Pageant Meeting
Published Friday, June 30, 2006 by Anonymous.
Chris and I scooted over to have a meeting with the chaps from Pageant last night...
http://www.pageant.org.uk
Pippa nd Ian set up PAGEANT some years ago with the aim of providing funding and resources for Gambian schools and communities, constructing buildings for teaching and helping to educate and offer greater opportunaties to following generations and their communities. We arrived in Surrey to meet the gang, which included Omer, a Gambian teacher from Balakaar, who is in the UK to observe British teaching methods and generally gleen useful information to take back to his school. Chris' mum works for Edison schools and has arranged for Omer to have a few tours so that he can see how they operate and what their learning units have to offer.
We had a brilliant evening, discussing the trip, working out the most useful things to take out with us (I can see a trailer becomming involved at this rate!) and listening to Omer's stories and descriptions of The Gambia. I now feel as if we've really got things rolling and am have realised the extent of what is to come!Thanks again to Pippa and Ian's kind hospitality - the pizza was lovely!
http://www.pageant.org.uk
Pippa nd Ian set up PAGEANT some years ago with the aim of providing funding and resources for Gambian schools and communities, constructing buildings for teaching and helping to educate and offer greater opportunaties to following generations and their communities. We arrived in Surrey to meet the gang, which included Omer, a Gambian teacher from Balakaar, who is in the UK to observe British teaching methods and generally gleen useful information to take back to his school. Chris' mum works for Edison schools and has arranged for Omer to have a few tours so that he can see how they operate and what their learning units have to offer.
We had a brilliant evening, discussing the trip, working out the most useful things to take out with us (I can see a trailer becomming involved at this rate!) and listening to Omer's stories and descriptions of The Gambia. I now feel as if we've really got things rolling and am have realised the extent of what is to come!Thanks again to Pippa and Ian's kind hospitality - the pizza was lovely!
First Freebie!
Published Monday, June 26, 2006 by Anonymous.
Well the blagging and borrowing has already begun. I received the first bit of free stuff for the car, kindly donated by my next-door neighbour Malcom, who works for the PR side of Renault F1 and was probably wondering what the hulking great piece of scrap metal was outside the house! Anyway, he passed on a bottle of Motor Max super coolant, that he'd received as a gift from their rep. Lovely! Also on the cards is a borrowed GPS from my soon to be brother-in-law, Guy...
Well the deed is done, we have a car!!! Saturday was quite an action packed day for Chris and I, travelling up to Nuneaton to see a possibly suitable car, owned by Uli, an interesting sounding German chap. After the usual getting lost trying to read 'streetmap' printouts, we arrived to see a blue LHD Isuzu Trooper parked up on the side of the road and it all felt alarmingly real all of a sudden!
Uli turned out to be a really nice guy who was thoroughly interested in what we were planning on doing, himself being a bit of a vehicle bodger/traveller (having welded an engine to a pushbike in Cairo and then driven it back to Germany, then to the UK!). There were various things wrong with the vehicle, which you'd expect from an 18 year old car, but nothing major. After a good look over and spin round the block which highlighted just how bad the brake pull was (under hard braking, apply lock to 10 O'clock or so, to counter a sticky front calliper!), we were quite satisfied that it had the potential to get us there in one piece. Down to negotiations! Uli very kindly agreed to throw in the workshop manual as a present, brilliant news, even if it is in German, as those puppies cost serious bucks! After a bit of haggling we settled on £500 which included the Tax until December and as the MOT is good until then too, it was a bargain!
Chris drove the beast back down to Steph and my house near Buckingham, before loading up with bikes for Sundays’ ride and then headed off to see Rich in London, for the official Vegantune look-over and some priceless info on desert mods and driving tips. This was my first real experience of driving a left hooker and predictably I reached for the door handle a few times whilst changing gear – generally I was impressed with the high position and how solid it felt. Having driven down to Kingston and out to Bracknell on Sunday, driving back to Buckingham afterwards, the car experienced no more problems, so all is good, with work beginning in ernest in a few weeks time.
Calm before the storm
Another diary type post so we can look back and see if everything turns out the way we thought it was going to (unlikely).
