thanks again, S.
Tom

Faith, Hope and Charity!

We always have had great faith in the goodness and kindness of other people. It's world-wide, not confined to one race of people or one country.
Hope is a good element - we've been interviewed by the local newspaper (they even asked for photographs!) and we hope this will lead to an increase in the sales of the Malinding e-books and that will lead to an increase in funds for the charity ... one thing leads to another.
I was reading our local paper today and was very impressed by the reports of so many people doing good things to help other people - riding bikes for miles, rowing boats, walking - all to help others. I'm convinced that there are far more good people in the world than bad ones. For example, we mentioned a couple of days ago that we had been able to help a young lady get a good quality wheelchair. Yesterday we received a donation from her brother - a student - as a way of saying 'thank you' and to help us to help some one else.