Hastings Sierra Leone Friendship Link

Here are the answers to this winter’s quiz sheet. Two contestants tied for first place with 69 points: Anne Buchan and Paul Emerson, both from Hastings & St Leonards. Ralph Dellow of Sedlescombe came third with 68 points. Congratulations to them, and commiserations to everyone who sweated over the clues but didn’t do quite as well. If you need more explanations, drop a line to secretary.hslfl@gmail.com
1) yellow (polka dot bikini)
2) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
3) burgundy (anagram)
4) The Crimson Pirate (Burt Lancaster as Captain Vallo)
5) Olive Oyl
6) Violet Bonham Carter (anagram)
7) camel (alternate letters of ‘claim jelly’)
8 ) yellow (yell ‘Ow!’)
9) dun (to dun = (i) to press for payment (ii) greyish brown )
10) taupe (taupe = brownish-grey, from French for ‘mole’. Sounds like ‘tope’ = to drink hard regularly. Greek letter tau + PE)
11) cerise (sire backwards inside CE)
12) tangerine (woman from Tangiers)
13) gunmetal (anagram of glutamine, minus ‘i’)
14) Little Boy Blue (fast asleep against haystack)
15) indigo (anagram)
16) agent orange (a gent + Orange, a France Telecom subsidiary. Agent orange = herbicide/defoliant used by US in Vietnam)
17) Follow the Yellow Brick Road (from Wizard of Oz)
18) a red square (in Scrabble. X scores 8, but 24 on a red square)
19) burnt sienna (Sienna Miller, minor actress)
20) The Scarlet Pimpernel (anagram – ‘we seek him here, we seek him there…’)
21) Steel Magnolia (Meghan Linsey + Joshua Scott Jones)
22) Anton Mauve (or Anthonij Mauve, married to Van Gogh’s cousin)
23) Lavender (Lavender & Old Lace, novel by Myrtle Reed , 1902)
24) The Pink Panther (anagram of paprik + then + then)
25) orange (no = 0 , Aga = brand name of famous cooking range)
26) Jimmy White (unsuccessful World Snooker Championship finalist 6 times)
27) sepia (cuttlefish ink)
28) knock down ginger (prank, when children knock on doors and run off)
29) brown study (= deep thought)
30) Snow White
31) magenta (Maj + enter!)
32) Ruby Tuesday (‘Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday’ released in 1967)
33) vermilion (vermin minus –n, plus lion)
34) navy blue
35) carmine
36) Long John Silver
37) Auburn (Name of village in Oliver Goldsmith’s poem ‘The Deserted Village’)
38) Forever Amber (1944 romantic novel by Kathleen Winsor)
39) The Gold Rush (with Charlie Chaplin as ‘The Tramp’)
40) khaki (= car key. A khaki election is one called during a war)
41) puce (E-cup backwards! A Brian Tomblin classic, this one)
42) Green Grow the Lilacs (novel by Lynn Riggs that was basis of libretto of ‘Oklahoma!’)
43) Black Monday (Wall Street Crash + Stock Market Crash)
44) Lady Jane Grey (reigned 10-19 July 1553)
45) The Purple Rose of Cairo (film in which characters step down from screen into real world)
46) turquoise (anagram of ‘quite sour’)
47) lilywhite (one nickname of Tottenham Hotspurs)
48) ivory (ivories = piano keys)
49) sage
50) maroon
51) copper
52) plum (Little Jack Horner…said ‘What a good boy am I…’ and pulled out a plum)
53) The Buffs
54) rose madder
55) cochineal
56) Black Rod
57) cobalt (hidden word)
58) alizarin (a + lizard without the –d + in: alizarin is a red colouring agent)
59) Green Goddess
60) cinnabar moth (cinnabar = sulphide of mercury, called vermilion when used as a pigment.)
61) Jack in the Green
62) Ruggles of Red Gap (also in cast: Charles Ruggles, American actor)
63) tawny owl (tawny port)
64) The Bluecoat School
65) once in a blue moon (= a rare extra full moon, because the solar calendar has about 11 days more than the lunar year)
66) pink (Lily the Pink was a Christmas hit for The Scaffold in 1968)
67) Knees Up Mother Brown
68) White City
69) Red Square (in Moscow)
70) ultramarine (US Marines are nicknamed ‘jarheads’ probably because of their haircuts)

