But we are always looking at, and being told of, other grass roots projects, driven by individuals who want to be one of the grains of sands. So we will be continuing with the support for Bookworm with Elaine and Sujata as we believe they will be making a huge difference with all the literacy projects that they do. All of us know that without being able to read then the world is a closed world. So the mobile library is the first step in making hundreds of children’s world open.

Our friend, Father George, has now moved on from the major town of Margao to fertile new ground in the Western Ghats (way out in the hills, east and south towards and into Karnataka), still in the educational area but also looking at health and environment too. So with that in mind we are looking at two new projects in some of the so-called Tribal Villages. Tribal Villages? I hear you ask… well, yes, in Goa there are still villages where the buildings are made in the traditional way in mud and still some of the elders are dressed in loincloths and life is very basic with few opportunities. This is the same Goa that you see in the glossy brochures with the fab beaches and great night life. Many of these villages were founded hundreds of years ago as native Goans fled the invading Portuguese and forced conversions and they have stayed very marginalised.

Education for the kids (thru Don Bosco educational schemes) is eagerly lapped up, but if the power cuts out (as it does 40% of the time) then homework in the darkness is not an option and the families have to be persuaded that education makes sense for them. So our two projects are to be ‘Light up the Village’ which is about bringing solar power to the houses and ‘Lifeboard the Kids’ to incentivise the families to release their kids for schooling (just as in the pocket slums in Margao).

For the first, Father George and his team have come up with an ingenious solar panel/battery idea that powers LED lights and we are aiming to put one in 30 houses out of 40 (the ones with children) in the first village. There are three other similar sized villages to follow. The cost is shared with the householders and we have paid for two of these inventions so far and we want to support lots more!

Our second project is still in the same four villages and it is based around the same Lifeboard, again using it as an incentive to get the kids to attend class as it saves them a job every morning of water collection and provides clean pure water. But the kids here also have to walk a considerable distance to school and the Lifeboard also ‘powers’ the kids on their long thirsty walk (more like its origins in South Africa). Each village requires about 40 boards and it has been rolled out already in one village. We have now just passed over the funding for the second village as well. A cheap solution, but so useful!

Being monsoon period, with far less tourists to cater to, we have been lucky to be able to talk to everybody we know here for hours at a time – swapping ideas and contacts. We’re sure that this will continue to pay dividends throughout the coming year. Keep checking back!

Moving neatly on to the lives we have changed in Mandrem… 21 students from the 10th Standard of our school have just sat their SSC exams (Standard School Certificate – sort of equivalent to GCSEs in the UK or O’Levels if you are old like us) – a very first for our school and 16 of them passed! Congratulations to all – kids and teachers – involved!

We are in India at the moment and I am sitting here writing this whilst the monsoon rain pours down around me. The first posts are a general ones with updates on our existing projects and it will be followed by further posts showing the directions in which we are heading – all very exciting, but more of that later…

So, in no particular order…

The library van for Bookworm has been bought and is being kitted out and sign written as we speak. When we are back in November we will have pictures to show you of the finished vehicle and more news from Sujarta and Elaine…

The Lifeboards that were ordered and made for the Don Bosco Mobile School are now out there and doing their stuff as intended. The neck design for the screw cap has even been modified so that the caps fit better, but we still need to carry out caps from the UK for them. So spare a thought for me when we return in November, as once again no shoes and pretty things can I bring in my case – just plastic lids and a football strip! This latest strip is again courtesy of Horley Town Football Club Youth Team (thanks guys!) and it will go to one of the tribal villages in the Western Ghats (the mountain strip that hugs Goa to the coast). Once the strip arrives, the school team will be able to be brought into town to play against other schools and make their mark.

Now, back in June, I had a wonderful email from a couple who we met whilst at Elsewhere during the cyclone last November and who, the last thing we had heard, were intending to get married this past spring. We listened to the plans they were making for the big day with interest as the unseasonable winds and rains flowed around us! So when, out of the blue, Owen mailed me to say they had indeed got married and had collected a donation for us at their wedding, we were mightily intrigued. They had apparently had a ‘charity beer keg’ and on the bar at the reception there was a little piece about Helping Elsewhere and every pint made us a little more! Well … all I can say is a merry time must have been had by all judging by the donation they were kind enough to send us! Thank you Owen and Livy and congratulations on your new life together!