On the car front a couple of weeks of digging turned up two Isuzu Troopers, both with identical specs in the same part of the country for roughly the same amount of money. Two cars however, turned out be one car being sold by the current owner and an aggro sounding wannabe car dealer trying to sell us the German’s car on his behalf without the German knowing and diddle us out of £150 odd quid in the process. Expletive
Dave and myself are therefore heading to Brummie land tomorrow to view said Trooper, buy it if its what he says it is and then head to the Village to pay Rich ‘two hip’ Marshall a visit. NB ‘two hip’ not ‘too hip’
Talks with Pageant continue, we now have an ibrakeforcake section on their website and we are feeding them news as and when. Dave and myself are meeting Pippa and Ian who run the charity and Omar, the science co-ordinator for a Gambian school of 3000!!! primary school pupils, on the 29th of July. Hopefully we can get some local knowledge, find out the kind of challenges schools in Gambia are facing and how we can help and put to Omar the kind of resource and information we’d like to bring back for Edison Schools.
During his visit it looks hopeful that Omar will be able to visit a school supported by Edison for the day and later in his visit meet the Edison MD with Dave, myself and Mum. I’m of the opinion this venture should be a trade of knowledge, contacts and teaching resources for English schools in exchange for resources, funding and teaching material for Gambian schools rather than a cut and dried donation of money.
Dave and myself have both started reading through last years PB challenge road book, a compilation of advise, hearsay and tales from the dessert and both gulped simultaneously, although we already knew it, this isn’t gonna be a walk in the sand dunes. Talk of sponsorship blah blah blah is all good but there is a real risk if we don’t get our prep and groundwork right that we won’t even make it as far as Gambia.
As an aside I’ve been reading Robert Young Pelton’s highly entertaining ‘Dangerous Places’ a tell it like it is guide to the Worlds more interesting destinations. Also see the aptly named comeback alive website. Granted it does include sections on the lethal range of various firemans but also some very grounded chapters on the far more likely event of falling ill (getting the shits), dealing with officials and bribes, helpful tips on personal and vehicle documentation and generally how not too panic (see also hitchhikers guide to the galaxy!!)
Hopefully the next post will be full of car pics!!
Laters
www.comebackalive.com
above picture remains copyright of www.comebackalive.com
Another diary type post so we can look back and see if everything turns out the way we thought it was going to (unlikely).
On the car front a couple of weeks of digging turned up two Isuzu Troopers, both with identical specs in the same part of the country for roughly the same amount of money. Two cars however, turned out be one car being sold by the current owner and an aggro sounding wannabe car dealer trying to sell us the German’s car on his behalf without the German knowing and diddle us out of £150 odd quid in the process. Expletive
Dave and myself are therefore heading to Brummie land tomorrow to view said Trooper, buy it if its what he says it is and then head to the Village to pay Rich ‘two hip’ Marshall a visit. NB ‘two hip’ not ‘too hip’
Talks with Pageant continue, we now have an ibrakeforcake section on their website and we are feeding them news as and when. Dave and myself are meeting Pippa and Ian who run the charity and Omar, the science co-ordinator for a Gambian school of 3000!!! primary school pupils, on the 29th of July. Hopefully we can get some local knowledge, find out the kind of challenges schools in Gambia are facing and how we can help and put to Omar the kind of resource and information we’d like to bring back for Edison Schools.
During his visit it looks hopeful that Omar will be able to visit a school supported by Edison for the day and later in his visit meet the Edison MD with Dave, myself and Mum. I’m of the opinion this venture should be a trade of knowledge, contacts and teaching resources for English schools in exchange for resources, funding and teaching material for Gambian schools rather than a cut and dried donation of money.
Dave and myself have both started reading through last years PB challenge road book, a compilation of advise, hearsay and tales from the dessert and both gulped simultaneously, although we already knew it, this isn’t gonna be a walk in the sand dunes. Talk of sponsorship blah blah blah is all good but there is a real risk if we don’t get our prep and groundwork right that we won’t even make it as far as Gambia.