Local schools have just presented the Link with a cheque for an astonishing £1500. Most of the fundraising has come from THE SHOW – Hastings & Rother Number One Youth Charity Show which involves most of the secondary and

The Show in 2009

primary schools in Hastings, St Leonards and Rother. The Show is a fusion of dance, drama and music and is coordinated by Helenswood School (which specialises in the performing arts), though it is very much a collaborative affair.
Funds were raised from the box office ticket sales, sales of DVDs (of the show), T-Shirt sales and mufti days in schools.
The date for the next Show is Wednesday 9th February 2011. Please put that date in your diaries!

As Sussex Coast College Hastings was finally closing the old Archery Road site on Thursday 30th September, it kindly allowed local charities to have their pick of furniture that hadn’t been auctioned off. A team from the Link, using a box-van generously loaned to us free by The Ridge West Garage, spent a hectic day dismantling library shelving and carting off enough shelving, chairs, tables and electric fans to equip the new library in the Twin Towns Centre in Hastings Village. Our Sierra Leonean friends in London have organised shipment, and the shelves have been reassembled in the Twin Town Centre library.

Meanwhile, the new shelves need filling with books! If you have any books to spare – for adults or children – please let us know through this website. We’re told that they’d particularly appreciate books for GCSE or A-level, but children’s stories and classics would be good, too.

Ray dismantling shelving at the old HCAT site

Ernie & Robin pausing for breath

Getting the furniture ready to transport

Hastings people were once again generous in their support of the Link. Sainsbury’s kindly allowed us to collect at the door of their St Leonards superstore, and that raised £461 in two days (17th & 18th September). Thanks to everyone who put money in our tins – and that included lots of children, who probably know about Hastings Sierra Leone through a schools link, now that there are 7 schools here paired with schools in the Hastings SL area.

Paul & Carole on our stand

Derek & Jeremy

Miki at Sainsbury's

Supporters Lynda and Colin Foy have put together a glossy page-per-month planner/calendar for 2011, full of the spirit of Hastings and seaside fun. The calendars are available from the HIC (Hastings’ tourist office) at £10 each. All that money will come to the Friendship Link – thank you, Colin and Linda!

It was almost an African sun that shone on this year’s Singathon and contributed to the party atmosphere. Amber Rudd MP managed to get the BBC’s excellent Paul Siegert along to open proceedings. Paul reminded us that he had been a young reporter on the Hastings Observer, and assured us that the Observer is the best local newspaper in the country! He gave a brief account of the background to the link between the two Hastings, and the suffering inflicted on Sierra Leone and on Hastings Village by a decade of civil war.

The entertainment was varied, from home-grown talent like Gizmo, Sambalanco, South East Stars and the eye-poppingly energetic This Time Around to the authentic West African rythms of King Mascoe and his dancers. Those who came for more traditional choral music were very pleased with the performances of Soundwaves and the new Big Choir, both singing under Roger Wilcock’s expert baton, and everyone was charmed by singer-guitarist Christophe Phillips, who sent the audience home in a mellow frame of mind.

