Friday 25 July 2014

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!

Tuesday 15 July 2014

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

Thursday 10 July 2014

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

Tuesday 8 July 2014

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!

Thursday 3 July 2014

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