Wedding Beer!

Helping Elsewhere are hosting an evening of murder and mystery at Alresford Station on the Watercress Line in Hampshire, combined with a wonderful meal on board a Pullman dining car pulled by one of their gleaming steam locomotives! Can you tease out the murderer as you steam between atmospheric Hampshire stations? Are you really able to match Agatha Christie’s Poirot? Or indeed Miss Marple?

The Company Upfront are working with us and the Watercress Line to create this special event for the first time, combining a nurder in the old Goods Shed with a special dining experience on board the steam train and then the final unmasking of the murderer back in Alresford.

Tickets will shortly go on sale for £85 a head – and we have heard from people that know that these tickets will go almost instantaneously.

But you loyal followers of Helping Elsewhere have an opportunity to reserve  your tickets in the next few days before they are publicly available. If you pay us now, we’ll make sure those tickets don’t get offered out again!

So root out your 1930′s finest (prizes for the best of course!), watch a few Poirots, read a few detective novels and join us for a very special evening!

As everyone arrived they were amazed to be greeted by our Stilt Walking Ganesha who set the the scene and created an ambiance of Good Luck. The ladies were welcomed by our Bollywood Dancers  with the traditional orange flower garlands. Reception drinks were served from our ‘Living Table’ who fitted in with the Bollywood theme perfectly in her colourful costume.

Guests were then asked to take their seats for dinner my our fabulous MC – Mark from the Short Film Company – who did a sterling job keeping the evening on track including introducing the entertainment from the Howard Productions ‘Bollywood Dancers’ who gave great entertainment value and really set the room alight.

After dinner, a short AV presentation was shown to tell everyone a little about what we do and then everyone was subjected to me giving a short talk. Everyone listened and I’m told a few people even had tears in their eyes from our video.

The Auction followed where the week at Casa Susegad was sold for £700, the meal at the Hamborough Hotel on the Isle of Wight raised £200 and the drawings of wildlife donated by Carl D’Silva raised £300! In fact all the items sold well and that, combined with the raffle, the silent auction and the Casino, raised the grand total of £3500 which will enable Bookworm to go properly on the road with their mobile library deliveries.

So, that just left enjoying ourselves!!! Jeanie Barton was just wow!!! with the guys from Jazz and Cocktails and everybody then got down to the disco or decamped to lose loads of virtual money at the casino tables.

We have lots of photos (a huge thakyou to Norman Reid for donating his time and capturing it all so beautifully) of you all arriving and seated at your tables and a gallery will soon be posted (Colin’s busy building the mini-site) and if any one wishes to buy a photo, that facility will be available soon as well.

So… What next?

Well, it will be ‘Murder at WaterCress Manor’ which will take place on the Watercress Line in deepest Hampshire. Be ready for murder at 7pm and then you can use your sleuthing capabilities to solve the murder whilst being pulled through the Hampshire countryside by a steam train and dining in a 1st Class Pullman. Agatha Christie eat your heart out! Full post with details soon…

The kids with their new Lifeboards

This has far reaching effects by providing a useful resource for the parents and it certainly encourages them to allow their children to attend the ‘school’. That probably sounds a little mad… but you are taking away a useful family member, who would normally be working or childminding… so we have to make school attractive to both the parents and the kids!

Drinking fresh water from the Lifeboard

For those coming to the Ball, we’ll be bringing one along with us, so you’ll be able to see, and play with, this supremely clever little idea.

Bookworm

Bookworm is run by two inspiring educators, Sujarta and Elaine, who are passionate about literacy. They have a big vision which we are hoping that we will be able to help them achieve. We are aiming to push the boxes out into the village schools all over Goa – thus spreading the word so to speak. In order to do this we need to raise enough funds for a small van and driver, which are the main capital costs. This will have a far reaching effect in Goa, as we will be bringing books to a whole new generation of kids.

