Back to the Blog :-)

GOES seems to be working fairly well in its new slim -line form.
We've sent money to the clinic to re-stock the drugs cupboard, we've supplied bags of rice for distribution to families in need, and we've paid school fees for the students we support.
This all depends on trust, but then, so much in life does. I don't anticipate any problems, maybe naive, but if we don't trust one another what is the point?

Here I am, slaving away over a hot laptop, adding a few thousand more words to Jodie Two, the second volume of Jodie Sonko's autobiography. When it's published on Kindle (about Christmas 2018, I hope) all money from sales of the book, as with all the Malinding Village story books, will go to helping people, young and old, in Gambia.

Very belated update :-(

I miss the sounds of village life. I miss the scent of my favourite food cooking - many of you will know what that is! I miss sitting under the shade of the mango tree, chatting to friends, to people who have, over the course of many years, become as close as family to me.
  Last time I wrote in this blog I wondered what would become of GOES, now that we are probably unable to travel to Gambia again. That was four months ago. We have found that we can manage for the foreseeable future to run a restricted service, concentrating on the villages we have helped in the past, people we know already to be reliable and trustworthy. We regret that we cannot take on new clients.
  We will continue to make the same contributions to GOES funds, and, considering that we will sadly, not be spending our money on flights and hotels, perhaps increase our funding. Perhaps also I will be  able to spend more time publicising the books I've written about Malinding Village, more money will flow into the bank from increased sales! (You have bought all of them, of course? Bless you!)
  We rely on the help of a few of our close Gambian friends to ensure that the money GOES donates to the schools, clinics, and students is wisely spent. If we find that it is being wasted or fraudulently used we will close the charity and donate any remaining funds to another charity elsewhere. It does seem to have worked reasonably well during the last four months, so, with fingers crossed, we'll continue 😎
  Best wishes to all of you,
Tom and Joyce

Keep going?

Yes, possibly, with reservations. The illness I mentioned in the last blog took weeks to clear up. We managed to rescue  half the money we'd paid out for travel, and that money we directed to Gambia to help with health and education, our two main interests. I don't think our travel insurance firm viewed our refund very kindly, they just added it on to our renewal premium, which gave us food for thought.
And the thought is: do we have to be in The Gambia to help Gambians?
It's a sad thought; maybe we don't have to be there? For each of the past twenty years we've spent time out there, wet season and dry, coast and inland, in the Capital and up-country. We've met wonderful people, desperate people, not many rich people. We've been met with smiles, invitations to share meals, jokes, stories and to swap views on cultures, politics, religions, gardening and a thousand other things.
The longer we've talked the smaller our differences have seemed and the greater our similarities have proved to be. Our desires for safe, good quality education and healthcare are universal; they life we wished for our daughter is much the same life they desire for their children.
We're not giving up. We will work on a smaller stage, probably just two schools and one village clinic. With modern communications we can receive a request for assistance in the morning, communicate with villagers at lunch time and send financial aid the same day, receive reports of outcomes the next morning, possibly.
Maybe, one day, we'll feel confident to travel again, to share a bowl of rice with Domada sauce, then relax under the shade of a mango tree, sipping ataya tea and watching the lizards chase through the roots of a baobab.
We miss you, my friends, we miss you.

