Tabaski to Christmas

Hello again. I'm back in England after amixed trip - good news and bad news. Bad in that the family of the boy with the bad leg had failed to take him back to the clinic for regular check-ups and his wound has become re-infected. Everyone blaming everyone else, lots of accusations of theft, neglect & ill-will. I arranged for the doctor to see the boy again, laid on transport, a new x-ray and both doctor & I threatened to withdraw support if a single appointment is missed in the future. This took four days of family conferences, 'phone calls, people calling at my house last thing at night and first thing in the morning to say they didn't agree with the decisions that had been reached in the previous meeting and demanding another. Outcome - the doctor has seen the boy and the leg can be treated, so I suppose that's good news!
The good Good News is that by chance I met a young woman who was forced to end her education at the age of fifteen when her father died. She led a very sad life, giving birth to two children. The father of the first child also died and the father of the second ran away. She left the village to seek her fortune and, not finding it, returned to her mother's compound and became an agricultural labourer. She had attempted to join the army and the police force but failed to satisfy either with her educational attainments.
She asked GOES for support with school fees for her children (agreed) and we discussed with her her own ambitions. It seems there is an introductory IT course which includes basic language & maths. She came to the airport to say goodbye and we found ourselves sitting at a table near two people who had taken the course we were discussing and offered her help with it. Also within earshot was the head of a fairly local nursery school who offered the girl a job as a student teacher provided she achieved good grades in the IT course! She also offered her the chance to practice on the school's typewriter to help with her keyboard skills! As I left for the departure lounge the four of them were still deep in conversation.
Apart from two doses of Banjul Belly (don't ask!) my health kept up, my lungs and heart continued to work and I was too busy to worry about it anyway ...
Thanks from all the people you have helped and I'll post some pictures after the family celebrations are over.
Happy Christmas, and we wish you good health, happiness and long life for 2009.

There's good news and there's bad news ...

Day before the journey. No news about the extra baggage allowance. Suddenly realise there's not much time left and everything is in heaps or plastic bags on/beside/under the spare bed. Flurry of emails/'phone calls. Outcome is the Thomas Cook, who have been so helpful before, aren't going to be this time. No extra allowance. Drat, blather and trudget!!! Good news 1) Adama rings to announce she has washed and ironed some of my clothes that arrived in The Gambia without me in April. Too excited to enquire what's there so out goes my bag of spare clothes. It's a fingers crossed moment. Now down to weighing everything else. Seven kg above the 25 allowed.
Out go some items of clothing for adults. The laptop weighs just under 5kg and will go in my small backpack. Joyce has brain wave - check the accuracy of the fisherman's weight scale. Brilliant! 2kg of tinned food from the pantry shows up as nearly 3kg! The scales add on 0.5kg for every weighing! Fingers crossed, nearly everything goes back into the holdall. Just hope the airport scales aren't made by the same firm as the fisherman's! Next panic - did I book the taxi for 5am in the morning? Better just check!

Packing and discarding ...

The spare bed has vanished under the mountain of essential stuff that MUST go to The Gambia. Alongside is a much smaller heap of things I'd like to take - spare clothes, toothbrush, medication to keep me functioning. I'm waiting to hear from flight 737 that it can carry a few extra Kgs of luggage. I have survived for a couple of weeks on one T-shirt, and one of most everything else (two shoes, though. Sometimes I spoil myself!)
I'll be missing the Poems and Pints at the Blue Cap, Sandiway, 9/12/08 @ 7pm. Pity - I quite enjoy performing - no shame in old age!
Hope to bring some decent pictures home, including one of the tap at Bundung school, in place thanks to a donation by my friend David, who died recently at far too young an age.
I'm looking forward to visiting friends and the children we're helping to sponsor. One advantage of being a micro-charity is that we know personally the people we help, and we know that help goes directly where to where it's needed. One disadvantage of being a micro-charity is that we never have enough money to help all the people we would like to help ...
Three days to go. Best wishes to all of you who help. Thanks.
Tom

Anytime's packing time!

Here we are again; plastic bags all over the place, piles of things that must go growing larger, pile of my clothes getting smaller, panic setting in! What if the extra allowance is only 10kg, only 5kg, doesn't materialise at all?? Does the laptop for Ami or the box of 'phones or the football boots for Mussa stay here?
We're away for the weekend, hiding at Gladstone's Library at Hawarden for a writing workshop. Log fires and great puddings, storytelling, some writing, lots of talking and putting worlds to right ...
Should be a boost to the writing. Ed's adventures in West Africa has been neglected for a couple of months. Need to move on from the cloud of sadness left by the death of two people close to me. My own health problems fade into insignificance - just get on with life! Good to be in contact with Glynn and Ian again (they run SHINE Africa, the charity from which GOES sprang. Ian and Glynn cater for nursery school children in The Gambia, having built 3 or 4 schools there, taught teachers, provided thousands of mosquito nets etc. Google for them or give me a call and I'll pass messages on.)
Beautiful sunset here, after a freezing cold day. Should be a lot warmer next week, 3,000 miles south of here!

Noses to grindstones again.

November has been a rough, unkind month so far. Death of a family member, death of a friend. Sad, grey month. But out of sad days came great kindness - donations for G.O.E.S., gifts of mobile 'phones, clothing, toys to take out to The Gambia when Tom goes in December. We certainly were not minded to solicit donations but they came along without the asking. Even as the 'credit crunch' started to bite people were thinking of those in Africa, and we heard the phrase 'however bad it is for us it's worse for them'. We have had so many expressions of sympathy from our Gambian friends, which we have passed on to our bereaved family and friends here.
So, the packing starts - the spare bed will be covered with things to take. Just hope that Thomas Cook turn up with an extra baggage allowance again. They are usually very helpful. Of course some of my stuff is already out there after the aborted trip in April when I stayed here but the luggage went on holiday without me!

What was I saying!

Silly of me to grumble a while ago about communication problems in The Gambia. Home 'phone here was down for five days, then after that was restored our ISP (Pipex) had a hissy fit. First refused to let us in for two days, then opened with all our emails lost and then the next day opened (slowly, how slowly!) with ALL our emails - deleted, blacklisted - almost a thousand altogether from the last six months. Tried to contact Pipex without success. I've managed to delete all but the most needed but we have also lost all our address book. The drafts of important emails have also vanished. Drat, bother and trudget!

"The boy with the leg - again!"

This letter from Alhagie's brother arrived yesterday. When we first met Ousman he spoke English fluently but had great difficulty writing it ( he is also fluent in Arabic and is something of a gifted calligrapher in that language). I'm posting this letter for two reasons; first, to show how he has improved and second, to bring you up to date with Alhagie's progress. As you see, he is recovering well. I had been concerned that his operation may have been spoiled by later re-infection but thankfully this has not happened. He still has to attended the clinic for after-care, and he still needs medication to ward off re-infection. However, thanks to the wonderful support many of you have given he is a healthy teenage lad with a future.
He has missed a lot of schooling but is anxious (at least his parents are anxious!) to return to school and complete his education. If anyone is able to contribute to this please remember it's a long term commitment, and please get in touch with me for more information.
Thanks again to all of you, and best wishes for the rest of 2008.