We were thrilled to hear about the appointment of Ali Sallah as head teacher of the resource base (school). We wish him success and are confident that the children and the school will make good progress.

Ali told us: "Hope that this time round when you come there shall be a more intensive training for the staff as we missed very much such trainings since last time David conducted one with us." So David is working on including this into the programme when the latest Dales Team reaches the Gambia in late January 2010.

Ali reported that he is still limping following the motorcycle accident he had last year. He was one of the itinerant (peripatetic) teachers at the school. The former head teacher, Sarjo Bajinka, has been transferred to the government's Special Needs Education Department.

We had a great time at Tennants on Thursday, September 17: the music thanks to Rick Dickerlous and friends was thoroughly enjoyable - and memorable; and Rodney Tennant worked very hard to try and get good prices for all the auction bids. So not only did quite a few people go home with some good buys but we also raised at least £3,165 of which £917.77 came from the raffle and donations.

We are very grateful to Eric Shepherd and Frank Knowles who took the photographs shown in the video show below. A video of Rick Dickerlous and the Outrage in action has been posted on YouTube.

Our sincerest thanks to all those who donated auction lots, raffle prizes, and came and supported us.

Click below to see a video slide show of the event:

April soon arrived and it was time to visit the school, once again loaded down with equipment, one Braille machine (always needed) and two computers with screens, keyboards and mouse. These had been donated by the Chief Constable of the Norfolk Constabulary.