The stage acts were punctuated by a number of interviews with people actively working with and for Hastings Village. Rose Pelling described the remarkable link that Christ Church School has with Kankaylay Islamic School. Kankaylay’s self-build new school now has a roof on, thanks to funds raised by the children at Christ Church. Kevin Boorman spoke movingly of what he saw when a small delegation went out on a Government funded visit to see how our local authority could support local government in the area around Hastings SL. The Sierra Leonean High Commissioner in London, Mr Edward Turay, brought greetings from the President of Sierra Leone and his government’s thanks for the help that Hastings & St Leonards has given over the years. During the afternoon, Mr Turay and his wife met our Mayor, Cllr Kim Forward, Cllrs Jeremy Birch and Peter Pragnell, Roy Mawford and Kevin Boorman of the Borough Council, the Link’s patron Michael Foster, and many of the Link’s supporters. Meanwhile, ex-pat Sierra Leoneans and Hastings families picnicked on the grass in the glorious sunshine and enjoyed the entertainment inside and outside the big marquee.  The Link is very grateful to the Beer Festival Committee and its volunteers for making the facilities available, and to all those who came along and enabled the Link to raise another £1620 towards the regeneration work in Hastings Village. The next event is the inter-schools 7-a-side tournament at Filsham Valley School on Friday 16th July at 1.30pm. See you there!

Roger Wilcock introduces BBC reporter Paul Segert to open Singathon 2010

The High Commissioner and Mrs Turay meet Kevin Boorman & Roy Mawford (HBC), Cllr Peter Pragnell (Link Chairman) and Mayor Cllr Kim Forward

Sambalanco

Rhys Boorman very bravely ran this year’s Hastings Half Marathon to raise funds for the Link, wearing a genuine SL athletics vest that his dad, Kevin, brought back from the trip to Hastings SL earlier this month. Rhys ran the course in a very creditable 96mins 39 secs. We don’t know yet how much he raised for us. If you want to chip in even now to help swell Rhys’s total, let Kevin Boorman know at the Town Hall or kboorman@hastings.gov.uk. Thanks!

