2012 Olympics

Welcome to the Gambian Olympic Team - Suwaibou Sanneh and Saruba Colley, both 100m runners. I'm sure they will compete hard and wish them both success. Hope they enjoy their visit to London and that they make many friends and have happy memories to take home with them - and maybe a medal or two?


We send the same message to wheelchair athletes Demba Janu and Ida Nyang who will be competing in the Paralympics. 


We will be watching your progress with great interest and hope - well done to all of you for making it this far!

Free Book!

The second book in the Malinding series, 'Mussukunda' is available, free, on Kindle ebooks for five days from 26/7/2012

I'd be happier if you bought it but it's your choice! All profits go to GOES ...

Home again and back to work!

We're home from our first holiday for years - practically on doctor's orders! Running GOES and trying to raise funds by writing is turning into a full time career - just when other people are settling into easy chairs and listening to Radio 4. We were put to shame though by another member of our holiday tour group; a gentleman of 95 years of age who certainly isn't settling down to pipes and slippers just yet! There were other people who, having overcome serious medical conditions, were getting on with an active and interesting life, and  who provided true inspiration. GOES followed us about on holiday - one of our young Gambian friends was reported to be ill and we were able to send a donation to cover his care costs. 

We use a money transfer system called BAYBA which is very quick and reliable. Money is deposited with them via any branch of Barclay's Bank (there was one two doors away from the hotel we stayed at in Bergerac.) A 'phone call is then made to BAYBA in England to arrange a transfer to a selected location in The Gambia, and a code number is given. We then send the recipient a text message containing the code and the money is available, sometimes even on the same day. We're waiting for a message to tell us how our young friend is.

Our friend in the local coffee shop greeted us today with a bag full of beautifully made baby hats - we'll just have to go and give them to deserving babies! 

In the meantime I'm working on the fourth book in the Malinding ebook series. Long coach journeys are a good place to work out a plot!

Best wishes to all of you; please consider The Gambia for your next holiday and please, please buy the books! All proceeds go straight into GOES for immediate use in Gambian schools, clinics and homes.

Back in Business!

It's been rather quiet on the GOES front recently, largely due to a shortage of funds. Being a very small charity means we don't keep a large balance in the bank! We receive money, somebody needs it.

Recently our friends in the Vale Royal Writers' Group, together with members of Liverpool's Dead Good Poets, staged a Summer Wordfest at the Blue Cap pub in Sandiway. Some excellent poets and storytellers performed and the 'profits' from a raffle and sale of books, together with some very generous donations made GOES' bank balance very much healthier - for two days! By then the money was in The Gambia providing medical care for a very sick young man and providing mosquito nets to protect families from malaria (which kills far too many people in sub-Saharan Africa).

So, we're out of funds again! Hope our e-books ('Empty Bananas@, 'Mussukunda' & 'The Mechanical Girl') sell well!

Best wishes to all, and an especial 'thank you' to VWRG and Dead Good Poets!

Taps and books?

Well (sorry!) yes: The Malinding series of books* are selling well (sorry again ..) so we've been able to send off the money to move the water supply from a tap on the outside wall to the inside of the clinic at Mandinari. We haven't had the cash to visit The Gambia ourselves yet this year but there are a number of villagers we trust to oversee the work and we have sent the money for this work to a couple of them. We're also waiting for a report on the fund raising we're sharing with the villagers with a view to buying a maize milling machine for use by the village women. Pounding the maize in large mortars and pestles is a traditional African task, but it's very hard work and very time consuming so a powered mill would be a great advantage - and raise money from the surrounding villages. I so miss being out there with our friends, but the important thing is that progress is being made. (Still want to be there!

*Please help by buying one or more of them - see previous post!

Books for Sale!

The three books about life in The Gambia are selling well - from the U.S.A. through Europe to Spain! I wrote them to raise funds for Gambia GOES, our charity, and the hard work seems to be paying off. They books are set in an imaginary village on the South bank of the river Gambia called Malinding. The inhabitants of the village are also imaginary, though I have borrowed genuine Gambian names for them. The characters live only on the pages. I'm offering the first book, 'Empty Bananas' on Amazon ebooks, free for five days, in the hope that this will tempt people to buy the rest of the books in the Malinding series - 'Mussukunda' and 'The Mechanical Girl'.
I'm having a short rest before I start on the next book, which will be called 'The Alkalo' - Sirra, who appears in the first book and marries Ed, becomes am important member of the village community ...

Improving!

I've been moaning and groaning about a decline in the level of donations but there is good news: the tap has been installed at Mandinari Clinic and is supplying pure water for use there. I gather that at the moment it's installed on an outside wall but we'll send the funds for it to be extended to a sink inside the clinic next week. It would be nice to wave a wand and have things done very quickly - as a Westerner I was becoming a little impatient; we had taken the money to the clinic in December when we visited. But, six months wait is better than not having the job done at all! Thank you folks; in the UK for providing the funds and those of you in The Gambia who undertook the work. Team effort = good result!