GTS August News - 2001

July was a whirl of work, but it only took a couple of hours to recover and catch up with all the news and discover the successes and failures since my March visit to Gambia..

Sadly we are still awaiting confirmation for the go ahead at the Dardeema restaurant. The Tourist Development Agency in Gambia has been busy legitimising businesses in the whole of the TDA area, last year unofficial beach bars were closed, this year the roads in the area have been resurfaced right down to the beach at Bijilo in Kololi. When approved the GTS office will open in the refurbished building just up the road from The Scala and Aquarius bar and new phone lines will be installed.

The legal case that Lamin's actions have forced upon us, should have been heard in July, but the court official, failed to deliver the summons, so the case has now been deferred to October. Another hold up, preventing our development work at Brufut from continuing. We did however have a number of very positive meetings with the Brufut Alcalo, who is very pleased that GTS is going to be working in Brufut and has offered us some very useful and practical support.

We had a meeting with TAF Construction about the Brufut development and confirmed that a 400 plus housing development will start along the inland side of the new coast road in January 2002. We also visited TAF's new estate in Yundum a few kilometres from the airport, wher 200 new houses are being constructed over the next 2 years.

GTS are now official agents for selling TAF housing and will donate 50% of the 1.5% commission raised to our Gambia charity fund.

Our GTS offices at Holiday Beach were closed while the hotel was closed during April, May and June, as there was no power supply, and we are currently waiting until the owner, who is currently in the USA returns to Gambia at the end of August to sort out the paperwork and future of the GTS telecentre at the hotel.

During our two weeks we met most of the children sponsored by or through GTS, unfortunately some were away on holiday up river, but we'll catch up with them in November and hopefully revisit all the rest.

Thanks to new member Malcolm Scott and wife Emily, another little Gambian girl will be attending school from September, 2001, Bintou Kebbe from Bakau will start school in September.

There is a rumour in Gambia that the school fees for educating all Gambian girls in state schools up to grade 9 will soon be abolished - if this happens we will publish the full details on the site and discuss with sponsors how their outstanding money should be spent.

GTS members John and Kay Skingsley, who have registered their own UK charity to support the work of the Reverend Jackson in work at his small but brilliant school in Banjul and also the building and running of a similar school in Essau on the north bank of the river. We were delighted to deliver resources from John and Kays fund raising efforts.

May has been swayed to register her Paper Mill in Gambia as an NGO (Non Governmental Organisation) Gambian charity. I accepted a position on the board and wish May and her paper making every success. May hopes that the charitable status will open doors to funding not available to her up to now, but vital to the success of the project - so far totally funded by May and by donations from well wishers of her recycling paper project.

Only one room in the GTS compound in Manjai is still available for GTS members from November 2001 and it has been agreed that due to Islamic law it should only be available to visiting couples. Members wanting to use the room at Manjai should contact me for details. Help finding any member suitable accommodation is still fully available.

The electricity supplies were almost 100% in the 15 days of our visit, we were only affect on a couple of evenings and even then, the supply was resumed before midnight, which was fortunate as I found that a fan on at night made sleeping and relaxing much more pleasant.

The rains tended to be at night and even on the days when it rained the rain only lasted for about an hour and within a short time all but the big puddles was dry (Big puddles need a new Gambian definition - Foday calls them 'swimming pools in the road') and they certainly make some routes impassable to all but walkers prepared to do a little paddling.

Non members Tony and Shirley Britton have visited Gambia for years and we were delighted when they contacted us to ask if the oldest daughter of the family they have supported from little children could travel with us on our return flight. It was her first visit anywhere outside The Gambia.

We finally contacted Seinabou on the Thursday before we left and arranged to meet her at the airport. After a long immigration process at Gatwick we finally got our cases and met a delighted Shirly & Tony who had come from Essex with their grand-daughter to collect her.

Hopefully we will see Seinabou during her 3 month visit and one of us might even travel back with her in mid November - anyway we hope so.