Extract from Commons Hansard on 30 March 2009

Michael Jabez Foster (Hastings and Rye) (Lab): I guess that we do not need reminding—although it is always worth doing so—that the economic tsunami that is now engulfing our world metes out its worst effects to those who are the least able to defend themselves. That includes many of the nations of Africa, including Sierra Leone. We heard a lot about that country from my hon. Friend the Member for Crosby (Mrs. Curtis-Thomas) earlier.
I believe that we need to keep things simple. A combination of trade and aid is needed, but the sub-plot is the question of how we can best deliver this to the greatest effect. Whether we are combating climate change or relieving poverty, it starts with us as individuals. What we do can make a significant difference. I am ever impressed by the work of the fair trade advocates. For example, in my constituency, Christine and Michael Ward knock on our doors and our consciences, reminding us constantly that, for only a few pennies more, we can purchase fairly traded tea, coffee and other products, which gives hope and opportunity to the growers in the third world that would otherwise be denied to them.
I also recognise that helping to build undeveloped economies, while important, does not resolve the concerns of the here and now. Starving children cannot wait for the upturn in the economy. That is why I am delighted by the comment by our Prime Minister that, even in this difficult time, the wealthy nations must play their part. I hope that the G20 will make that resolution. The test will be that they will have failed if they do not recognise the needs of Africa as a priority. As a Labour Member, I am obviously justifiably proud that we have trebled the spend on overseas programmes over the past 12 years, and that we are now the second biggest giver of international aid in the world. However, I would still like us to go for the gold as soon as possible.
It is true that, while Government agencies and non-governmental organisations such as World Vision do an amazing job, concern is frequently expressed about how much of the aid reaches its proper destination, and about how much corruption depletes the value of the giving. I am often reminded of the words of the late, lamented Lord Donald Soper, a Christian socialist who was a great hero of mine. He spent much of his time standing on a soap box at Speakers’ Corner. One Sunday, one of the wags in the audience asked him why we should give overseas aid, when half of it never reached the poor. Lord Soper replied that that was a reason for giving twice as much. I think he had a point.
However, there is a better way of making every pound count, and of reducing administrative costs and the risk of corruption. I know that the British Government have been working hard on this, and if it can all be done, it will provide a better answer. I heard my hon. Friend the Member for Crosby explaining earlier some of the administrative quandaries—indeed, the nightmare of problems—that Government projects sometimes take on and their failing to produce the intended outcomes.
I modestly suggest that there is a way of pursuing those objectives, at least at the bottom end. In fact, there are probably two ways of providing direct action and support. The first is remittances. Expatriates of many African countries—and, I suspect, of elsewhere—send part of their hard-earned earnings directly back to the families they left behind. There is nothing wrong with that. Going as it does directly to the families in need, it is estimated to account for twice the value of our overseas aid budget. At some time in the future, we could perhaps consider the possibility of providing tax relief on such payments, although I acknowledge the difficulty of ensuring proper tax compliance.
The second and direct way of offering support is from community to community. Over the past eight years, I have been involved with the Hastings-Sierra Leone friendship link. If you would like to know more about it, Madam Deputy Speaker, you can look at www.hastingshastings.org.uk, but I will try to tell you a little about it in the remaining minutes.
First, we are not the only town in Britain to be involved in twinning projects. My hon. Friend the Member for Crosby was at the vanguard in her efforts to drive and support links between Crosby and Waterloo in Sierra Leone. Her motivational leadership—I was going to say that she chairs the committee, but my hon. Friend does not really chair anything; she motivates, harangues and ensures that things happen—helped to achieve that. That is a practical example of what can happen. I believe that a £1 million library is being built, but school libraries are already in place and 250,000 books have been delivered, all aiding and supporting the education of young people in that town.
I would like to say a little more about our twinning experience in Hastings, how it came about and what it has made possible. I hope that the Government will feel able to encourage more such links, as they really work. Back in 2001, following the end of the civil war in Sierra Leone, I had cause to be in the lift—a very slow lift—just by the Dining Room with my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Kilfoyle), who was a Defence Minister at the time. He told me he had just come back from Hastings, Sierra Leone, and the town was in a terrible mess; he asked whether we could do something about it. It so happened that, some months previously, the then British high commissioner, Sir Peter Penfold, had suggested that members of the peacekeeping forces contact UK towns with the same message—namely, that they should try to contact towns of a similar name in Sierra Leone and see what could be done.
Such a message came to Hastings via a young officer known as Wayne Addy, a young man from nearby Sedlescombe. Nothing happened at that time, but when it was added to by the entreaty of my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton, it fell on ready ears. I approached Dr. John Geater, chairman of the local Christian charity, LOAF. LOAF Project had recently built a school in Rwanda and an orphanage in Romania, so it had experience in developing countries. LOAF adopted Hastings, Sierra Leone, as its 2001 project and enlisted the support of local engineer Derek Tomblin, who in the years since has been superb in offering his expertise and enthusiasm to the cause. Derek travelled to Sierra Leone and identified some 13 bridges that needed total rebuilding, restoring or upgrading. LOAF appealed to the Hastings and St. Leonards community—schools, churches, businesses and so forth—to sponsor a bridge; and a generous community responded.
