Please leave your name and 'phone number!

Recently we've received several messages on our home answer 'phone from people who sound very distressed, asking for help From GOES. Our 'phone does not list callers' numbers if you're calling from abroad. Sometimes we can recognise a voice but because my hearing isn't perfect this doesn't happen often.
 Please, as the answerphone message states, leave your name and number, slowly and clearly. We had a call from a lady last night. She sounded very upset, but we have no way of getting back to her.

How it works.

How does GOES work, I hear you ask.
Well, something like this. Let's suppose that K, our local representative, visits a village clinic and finds that they are running short of medical supplies (not unusual). K sends me a text.
It so happens that P, a neighbour of mine, manages to sell a bike bag, which I'd forgotten about, and gives me the proceeds. On the same day, H, who was running a course we'd hoped to attend but hadn't (due to upset tummies) very kindly refunds the cost of the day we'd missed. We protest that it wasn't her fault but H insists that we take the money and donate it to GOES. Suddenly GOES has the funds to restock a clinic three thousand miles away.
We put the money into GOES bank a/c*, take it out again, deposit it with BAYBA via Barclays' Bank, telephone BAYBA to obtain a code number which we text to K in The Gambia. K visits the local branch of BAYBA, collects the money and takes it to the clinic and hands it over to M, the nurse in charge, who then shops for the urgently needed supplies. All sorted within 24 hours.
K keeps a copy of the receipts to show us when we return to visit the village - hopefully in December.
All money donated to GOES goes to GOES! There is no deduction of any sort for 'expenses' of any kind.

* so we can show the 'footprint' of the money if needs be.

Tummy bug

We generally survive delights such as 'Banjul Belly' when we venture abroad - maybe a couple of days when we work from the hotel so as not to be too far from a toilet! I've just wasted a week here at home while a nasty little tummy bug has dictated where I can go (nowhere!) and what I can do (you don't want to know!)
 Unable to operate GOES bank account in the usual way (visit Co-op Bank, withdraw money, take money to Barclays Bank and deposit in the BAYBA account, come home and make a couple of 'phone calls and the person in need receives the money the same day) I decided to go in for the On-line Banking Option. I thought I understood the system ... I was wrong. It did eventually work, I think: I'm still waiting the hear that the person who needs it has actually collected the money. Because this was my first time I made a series of mistakes which puzzled the banks involved and left me tearing my hair out!
 Thanks for staying with this - back soon!

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

I can see clearly now!

Collected my new glasses from Boots - ready a week early. The lady who made sure they fitted me, Steph, went the extra mile by promising to try to load me up with a collection of reading glasses for the Gambian clinic we support. She's also bought one of the 'Malinding' ebooks to support GOES funds (Hope she likes it and doesn't find it too shocking!)
 Every day another step forward - thanks, Steph!
Best wishes,
Tom

Busy days for GOES!

I went for an eye test yesterday. Chatting to the optician about what I do for a living I happened to mention GOES. Can't think how it happened! As a result we've been offered a large number of reading glasses which we'll deliver to one or more of the clinics, added to the number our good friend Stuart has coaxed from the inhabitants of Blackpool. At least we can promise the donors that they will go to good homes! (The glasses; we hope the inhabitants of Blackpool already have good homes ...)
 Another chance remark, this time at Vale Royal Writers' Group (have you seen their latest Anthology, Under the Red Umbrella, available on Amazon Books and which would make a wonderful present for readers) ... what was I saying? Oh, yes, chance remarks about the shortage of ethnic stories for children! Stories for Gambian Children is available as a Kindle E-book and features Gambian children as the heroes and heroines of its stories. End of commercials!

Wish we were there!

Wish we were in The Gambia again! Or is it now just 'Gambia' ? Whatever, the welcome will be just as warm, the smiles just as wide - as will ours! Come on readers - try a visit! Be warned - some many people find one visit isn't enough; we must have been at least 30 times ...

Just one visit changed my life, and I've never regretted it. I suppose you could spend all your holiday by the hotel pool and eat only familiar English food. So many people think that, then find a friendly Gambian invites them to try the local food and the local fruit; then, perhaps the holiday-maker ventures out to the local market - maybe one of the hotel staff offers to accompany them while they travel in a local taxi. Then, maybe, there's an offer to visit a village compound and share a meal ... and before you know it, you're planning the next visit!

Hi, Kotu and Bakau and Serrekunda and Mandinari and  ...  see you all again later this year!

Best wishes to all,
Tom & Joyce