Bookworm runs workshops and reading groups with schools as well as the mobile library system, and both Sujarta and Elaine spend a lot of time on the road as delivery drivers. At the moment this is taking them away from their main roles as educators which is such a shame as their enthusiasm is contagious. Hence the need to provide the basic resource to run the ‘mobile library’. This will free up time for both of them to get back to their core work of inspiring kids to read.

Bookworm at work, running reading sessions in schools

In total, we are aiming for £5000 divided between efforts in Goa and England. So if you know any rich librarians, publishers or teachers out there who would love to help, then please let us know!

If you are interested, I suggest you use the contact form on this site, an email or a Facebook message to send us a starting bid and a maximum bid for anything you fancy. We’ll weave the bids into the auction on the night.

First up, I know that some of you have heard of, or even met, one of our great friends in Goa – Carl D’Silva. He is a superb wildlife artist and conservationist and his bird illustrations are featured in classic guides like “The Book of Indian Birds” centenary edition.

He has been extraordinarily kind in drawing, signing, framing and donating three original charcoal on paper drawings!!!

The first is a wonderful portrait of an alert leopard cat, looking as if is about to pounce, 28 x 21cm. This is a nocturnal Asian wild cat (only very distantly related to the leopard) about the size of a domestic cat. In fact if you know of domestic bengal cats, then this a crossbreed of a leopard cat with domestic cats.

Leopard Cat (© Carl D'Silva 2006)

Secondly, there is a great drawing of a pair of masked boobies,28 x 21cm, and Carl has produced an image of real depth and interest. Masked boobies are large spectacular divers. plunging diagonally into the sea at high speed and they are related to gannets.

Masked Boobies (© Carl D'Silva 2004)

Finally (in this section at least) is a fantastic isolated study of a pied kingfisher, 27 x 20cm. At Elsewhere, we are used to seeing the iridescent blue common kingfishers, but pied kingfishers lost the iridescence aeons ago. They have very distinctive hunting habits – they hover over open water before diving in and can swallow their prey without returning to a perch.

Pied Kingfisher (© Carl D'Silva 2001)

Let us know which one you would like to bid on, and your min and max bid!

Now here is something rather unique. Annabelle Wood, from round the corner in Wandsworth Town where she is well known for her ‘attic sales’, has donated two VERY special BKF backpacks to the auction!

As The Independant says in its feature on Argentina: “Architect turned bag designer Ingrid Gutman of Humawaca plays with leather, enhancing skins with zesty colours and textures. Her trademark is the hugely successful BKF backpack, a homage to Argentina’s most famous design of the last century, the 1938 BKF sling chair with a collapsible frame by architects Bonet, Kurchan and Ferrari-Hardoy.”

The bags have a zipper at the back, and the 60cm adjustable straps make them an elegant joy to wear. Not for nothing were they a hit at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art when they appeared in their store in 2004 – the BKF is already a design classic.

Now, in the UK you can get these bags in brown or red leather and they sell for top prices. Our ones, though, have been personally imported from Buenos Aires (Annabelle’s husband is Argentinian so you can guess how they came to be in the UK) in two colourways and materials that we haven’t seen anywhere else. You’ll certainly stand out from the crowd!

The first is in a beautiful vibrant blue hair-on leather (with a black suede back) and measures 50cm tall by 40cm wide.

Vibrant Blue BKF

The second is the same size but in a wonderful spotty silvery grey hair-on leather (again with a black suede back).

Spotty Grey BKF

Let us know which one you would like to bid on, and your min and max bid!

Next are some particularly nice freshwater pearl ‘floating necklaces’.

You may recall that we met the lovely Maureen Decelles and her husband Norman earlier this year at Elsewhere. Maureen, a practising gemologist, is a graduate of the École de Gemmologie in Montreal, a Graduate Fellow from the Gemological Association of Great Britain and a Graduate Gemologist of the Gem Institute of America – so you can totally expect that the quality of the jewellery she also makes is superb!

Maureen has been kind enough to donate quite a number of pieces to Helping Elsewhere, and here are a couple of them for you to view, and hopefully bid on. More will appear on the night, so if you have any special requirements, get in touch and we will pick out the most suitable to your requirements for you to preview.

