the mongol rally - fundraising in aid of 'send a cow'

Thank you for your support ...

Julia and I would like to thank those of you who have so generously supported our cause for Send a Cow, either through your cash donations, or by giving us your unwanted junk to sell at car boot sales. Our total at our web pages at Just Giving had already passed the GBP 1,000 when we left on nthe 1st August.  So we hope to get more coming in as we travel and particularly upon our return.

If you're feeling generous, why not visit our pages at Just Giving and donated online ... click here to go to Just Giving

A flock of chicken, a beehive or some goats

Thanks to everyone's generosity, our fundraising efforts are beginning to gather momentum.  Ages ago I said that I wanted to send Old MacDonald's Farm to Africa - well, we're getting there.  Actually, we've just passed the half way mark.  So please keep it coming in!

The one thing I don't like about fundraising is the money part of it - yeah, I know its all about money but its so much nicer to think of your donations in terms of a flock of chickens (£15), half a beehive (£20) or almost a pair of goats (£100)!  Recently we started haggling with my cousin over his donation - was it to be a flock of chicken or half a beehive?  Our car boot sale experience paid off as we gently persuaded him to be more generous and he ended up giving half a beehive - it was probably helped by the amount of wine we'd already consumed.

Just a thought: hope we're giving an even number of "half beehives" otherwise there's going to be a swarm of bees without a queen,or do you think she's in the first half and doesn't have enough workers?

Am I going to be mean enough and remind another cousin that his wife said that she would donate a goat to this great cause! Yes I am, and there were witnesses!

J.

 

A BIG THANK YOU to the following people ...

A BIG thank you is in order to each of the following people for generously donating £20.00 to Send a Cow

Mr & Mrs P Bentley

Mr & Mrs S deBoehmler

Mrs L Gromett

Mr & Mrs J Hirsh

Mrs J Hirsh

An extra BIG thank you to Mr & Mrs Bill Stewart for donating £50.00

A very special THANK YOU to Lesley Leach for raising £53.69 after baking and selling her delicious cakes at work and also for baking even more cakes to help Julia with her work 'Cake Sale', which raised over £113.00.

A personal thank you to the ladies at WESTBOURNE ANIMAL FEEDS (which offers its customers one of the best, most friendly and helpful services in the whole area), for so generously getting involved with our fundraising efforts. They have raised £13.49 in loose change using the Send a Cow charity box we gave them and were so enthusiastic, they are now having another go.

Lynn, the proprietor, has also donated a £20.00 Gift Voucher (to be used against purchases in their store), which will be auctioned off to the highest bidder before we leave for Mongolia.

We are most grateful to you all. Thank you.

D.

This is how your donations help ...

It would be all too easy to become skeptical about how we as individuals can help with the high levels of suffering caused by poverty and famine in Africa these days, it has been an 'issue' for over 20 years. Even more so today, with Gordon Brown, Bono and Bob Geldof all adding to the pressing issue of how goverments could and should be helping with debt relief.

It would be all too easy to look at all of the corruption, genocide and tribal warring that goes on throughout Africa and look at what Mugabe is doing to his own people and think 'Why should I help?', if even famous people cannot solve these problems. But each of us can.

Donating to Send a Cow means that your money will go directly to those very subsistence farmers who need it most, by way of livestock and other practical farming advice. It is not wasted on organisational bureaucracy, nor does it go into the pockets of 'fat cat' goverment workers. Your money will actually buy real livestock that are suited to the harsh conditions in Africa and the very people who can use it and need it the most.

And look at the difference it can make ...

So before you go off on your summer holiday this year and spend vast amounts of money laying on your back enjoying the sun, why not help pay for 20 Chickens (£25), maybe a Beehive (£40) or even a pair of Goats (£125), which can be done via our page at www.justgiving.com/mongolrally2005, where the goverment will add 28% in 'Gift Aid' to every £1.00 you give.

Now wouldn't that make you feel better.

D.

Car boot sale part II

Felt more like a pro last weekend as we tackled our second car boot sale.  had hoped to branch out by going to Rogate, but the weather wasn’t very sympathetic to our cause, so we ended up in Chichester again.

Yet more goodies were donated during the week plus goodness know what from the attic ensured we had plenty of stuff to sell.  And this time at the boot sale we weren't going to be intimidated by the punters - but they knew how to make us feel like defenceless, trapped animals as they circled the car ready to pounce when the starting whistle went off.  Only by demanding ridiculously high prices kept them at bay.

Rather guiltily sold the Z bed – I just hope no one is really going to sleep on it, otherwise they’ll be in desperate need of a chiropractor (not my words I hasten to add, but those of the generous donor).  We still haven’t got rid of the abs machine – that's going to be a real challenge, it’ll probably need a very enticing sales campaign to shift it – a hunk with a six pack to demo would probably do the trick!  Any offers?

And despite getting rid of a mountain of “things”, the spare bedroom still looks like a junk shop – there’s plenty more for next boot sale.  And please don’t stop giving us your goodies which would otherwise be destined for the charity shop or tip – it all helps!

J.

Cakes .....yummmmmmmm!

Thanks to the generosity (or was it greed?) of my colleagues at work, we raised £115 for Send a Cow last week.  The mountain of cakes, biscuits, cheese straws and sausage rolls didn’t even survive the day – well, two pathetic pieces of shortbread did but they were soon devoured the next morning.  Some people couldn’t even wait until “opening hours” - a sorrowful email, an hour early, triggered off the descending hordes, tucking into the calories while donating pennies.  What a great way to raise money!

