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My last blog had me feeling the strong pull of Africa and trying hard not to go online and book a flight back to The Gambia. When my Dad gave me his blessing and told me from his hospital bed to "get back to your husband and the children and get on with your work" I didn't have to fight the urge any longer and when a single flight came up with Thomas Cook for just £89, I booked it.  A couple of clicks, an e-ticket and I'm winging my way back to the sun and smiles on 4^th April. It is personally very hard to leave my Dad so poorly but I know he wants me to get on with what I do best. I've worked hard over the past few months; teaching English at a local language school, doing Body Shop parties and holding fundraising events to raise enough money to send a container of useful items back to The Gambia.  Every day I've collected donated items from many individuals and organisations who have been amazingly supportive towards our aims. I've met many kind and helpful people and several times I have shed a tear or two when someone has done something extraordinarily kind, surprised me or given up something of great sentimental value to them in order to pass it on to someone less fortunate in The Gambia. My 9 year old nephew, Owen and nieces, Paris and Vienna, have helped me pack boxes and load the storage units, giving up hours of their time each week, cheerfully talking about how all the wonderful items, toys, clothes, books and games will help the chidren in The Gambia.  I will miss them and the rest of my family terribly, my lifelong and new friends more than I can describe, but I have to say that that is the only real downside of living in a different culture. Whilst definitely dreading leaving my family and friends,  I am looking forward to saying goodbye to sleeping on a sofa and being back in my own bed with my mosquito net around me, even though I have to shake the sheets every night before getting into bed to check for creepy crawlies!

 

The photos show my shower and my mud hut.  The extra plastic sheeting on the grass roof was kindly donated by Edina Worthington of Adfab Advertising and Print who kindly gave us lots of heavy duty advertising banners which certainly help keep us drier in the rainy season, which is fast approaching!

 

I'll be happy taking a bucket shower under my mango tree and cooking rice in a big pot over a wood fire knowing that soon the container from England will arrive containing a gas oven donated by a world famous celebrity who wishes to remain anonymous but who has heard about our work and wants to make it easier for us to provide school lunch for our kids.  Along with all the cooking pots, utensils, plates and cutlery we have had donated, the oven will be a really useful addition to our makeshift kitchen.  I'm taking back recipes for mango chutneys and jams, orange, lime and lemon marmalades etc.  I will teach the women in the village how to make these items (when I have mastered them myself; I can't say I'm known for my culinary skills, having done Latin at school while all my friends did Needlework and Cookery, hence they can cook and sew and I can't!!)  Abundant fruit will then be able to be kept for longer and won't go to waste.  I'll update you with our progress with this project. Maybe someone in the village will be the next inventor of the fruit version of something like the highly successful Reggae Reggae sauce!!

 

We've set up a committee who will continue to work hard while I am in The Gambia; organising child sponsorship, fundraising events and keeping the fire burning so to speak.  We have published our constitution and I'd like to share our four main aims with you:

 

v     The support of educational projects in The Gambia to encourage improved literacy and numeracy among people of all ages

v     The support of children and their families in The Gambia to help alleviate poverty and give practical support to families in need

v     The support of health projects in The Gambia to improve health care, particularly in rural areas

v     The development of links between Gambian and UK schools to support educational opportunities in both locations

 

So, together we've set the wheels in motion.  It has been a stressful, demanding few months.  I am returning to a country where life is hard, much harder than here but to a place where I experience a happiness that I have never felt before.  The sense of personal fulfilment I get from teaching and nurturing these amazing Gambian children far surpasses any salary and working conditions I have ever experienced here in England. I live a very simple life, I go hungry, I get bitten by nasty insects, I sometimes feel very alone and I often cry but I feel lucky.  I guess it is because what I am trying to do to help them is totally and visibly appreciated by all of them. Quite simply, I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to actually be able to do something which makes a difference to so many lives.  Thank you for reading my blog, I hope that it will give some of you the inspiration to do something life-changing to help others or even to look at improving your own life and happiness.  With love and best wishes until next time.

Debbie Williams, March 2011

Oh my goodness!

 

Why do so many things seem to go wrong at once?  Today, the little white van that Trevor Anderson lends me to rattle about in, collecting all the donations for the container, conked out (again!!). Rescued from a particularly inconvenient place where it seems to like stopping, it was towed off for a well-earned rest and I returned home to console myself with a packet of Starburst.  An almighty crunch later (Starburst are not by nature crunchy!!), I spat out a mouthful of multi-coloured chews containing my gold crown and quite a significant part of a tooth. Having given away all my worldly goods, even my sole claim to having once been financially stable enough to invest in a gold crown has now disappeared!  Now looking like something fallen from a broomstick at Halloween, I think I may instil fear into the children at Combe Pafford school where I am due to talk tomorrow morning! Children, I apologise in advance, I do not normally ressemble a character from a Roald Dahl book and I promise I will try not to cackle. 

 

In the afternoon I am judging a primary school Ready, Steady, Cook competition and the dark side of my nature is toying with the idea of pretending to lose the tooth in the middle of the food-tasting, highly dramatic but maybe a bit mean!!  Now if they were secondary pupils ………..!!

 

I have to let you know that I am missing The Gambia, the people, the children and the sun so so much.  It is great to be here in Plymouth among family and friends and to be able to raid a fridge, eat fastfood and have a choice of snacks and drinks etc, but I so miss my simple, down-to-earth life in Africa.  I feel a bit like an alien here (actually probably look a bit like one now with the missing tooth!) and no longer feel that England is my home, a strange situation to be in.  I am hoping my Dad (who has been in Derriford for many weeks) will make a speedy recovery so I can get back to where I should be, doing what I should be doing, instead of comfort eating children's sweets to cheer myself up. 

 

Special thanks to my dear friend Catherine this week for giving me a bottle of Kalms and several doses of Bachs Rescue Remedy.  When close friends are taking steps like that, maybe it's time to go online and look at flights back to The Gambia!!  Okay, I admit it, life here is stressful, I am stressed and I want to go home!!!!!!