A group calling itself the Hastings-Sierra Leone Friendship Link was then organised to ensure continuity when LOAF moved on to another project. Within three years those bridges were built, assisting the locals of Hastings Sierra Leone to move more freely around the district, to travel into Freetown and to rebuild the devastation that the civil war had caused. While the idea was that of Derek Tomblin and the plans came from him, the building was done by local labour: that was what was so important. Derek Tomblin and all those involved, however, were not content with simply a one-off project; they wanted a long-term relationship—a reciprocal relationship whereby Hastings UK could learn as well as give.
We discovered an ex-pat Sierra Leone group in London, known as the Sierra Leone-Hastings Association UK. The leading lights of that organisation, Yvonne Johnson and Yvette John, were more than ready to come to Hastings UK and over the years that followed, we have regularly enjoyed community events with African music and food in our parks and in our community centres. It has been fun, but it has also enabled us not just to pay for those 13 bridges but to proceed with a major project to build a community resource centre. The centre, designed by Derek Tomblin with local input, is now virtually complete, and should be operational by the end of the year.
Most important, in 2006, Hastings Borough Council, under the then Labour leadership of Councillor Jeremy Birch—who is now the chair of the Sierra Leone friendship link—decided to pursue the idea of a formal twinning with its namesake in Sierra Leone. We have a number of other twins in Europe. This will be very different, but the commitment was absolute. Although political control of the town changed subsequently, the whole-town understanding was maintained. The new leader of what was now a Conservative council, Councillor Peter Pragnell—along with the deputy mayor, Eve Martin, and with the support of the mayor, Maureen Charlesworth—took part in the formal twinning ceremony on 14 February 2007 in Sierra Leone, which I was happy to attend.
This has become a genuine all-party project including people across the political spectrum. For example, the Liberal Democrats’ Paul Smith was also involved. The formal twinning gives status and structure to the arrangement, but it is the day-to-day work under the wise guidance of Robin Gray, secretary of the Friendship Link, that has enabled us to make a difference. Indeed, the social interaction between the two towns has been almost as important as the direct financial aid. For example, Roger Mitchell and his wife Margaret have been very much involved in linking schools. Seven of our Hastings schools are now linked with seven schools in Hastings, Sierra Leone. Recently, Chris Lacey of Helenswood school handed over a cheque for £6,098. That money was raised by the young people as a contribution to the cost of providing a community nurse in Hastings Sierra Leone. Of course, every penny will be spent for that purpose.
Another fine example is the twinning of Christ Church School—I stress that it is a Church of England school—with Kankaylay Islamic school in Hastings, Sierra Leone. Although Christ Church is a Christian school, when it learnt that about £11,000 was needed to buy land and rebuild Kankaylay—a lot can be done for £11,000 in Sierra Leone—that Christian organisation set about raising the money. It has already raised about half of it, the land has been bought, and over the coming months Christ Church School will seek to raise the building costs.
Arrangements of that kind will work because of the involvement of local people. It is not organisational and it does not require Government intervention, although Government support would be very helpful. What matters is the existence of an organisation that is “grass roots” in the obvious way that I have described. Anne Hanney, head teacher of that school in St Leonards, was part of the original twinning party. She recently arranged for a further group from Christ Church School to visit Sierra Leone with the support of the Creative Partnership project. Three members of her staff—Anne Sapolyo, Rose Pelling and Tania Kavanagh—were involved in a week of activities at the Islamic school, teaching and learning not just lessons but games, and bringing back ideas, which are now being used successfully at Christ Church. That is a fine illustration of the fact that the link can work in both directions.
The school links have been fun as well. I recall that at the time of the twinning Veriko Scrivener, a teacher from Elphinstone School in Hastings, composed a song called “I Love Hastings” . It was amazing to see all the little African children from Hastings Sierra Leone singing in unison, joined by Hastings school children.
I could have described much more if I had had time to do so. Conquest Hospital in Hastings has been sending surplus medical supplies. Gary Walsh of the East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service not only went to Hastings, but has since been offering training opportunities and advice to its Sierra Leone counterpart. The police have formed a link, as have churches.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: Will my hon. Friend say a few words about the benefit of the twinning to citizenship, and about the growing understanding of faiths between the two communities?
Michael Jabez Foster: It is right that in Hastings, Sierra Leone, and Sierra Leone generally, there is a two-faith society, Christian and Muslim. What impressed me was that, in all their public affairs, both the Muslims and the Christians are part of the show. I asked why it  was that they get on so well, and a Roman Catholic priest made it clear that it was down to respect. That might be something we can learn from.
This face-to-face, town-to-town, school-to-school contact is so different from putting money in a box, and as I said at the beginning, every pound raised goes to the purpose, and it goes with love. It so happens that Hastings UK is one of the poorest towns in Britain—indeed, it is among the 30 poorest—and thus we appreciate that the cash we can offer will always be limited. But as Mr. Kamara, the head teacher of the Kankaylay Islamic school, said on the recent visit,
“no help is too small to make an impact on rebuilding hope”.
We certainly hope that our small contribution will make a difference to our fellow world citizens in Hastings, Sierra Leone, and I commend the twinning concept to all.
If anyone feels enthused to join in the celebration, we in Hastings UK can offer barn dances, and on 4 July there will be a town-wide sing-song in Alexandra Park, to which all are welcome.