As an aside I’ve been reading Robert Young Pelton’s highly entertaining ‘Dangerous Places’ a tell it like it is guide to the Worlds more interesting destinations. Also see the aptly named comeback alive website. Granted it does include sections on the lethal range of various firemans but also some very grounded chapters on the far more likely event of falling ill (getting the shits), dealing with officials and bribes, helpful tips on personal and vehicle documentation and generally how not too panic (see also hitchhikers guide to the galaxy!!)
Hopefully the next post will be full of car pics!!
Laters
www.comebackalive.com
above picture remains copyright of www.comebackalive.com
A copy of the original application letter. No idea if this had any influence on us getting a place or not...
Dear Sir
Both my co-driver and myself are looking for a challenge, an adventure and the opportunity to make a real, if small difference at a local level Gambia by importing a vehicle suitable for the local terrain, raising money for local community projects and raising awareness of current West African issues in England, prior to departing.
We are both becoming more and more obsessed with the idea of ‘travelling’ in a non-conventional manner. Ewan McGregor’s round the world motorbike trip ‘The Long Way Round’ is a perfect example of the type of experience we are both looking for and we both followed the progress of the teams this year with a growing sense of excitement at the possibility of being involved.
I am a graduate mechanical engineer with several years’ hands on mechanical automotive experience in motor-sport and general service. I have a range of contacts in the industry that have already indicated their willingness to provide support by way of parts and services. Our potential main sponsor has a considerable amount of experience travelling and working with local people in West and North Africa and is very keen to be involved.
I have spent 8 months living and working in the South of France and both me and my co-driver(Dave) speak French reasonably well. Dave is a photographer and between him and my brother who works in audio visual production we would be looking to use their contacts to raise money and awareness through local press, television and radio, our recently established website www.ibrakeforcake.com and would use our vehicle to generate interest at the various tracks and motor sport events I am involved with.
I am convinced that, between Dave, myself, our contacts and an appetite for a adventure we would present an organised, well supported, properly prepared team that puts at least as much back into your project as a whole as we get from the experience itself.
Regards
Team ibrakeforcake
Dear Sir
Both my co-driver and myself are looking for a challenge, an adventure and the opportunity to make a real, if small difference at a local level Gambia by importing a vehicle suitable for the local terrain, raising money for local community projects and raising awareness of current West African issues in England, prior to departing.
We are both becoming more and more obsessed with the idea of ‘travelling’ in a non-conventional manner. Ewan McGregor’s round the world motorbike trip ‘The Long Way Round’ is a perfect example of the type of experience we are both looking for and we both followed the progress of the teams this year with a growing sense of excitement at the possibility of being involved.
I am a graduate mechanical engineer with several years’ hands on mechanical automotive experience in motor-sport and general service. I have a range of contacts in the industry that have already indicated their willingness to provide support by way of parts and services. Our potential main sponsor has a considerable amount of experience travelling and working with local people in West and North Africa and is very keen to be involved.
I have spent 8 months living and working in the South of France and both me and my co-driver(Dave) speak French reasonably well. Dave is a photographer and between him and my brother who works in audio visual production we would be looking to use their contacts to raise money and awareness through local press, television and radio, our recently established website www.ibrakeforcake.com and would use our vehicle to generate interest at the various tracks and motor sport events I am involved with.
I am convinced that, between Dave, myself, our contacts and an appetite for a adventure we would present an organised, well supported, properly prepared team that puts at least as much back into your project as a whole as we get from the experience itself.
Regards
Team ibrakeforcake
Hello
This is more of a diary entry than full on post. Our search for a car continues, we've seen a couple of possibilities but we're holding out at the moment for a 4x4, as we get closer to the launch part on the 8th July this might change.
We've made contact with a schools charity called Pageant and are tentativley making arrangements to support them officially, hopefully with a tie in to the eductional consultancy firm me Mum works for, hi Mum I'm on t'internet. As part of this tie in we are planning to meet with a Gambian teacher who is in the UK for 6 weeks on a funded exchange as of the 23rd June to establish contact and find out first hand the kind of support schools in Gambia are in need of.
Glorious leader of Vegantune has sent me a relief map of the Western Sahara wich looks suspiciously like a piece of 150 grade sandpaper with a 'you are here' X and a North arrow, cheers Rich, picture to follow.
All for now, Laters.
http://www.pageant.org.uk/
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