The first is a full 21-string necklace (the shortest string is 40cm and the longest 50cm) of white freshwater pearls and feels fabulous to wear! The other is a more understated 3-string necklace (strands between 40 and 45cm) with a mixture of black and white freshwater pearls. Both have silver clasps.

21- and 3-string floating pearl necklaces

For those of you that prefer your freshwater pearls around your wrist, Maureen has also kindly donated five wonderful elastic strung bracelets, each with three strands of either white, silver or dark red pearls, set with ornate silver spacers. Take a look…

Pearl Bracelets

Let us know which one you would like to bid on, and your min and max bid!

Still in our jewellery section, we have a stunning necklace from our longtime friend and supporter in Goa, Carole Steen!

This is a gloriously heavy, but extemely attractive, necklace with large Iranian turquoise stones and ornate silver beads, all threaded onto a string of silver beads – the pinnacle of Carole’s exclusive collection! The craftmanship is just exquisite as the photographs show…

Silver and Turquoise Necklace

Necklace Detail

This necklace is 110cm long (that’s 44″) so looks spectacular as a single ‘statement’ piece. It also comes protected in a beautiful satin bag. Now, we know that the cost of the raw materials alone runs well into three figures, so we are expecting a lot of interest for this piece of fine jewellery…

Let us know if you would like to bid on this, and your min and max bid!

Onto ‘experiences’ that you may well enjoy, both here and abroad…

Firstly, one of our favourite places in Goa, Casa Susegad run by Carole and Norman Steen, have offered us the unbelievable opportunity of a weeks stay for two, full board, at any time apart from Christmas and New Year! [You might want to note though that you probably don't want to visit in monsoon season, May to October!].

Casa Susegad is an absolute gem – a 400 year old Indo-Portugese mansion which now mixes the restored ancientness with eclectic art and the best of chic styling. The welcome is extremely warm, and the ambience is best summed up as “the art of elegant idleness”. Carole is a magnificent cook and has trained her Goan staff to offer the very best of European and Goan cuisine – and, best of all, fusions between.

Casa Susegad © Leo Ricketts 2008

Rooms are spacious and well appointed, with en-suite facilities of a very high standard, a/c in 3 rooms, deep sprung mattresses and every comfort. Each room opens out onto its own terrace area with granite topped table, comfy chairs and canopy cover if needed. This in turn leads to your own sunbed area next to the large pool, where you can enjoy 4ft wide sunbeds under traditional Rajasthani sun umbrellas.

Style thru Reflection © Leo Ricketts 2008

You can be as private as you like (1.5 acres teeming with wildlife to get lost in!) or join in the ‘house party’ atmosphere. The house welcomes people of different nationalities and diverse backgrounds, and the locals often pop in as well, so a vibrant bonhomie ensues! You get the best of quiet village life, but only a short taxi ride away from the excellent beach or the interesting town of Margao with its shops and markets (where Helping Elsewhere aids the school-bus project).

As a guide, the full hospitality package is usually offered at 8,500 rupees (£120) a night, so this could be an ideal introduction for somebody to Goa and India. We will also be very happy to help you with flights (£5-600 each as a rule) and other places to stay if you want to extend your trip.

Let us know if you would like to bid on this, and your min and max bid!

Slightly closer to home, have you visited the Isle of Wight recently? One of our favourite towns is Ventnor, home of the jazz scene on the IOW, and our favourite hotel is The Hambrough. Owned and run by chef, Robert Thompson (ex head chef at Cliveden), this boutique seafront hotel and restaurant has won awards and plaudits far and wide (check out The Guardian‘s 20 best chef owned hotels and reviews from The Independent and Daily Telegraph).

Recipient of the IOW’s first Michelin Star (for the fourth year running) and three AA rosettes, Robert has personally offered the lucky recipient a 3 course lunch or dinner together with a glass of champagne to start the evening, to be taken some time during 2010! The restaurant is closed most Sundays and Mondays, but their other establishment, the Pond Cafe in nearby Bonchurch, is open when the Hambrough is not, so his offer includes this as well.

Robert Thompson @ The Hambrough

And to make sure you get there, we have even obtained a 48hr carferry crossing on Red Funnel from Southampton to East Cowes! There’s no excuse now!