GOES & 2018

Christmas 2017 didn't quite turn out as planned. We had planned to join Val & Richard on Christmas Day and be spoiled rotten, be lazy, eat cake and mince pies and relax. I hadn't planned to be ill, to stay at home, 130 miles away from that lovely Christmas Dinner, with only a small cheese sandwich for lunch. Still, it made a change, and think of all the petrol we saved. And I broke a tooth when I tried to substitute a biscuit for that far-away Christmas pudding. Still, lots of time for reflection and planning.
One result of the reflecting was the thought that Gambia is no place to be ill. We've been lucky so far, travelled extensively without suffering much worse than a broken finger nail and some interesting variations of Banjul Belly.
But. Joint age of 160 gives a hint that we aren't getting younger and the realisation that a sub-Saharan remote village probably isn't the best place to be poorly. The cost of the travel insurance backs that supposition.
So?
So we cancelled our January visit. Cowardice? Possibly. Probably. And how to manage GOES if we don't go? In the short term we're lucky that our small team of helpers have proved supportive, honest and wise. We certainly can hang on till the end of the financial year when we can claim Gift Aid and feed it back to the schools and clinics we help. Beyond that point we can't yet see.
Again, many thanks to family and friends, and VRWG, for years of encouragement and support. Perhaps time to find another cause to champion?
As a totally inadequate 'thank you' I've arranged that most of the Malinding Village series of ebooks will be on free offer for the next few days.

Sixteen thousand hits on the blog! Thank you, friends from UK, USA, Russia, Africa, Iceland and everywhere else. Very happy to welcome you. I'm a bit too lazy about posting as often as I might, but thanks for staying with me, for taking an interest in GOES - and for buying the Malinding Village series of eBooks and paper-backs.
I'm in one of my favourite places today - no, not in the Gambia - that's a pleasure that must wait till January - this place is across the border and into Wales. Gladstone's Library, where books mix with coffee and very comfortable bed rooms. I'm lucky enough to have been able to introduce some of you to this place and I know that you have enjoyed it. I bring most of my favourite characters from the village here; Sirra and Ed spent their honeymoon here, Jodie met an African chief here and decided to visit her village, others have visited too.
Most of the books they feature in have, at least in part, been written here. I have eaten too much cake, too many biscuits and consumed too much coffee in the dining room and I would possibly have written many more books if I had not been so greedy!
I'm working on the second part of Jodie Sonko's autobiography, Jodie Two, at the moment. She's experiencing a huge change in her life and I'm not sure yet how she's going to deal with it. More coffee and cake needed to fuel the brain, I think. Any excuse ...

We've booked our next trip to the Gambia. Just a few weeks to wait then we'll be walking down the steps from the plane into that lovely wall of heat and welcome. Our driver, now a longstanding family friend, will be waiting with news of his lovely family, and we'll chat as we drive along familiar roads to our favourite hotel in Kotu.
We'll settle in as quickly as possible then join our friends for a welcome bottle of Julbrew by the pool. Domada of Benechin? Decisions, decisions. We'll chat about our plans, which school to visit first, what does the clinic need, how can we help the hospital, how are our friends and their children going on? Has Fatou passed her exams, is Lamin married yet, how at the babies doing, how is Amadou doing after his operation, all these and ten times more before we settle down to sleep.
And we'll be wondering, not for the first time, if this will be our final visit to this tiny country of wonderful people and terrible problems?
Age is against us as are the insurance premiums which we pay to cover our travels. Last year our premium cost more than our travel and accommodation.
With luck and a bit more publicity the Malinding books will continue to bring in some revenue, but if we cannot continue to visit and see for ourselves the Charity's money is being well spent I don't see how we can go on accepting money from family and friends. Up till now we can say to our supporters "Thank you for you gift; we used it to help Ami with her education and examination fees and we've see her certificates. She sends her thanks." If we can't travel we can't honestly report that donations have been properly used.
And also, being honest with ourselves, we have to acknowledge that we are not as fit as we used to be! We both plod on, coping with annoying medical conditions which are beginning to prove a nuisance.
Hopefully, we'll feel better when we walk off the plane - so far, the magic of Africa has drawn us back to the continent where human life began. Fingers crossed - see you by the pool, or in the market at Bakau, maybe by the crocodile pool, or in the fish market?
As I said before, fingers crossed! I must get on with Jodie Sonko's second book ....

Autumn

Apples: 2 - the rest rot on the branch.
Figs; 1 - wasps got the rest.
Blueberries; 14 - quite pleased!
Carrots; nil.
Olives; nil.

Income from books sold this month; £0.56

Don't think I'm cut out to be a farmer. Or a writer. Maybe I should try politics?