One of the problems with email in the 3rd World is that in the 1st World we have grown to view email as an instant message service - once sent the person will receive it certainly today or DEFINITELY tomorrow.

This is just not the case in a place like Gambia.

When we first started GTS in Gambia we viewed the generator as a backup service to the power supplier NAWEC, now we regularly think of the power supplier as being the back up to rest our generator which is often running 12 hours in a day.

To run a computer you need electric so the first problem is that during the day the power is often off and the generator is only run to keep the fridges and freezers cold.

Also Internet access is slow - emails take about 10 minutes just to open and close (Not counting reading them and answering them) but 1st World senders not realising this still send hundreds of words running to pages that take for ever to read and longer to answer.

GTS gets around 20 emails a day which represent about 3 hours work just on dealing with email replies - this leaves very little time for any other computer work and definitely not website work which just has to be shelved. (see disappointed in left column)

I do realise that it must be disappointing and frustrating for readers to find that pages on the site have not been updated, but the GTS site is an accurate flavour of Gambia - things change rapidly especially in the tourist areas where establishments come and go within a year, in theory a website should be able to reflect these changes but in the voluntary charity sector there is simply too much to do without enough funding.

Site readers expect to send emails asking for information without even contributing a membership fee to help cover the costs and it is always the people who have contributed the least who complain the loudest - I guess it was always so.

HOWEVER IF there is a philanthropist out there who loves the Gambia and likes the idea of GTS and its work - I'd be delighted to spend all my time on keeping the site up to date and make it the most comprehensive site on every aspect of the Gambia - a £1000 a month would just about cover the loss of giving up the day job and still allow me the evenings to answer emails, attend charity meetings, process memberships, ring sponsors, deal with the bank and keep in contact with our Gambian staff doing the real job out in Gambia as well as planning the charities work for the future.

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