I have to say a big thanks to friends and colleagues who did the baking – one friend even had the cheek to rope in her mother-in-law (and then secretly admitted that it was just to keep her out of the way!).  Another didn’t think that I would be able to produce enough cakes so went overboard to ensure that we would have something edible to sell (L: now, I really know what you think of my baking!)  She wasn’t far wrong as a cake I made disintegrated as I took it out of the tin – husband and dogs didn’t complain as they wolfed down the crumbs. 

Don’t worry folks, we’ll repeat it before too long, provided I can find more volunteers.  And those of you who remember the West Street charity cake sales, my mother’s carrot cake will be on the menu (selling at a premium) but first I’ve got to twist her arm.

J.

Car Boot Virgins ...

One of our money raising schemes is to sell “stuff” at our local car boot sales.  Friends have kindly donated goodies that were either destined for a charity shop or the tip, and together with our attic junk, we decided to take a table at Chichester Car Boot Sale last Sunday.

Trust Chichester to have a civilised car boot sale – it doesn’t start until 12 noon so thank god we didn’t have to get up before the sun’s even risen.  But it does have its idiosyncrasies – you need to get there at 10-10:30 in order to claim your patch and then you’ve got over an hour to kill before the action really begins. 

Just before midday everyone’s chomping at the bit, waiting for the whistle to be blown.  Then mayhem ensues – punters swarm in while we manically unload the contents of the boot onto a table.  Its nerve-racking – potential buyers have already sussed us out, peering into the car, trying to work out what we’ve got and before we could even gather our wits, they’re in there, demanding how much things cost.  Next time we’ll take Scrumpy and Massey to protect us from the marauding crowds.

What people will buy never creases to amaze me – let alone how little they’ll pay for it.  I mean, who will buy old garden tools that have been attacked by woodworm to ‘70s Christmas decorations donated by the lovely old couple on the patch to us who couldn’t sell them themselves!  But then sellers bring the most extraordinary things to flog – old reading glasses, an ancient fish tank pump (someone wanted to use it for their outdoor pond – hummmm will they end up electrocuting themselves?) and I mustn't forget to mention a shank of old rope.  Before long I was arguing over 25p with a tight fisted punter!

Two and half hours later, we decided to call it a day, but not after successfully filling our pockets with the takings.  A great experience where I’ve probably learnt more about people than I would really like to know!

Now all we have to do is raid the attic again for another session at a car boot sale – I’ve challenged Damian to sell an unused IKEA light for more than we paid for it, well it only cost us a fiver! Rogate here we come! 

J.

If you love food, you'll love this ...

Fat Olives, our all time favourite local restaurant in Emsworth, have kindly dontated a voucher to our forthcoming fundraising auction being held on the 2nd July - its a voucher for a 3 course lunch for 4 people for the price of 2.

If there is one thing you must do this summer, it is eat at Fat Olives. And even better than that would be to eat outside in their courtyard on a glorious summer's day.

Please, don't just take my word for it, stampede your way there and beg to be let in - you'll never want to eat anywhere else afterwards. And certainly get there before A.A. Gill finds out about it.

And do go and have a look at their delicious website here Fat Olives

Pipped to the post with 16 seconds to go ...

Dare I confess, Julia and I have just spent the last three hours, one upstairs, the other in the garden room, tracking the progress of a replacement Citroen 2CV for our very recently deceased 'Charlie'.

Bidding had been very sedate for the last couple of days, with only 2 bids in, well below our 'ceiling' bid. Then suddenly a flurry of activity, in £20 and £40.00 bids - then nothing. Once again we were hooked.

15 minutes before the deadline another bid came. Suddenly, there were 3 of us in the running.

At 10 minutes we clicked refresh. And again at 5 minutes to go we clicked refresh. All seemed fine.

At 38 seconds, all seemed. Our bid within our budget.

We relaxed, just for a moment.

Then 'telecomb' swooped in, 16 seconds before the end of the bid, and outpriced us by just £40.00. We're devastated.

Old McDonald had a farm...

The other day I heard on the news that Africa is suffering especially hard this year because of the unbelievably generous way that people reacted to the Tsunami. So in our own little way, Damian and I are trying to rectify the problem by raising money for "Send a Cow."  With your help I hope that it'll be more than a little – I can hear the tins rattling as I type, or rather the silence of them (see Damian’s blog - "Don't Rattle Your Tin ..." ).

(Note to work colleagues: I’ve cheekily put a charity tin on my desk so please feel free to empty your pockets of loose change - thanks!  And it doesn't have to be a one off!)

I really like the idea of "Send a Cow" as it’s a sustainable form of giving – no money in pockets, but cows, chicken, bees, fish, oxen, goats – you name it – "Send a Cow" give to those in need.  A cow will be given to family, the milk, butter etc... can be sold in the market, giving the family some much needed extra pennies.  When the first calf is born, it's given back to the charity to give to another family so the cycle repeats itself.  Any subsequent calves born are for the family to do as they want…. helping them to help themselves.  But I love the idea that someone’s given a hive of bees or a shoal of fish – they’re not your average type of charity.

Now, if you hear me singing "Old McDonald had a farm.  And on that farm he had a cow, with a moo moo here and moo moo there ….", you know why!