Red Funnel

Let us know if you would like to bid on this, and your min and max bid!

Even closer to home (in fact only 9 minutes from Gatwick, although you’ll really believe you are a million miles away!) is Langshott Manor. Some of you will remember my post 18 months ago about belatedly celebrating my birthday at this beautifully restored 16th century manor house, renowned for its fantastic cuisine and standards of service.

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Celebrating at Langshott

Well, Langshott have offered our lucky bidder the chance to experience this stunning place for themselves – Sunday lunch for two, accompanied by a bottle of wine. We can guarantee you’ll feel so mellow after this indulgence that you’ll need to either book in for a stay in one of their luxurious and beautiful feature rooms, or at least to go for a very long stroll amongst the three acres of immaculate gardens, finishing back at the ancient moat.

Langshott Manor

Let us know if you would like to bid on this, and your min and max bid!

Good luck if you are bidding! We’ll let you know how it goes!

So why is it special? Well, it is the first time that Mandrem School has had Standard 10 students – Standard 10 is the equivalent to our GCSE (or if you’re old like us, ‘O’ level) grade – and our school have not been able to teach Standard 10 up until now. As a direct result of all the work Helping Elsewhere has done in raising money for additional infrastructure and teachers, the school have now been allowed to offer the necessary grades. And the reason we’ve delayed posting this until now is that the final exams start on Monday 29th March – tomorrow! So good luck to all of them! We are so excited!

The Head Girl and Boy lowering the School Flag

And what exactly is the Passing Out Parade? All schools in India, be they rich or poor, that teach Standard 10 have a passing out parade at the end of the academic year. All the children in the lower Standards wish the older students good luck in their new life coming up outside of their ‘lower’ school, or outside of school life entirely. The Head Boy and Girl pass the mantle on to the succeeding ones in the Standard below. It is serious, fun, tearful and it seems like a rite of passage. We have spoken to many of our friends in Goa and they all remember their parades. Our day started at the school and then moved to the church for mass and then back to school where everyone partied – all the standard 10 kids, teachers, headmistress and the nuns too!! Plus I got to join in, which was just the best!

The Passing Out Parade - the infants saying good bye.

So I turned up at 8 o’clock sharp, and joined in assembly, and then we boarded the school bus. First of all we went to Siolim, to the old peoples home that is run by the Church called St. Joseph’s Home for the Aged. It is set in a colourful flower garden, all the residents have their own rooms, and all  health care and needs are taken care of. The place was well run, clean and had a very happy atmosphere. All the children sat and spoke with the residents and a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday was sung to one of the ladies.

We then took our leave and boarded the bus again and trundelled off to Mapusa. Here we were to visit the Municipal Hospital and - after, as always, the correct paperwork being looked at - we climbed two flights of stairs and entered the Paediatric Ward, which I have to say was not what I expected it to be. I had, I guess, the preconceptions of dirty, over-crowded wards. Well, that is not what I found. Yes, the wards by English standards where ‘dated’ – they had a flavour of the 50′s about them - but it was clean and there were many staff (almost one per child).  The children seemed to be well cared for and most had their parents with them, and again it had a lovely atmosphere.

Mapusa Hospital, the children visiting the sick kids.

The Junior Red Cross is about teaching values and it is interesting to see that even though the children have very little, they are still taught that there are those worse off than them.

That was the ‘heavy’ part of the trip, now on to the more fun part. We were off to Old Goa. I was lucky enough to have my own personaL guide in Jacinta, our headmistress, whose family have been priests there over the years. The children loved looking around the church and. despite it being a hot day, wanted to look in the museum at the relics as well.

Jacinta Fernandes being our guide

All in all it was a lovely day, The 10th standard children are the next to leave our school after taking their ‘Board Exams’ and the day was all about good citizenship as well as fun. They are now studying hard and many of the teachers are giving up their free time to coach them in the evenings as few of the children live in homes that have areas where they can study. These are the first kids from our school  that will sit these exams and the very fact that they are  is due in a large part to the support of everyone in the UK and around the world plus the obvious dedication of the staff!