November 2001 - Hali was amazed and delighted to have a job, it was agreed that she'd come in early to clean the restaurant and kitchen and wash the table cloths and staff uniforms. There were days when she was late, there were days when Hali's oldest daughter Mariamma arrived and cleaned and washed in her place. Days when little Bass was ill, or Isatou her youngest daughter had fever or two or more of her children were sick in bed.

Finally, Hali was sick as well.

Real Gambians don't complain. I say 'real' because the holiday 'strip' is mostly filled with charming but persistent young men, pushing themselves onto the tourists, (to the detriment of the majority of honest hard working Gambians) most of these 'bumbsters have a tale of woe and despair aimed at opening your heart and pocket. Real Gambians are far to proud, honourable and genuinely religious to lower themselves to this way of making an income. You really find a lot of scroungers along the tourist routes and round the hotels, very pleasant but this is their work.

Isatou came to say that Hali, Mariamma and Lamin were all so ill that they couldn't come to do the work that day - it was the same the day after and day after that. On the third day I went to their compound to see how they were.

I was truly shocked. Many people live in what Gambians call 'line houses', they are similar to UK terraces, but each line of 4 to 8 houses is in its own walled area. Usually quite nice on the outside and from all that I had visited, really nice inside as well. Gambians are proud and even if they have no money they dress as if they are royality and 'walk tall'.

Fine when you are well, but when you are sick and have two or three sick children it is hard to be proud let alone look proud. Hali's rented house has a living room and two very small bedrooms. The rent is 450 D a month (£18). There is a lavatory and shower room, but no running water, (it was never connected to the houses in their road) so it has never been used for its original purpose. The compound has a well for getting washing water, but drinking water is from a stand pipe several hundred metres away. There is electric but that costs an extra 20D each month for each light fitting and each power point.

Even though the rooms are small, Hali had always sub let one bedroom and shared the house - it is far too expensive for her & the children. But her tennant had left and Hali had to find a new tenant or leave because she couldn't afford the whole rent and the landlord needed the money.

If Hali ever did have furniture before her husband died, it had long since been sold to pay the rent, or buy food or medicine or clothes or pay school fees. In Gambia there is seldom enough to pay for everything that is needed during the whole year. For Hali, the short tourist season from November to April has to earn enough dalasi to last till the next season and generally she owes favours to all her friends and neighbours by the time November comes around again and the tourists pour in.

As I went through the bills that had to be paid, compared with the income coming in - it was obvious that there was simply never enough to cover the necessities, which is why education gets so disrupted. People don't starve, but good nurishing food is most definitely not eaten on a daily basis and so illness spreads rapidly and takes much longer to recover from. Medicines are relatively expensive and parents often have little more than prayers to call on, as their means to family survival.

Death in Gambia is met calmly no matter how old or young the deceased. Your time is seen as being up. Life is giving by (Allah) God and is just as easily taken away. People are of course upset and grieve, but death is more part of everyday life for all Gambians, than for most westerners

It is amazing in such conditions that Hali's family survives, literally by the grace of God it seems. When Hali was better a few days later she came back to work and I had to tell her that the arrangement was just not possible, the restaurant and kitchens had to be cleaned every day and we had to take a new person without the committments of young children.

Hali still uses Dardeema as her base for selling fruit. The restaurant buys all the fresh fruit we need from her, but it is not the same as having a job. Hali was understanding. Although I was delivering the news, I had the strongest feeling that her attitude was that, Allah had given and Allah had taken away again.

A few days later, GTS members Tony and Helen Murtagh emailed me to say that Helen's company had collected money this year instead of giving Christmas cards and the staff had voted to give the money to GTS. I suggested to them that Mariamma, Hali's oldest daughter might be the sponsored child and they agreed.

GTS hopes to start a safe house for some of the children left with no close relatives. GTS already sponsors a few who would benefit from a 'home' of their own. We hope that Hali will be the house mother there and be able to provide a secure and happy environment for 10 to 20 children.

Dardeema is now helping to provide the funds to make that happen, so in a round about way Dardeema will provide employment for Hali, but not in quite the way we first anticipated.

Such projects take money BUT GTS does not ask for money on principle without offering a service in return. I feel this project is an urgent one. We intend to have rooms for tourists to stay near the safe house and would love to raise some capital by renting those rooms to people like you in advance, this will provide the capital to make this project happen.

We already have a £100 donation from an existing member towards our safe house project, but it will cost us £7500 to complete the first phase for 10 children along with two double guest rooms. We already have the land at Brufut, we just need money faster than Dardeema can earn it.

If you can help NOW, we will provide you with holiday accommodation up to the value of the funding that you put in. Our compound at Brufut is located close to the Atlantic bay that sweeps round to Kololi, a perfect holiday spot away from the tourist centre but close enough to visit if you want to.

Please contact me if you can help - Thank you

Feb 2003 - Things move on. In June 2002 we asked Halimatou if she would look after Brufut 2 and start a garden there to supply the restaurant with vegetables - the rains in 2002 were very poor and the crops at Brufut 2 mostly failed - also Haddy was ill and found it impossible to do the work required to maintain a productive garden - in early November 2002 she moved back to Sanchaba. I hear that a kind Dutch couple are now helping Haddy and we wish her and her family success and happiness.

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