Second Annual Soccer Event Celebrates our Twinning with Hastings Sierra Leone in Style

Eight of our primary schools in Hastings and St Leonards celebrated their links with schools in Hastings Sierra Leone on Friday 10 July with the second annual 7-a-side soccer tournament.

The tournament was held at Filsham Valley School, being the secondary school in the Borough with links to a secondary school in Sierra Leone. The afternoon was bright and breezy in every way and the floods of two days before had drained away leaving the ground pleasantly soft.

The event was brilliantly hosted and organised by Teresa Bennett, Filsham Valley School’s Sports Coordinator and by Dave Amiet, Community Project Manager with the County’s Fire and Rescue Services.

Each team was allocated a trainer for the afternoon and all the match officials were either students at Filsham Valley or members of the Fire and Rescue Services.

Schools entered teams of boys and of girls. The boys’ tournament was organised on a two-pool basis with play-offs to decide the final winners.  In Pool A, Blacklands were the clear winners with the second place having to be decided on goal difference between Sandown and St Leonards. The winner of Pool B was hotly contested between Little Ridge and St Mary Star of the Sea. The former just edged ahead on goal difference. In the play-off final Little Ridge emerged victorious for the second year running. As there were fewer girls’ teams their event was played on an all-play-all basis and here again the winning margin was narrow. St Mary Star of the Sea with 17 points ended just clear of Elphinstone with 15 points. Other teams of boys’ and girls’ battling it out though the afternoon were from Christ Church, Robsack Wood and Sandown.

Filsham Valley students provided English-style refreshments while Sierra Leonean friends from London brought with them a selection of African delicacies.

The Mayor, Cllr Maureen Charlesworth, opened the afternoon’s events and we were greatly honoured that the High Sheriff of the County, Mr Bill Shelford, made the presentations of medals and trophies.

Every participant received a ‘silver’ medal with the Sierra Leonean flag embossed upon it while the winning teams received similar medals in ‘gold’. The winning schools also received a shield to hold for a year until next year’s tournament. Medals and shields were again generously donated by a good Friend of the Hastings SL Link.

PLEASE NOTE that the date for the 2010 Seven-a-side tournament at Filsham Valley School is Friday July 16th.

2008

Friday 9th May Ernie and Stella organised a terrific Barn Dance and Supper in the Civil Service Sports Club. Music was provided brilliantly by the Catsfield Steamers, and over all we cleared £388 profit.

Friday 8th Feb. We ran our first Quiz Night in the White Rock Theatre.  Nola McSweeney begged enough food from generous local shops to provide a Ploughman’s Supper for 150 people. Jeremy Birch acted as jovial quizmaster, Jim McSweeney did the maths, Kylie’s Carpets kindly provided bottles of wine as prizes, a good time was had by all – and we cleared £702 profit! 

2007
Working together with Michael Foster, the Link produced a great Christmas card which was really a charity card with a difference. Thanks to Michael’s generosity, for every pack of 10 cards sold for £3.50, at least £2 went straight to the building project to ‘put the heart back into Hastings SL’.

Saturday 20th October
The Link staged an exhibition in Priory Meadow shopping mall from 9.30 to 5.30 and a generous Hastings public chipped in another £300.

Saturday 1st September
Fire Service Marathon Ladder Carry
Hastings firefighters ran up and down the seafront and through the town centre carrying a huge ladder. They raised £2924 to be divided between the Link and the Kipling Ward at the Conquest.

Friday 3rd August
The highlight of the year was the visit from the Milton Margai Blind School Choir. No-one who heard them sing will ever forget it. the youngsters themselves had a great time, as we took them to the Stade Amusements in the afternoon. It’s scary being in a bumper car driven by a blind teenager!

Monday 7th May
The LOAF walk was a great success that year. We raised over £8388!
Saturday 24th March
A Dinner Dance was held at the Phoenix Arts Centre in Parkstone Road, Hastings with music by King Mascoe and amazing West African food by Yvonne John and her team.