Hi there,

Just to let you know that I had an absolutely fantastic time working with the children and staff in these 2 schools and everyone should be proud of their achievements over the week or so out there.

Jerry was and is an absolute diamond and Kabs was brilliant with all of his help and advice.

Can't thank EVERYONE at GTS in Senegambia enough for everything that they did for us during our visit.

Tim and the boys also thoroughly enjoyed their time.

It has been a major life - changing experience for me as I am now chomping at the bit in order to arrange the next trip - whether that be on my own or with Tim and 2 other lads.

I have great admiration for the Gambian people and Jerry was a mind of useful information and shared his knowledge of the people and culture with me which I found very interesting. You have a 'star' in the making there as well as all of the other staff who were so friendly and welcoming.

Words are not enough to convey how much I have appreciated the visit and being able to bring a smile to those children's faces and to be greeted on our return visits the following days at both schools was extremely touching.

Have achieved far more than ever expected, so much so that we now want to be able to provide a multi-purpose hall for the school at Youna.

The Principal there got an estimate which we passed on to Jerry to have a look at and he said it was way over the limit so to speak so have asked him if he will liase with me and the Principal on getting another estimate or the original contractor reviews his 'suggested' costings.

Have done some research of my own and believe that the work should cost somewhere around £10000 to complete - £12000 at the very outside.

Also, Sam, Ben and myself would like to sponsor a child from Youna - maybe one of the children that we coached for awhile to help get him / her through the lower basic school.

Jerry suggested that I speak to you about what this will entail so would like to have the information on that if you can please.

Don't know if Kabs or Jerry will have told you of our experiences with the driver Tex, but we were inviolved in a bit of an awful ending to the week. Ben discovered that his mobile phone was gone and we checked everywhere - going back to the school in case he had left it there but he was adamant that it was in his hand luggage having just spoken to his dad whilst we were at the school and then Sam realised that his personnal CD player and a couple of pairs of sunglasses were missing also. (Sam told me this within 10 minutes of us dropping him off at home and again the equipment was in his hand luggage in the van.)

To top it all of we were involved in the most stupidest and avoidable of road accidents when Tex went into the back of a stationary lorry which needless to say shook us all up and poor Jerry was devastated at these events which were totally outside his control. Felt so sad for him and we both just ended up looking at each other in disbelief really.

We were not too happy with Tex as he appeared to be over charging us throughout the week and so a price was agreed with him for the Monday / Tuesday / airport run but after the crash and we went on to the airport with the Gambian experience coach he wasn't happy with the already agreed amount.

We couldn't do much about it as we had to go with the coach for our flight but none of us believe for one minute that the school children would have gone into the van unattended as there was quite a lot of people around.

We do have our suspicions about the driver but obviously cannot prove anything so will have to grin and bear it on this occasion but Tim wanted me to let you know what had transpired and to see if you wanted to carry the matter forward, or deal with it as appropriate . Don't know if you have used him before or not - would be interested to know your thoughts on this and it was only the driver we were not too sure about.

All in all, however an absolutely fantastic week and some quality time spent in both schools hopefully will bring the sport on in the Gambia.

I hope to return asap as I have said and will liase with Jerry (who I consider to be a wonderful friend now) on any issues with the things we are now going to do. I always said it would be an eye opener but didn't realise I would leave part of myself in the country too!! (you know what I mean I think as you have set up GTS and for that - well done - it's a fantastic charity for the good of the Gambian people)

Anyway, look forward to hearing from you and if you can give me any ideas for raising the required £10-12000 for the hall or have any contacts who would maybe able to help out it would be much apprecited.

Hear from you soon

Thanks for letting me and the others be a part of something quite wonderful

Lesley