AFRICAN NIGHT

I would like to thank all of you who attended and supported our African Night which was held in Firle village hall on Saturday 9 June. It was a resounding success, raising approx. £1300, of which ( after expenses ) a minimum of £1100 will be put towards the building of the new nursery school in Sanyang. This was a fantastic result and possibly the most amount of money raised from an event in the hall.
Global Bang, the multi cultural band from Hastings provided the live music and dancers, getting the evening off to a fantastic start.
Jamie with his Boomwackers was, again, very entertaining and also managed to save the evening when the CD player in the hall decided to stop working within the few opening bars of a young boys solo dance routine.
The most talked about part of the evening was the large presence of Magnus, the African healer - all 6ft 7inches of him! He proved to be very popular by setting up a (high) stool outside and performing his healing techniques on the guests in exchange for a donation to the charity.
Thank you to Tim, our auctioneer, and Ben, his assistant, for conducting the auction which raised £280.
Special Thanks to the chefs who provided the very tasty food.
I was very pleased to have two special guests at the event - Lamin - our charity rep from The Gambia - who has been our house guest for a month. He was very impressed with the effort that everyone put into the evening and touched by the wonderful welcome that he received from the people of Firle and beyond. The second special guest was my first grandchild, Joseph Thomas. He was born to Tom and Allie on 23 May. I don’t think that he realised what a star he was as he slept right through it all.
Finally, I would just like to say that although I really appreciate all of the wonderful comments and praise that I have received about my work with the charity, the real stars of the show are all of you out there who help and support the charity - without you there would not be The Gambia Reality - so on behalf of myself and the children of The Gambia, THANK YOU TO YOU ALL.