Gibralter Prepares To Partner Vine Trust's Jubilee Appeal
It was all go today. Willie McPherson and myself were up sharp at 5.00am to catch the early flight from Gatwick to Gibralter. We were met by fellow Church of Scotland minister, Ewen McLean who took us to our hotel and then arranged for us to meet some of the local clergy. Ewen is one of a number of people in Gibralter who will be helping us with our mission. We're in Gibralter to seek to find support to help the Vine Trust raise enough money to refurbish our third ship and place it on Lake Victoria as part of the Diamond Jubilee Appeal.
After having lunch at the Methodist Church it was off to the Convent to meet up with the Governor's staff. The Convent is where the Governor stays. Over 300 years ago the British took the building from the nuns who lived there and turned it into the Governor's residence It's quite an impressive building. One always feels the sense of history in such buildings. As I passed by i saw a portrait on the wall of the Rev John Chalmers, a familiar name to those of us who are members of the Church of Scotland. However it wasn't the john Chalmers we all know as our principle clerk, it was another Rev John Chalmers of yesteryear.
Next it was a quick stop at the Gibrock ship repair yard to meet Joe Carveli. Joe's is the CEO of Gibdock. Thanks to Joe's vision and insight his company are doing a huge amount of the conversion on our third ship as part of their corporate social responsibility. It was exciting to hear about some of the plans that are a foot to raise the £300,000 to send this little boat to some of the poorest communities in Tanzania Africa. Looking round the ship it was obvious that there was still a great deal to do in order to complete the project. However Joe and his team were confident that they will be able to meet the time scales that we have in mind. Have a listen to Peter Hall, the Captain who took AH1 across the Atlantic way back in 2002. Peter is now our project manager and co-ordinator on this project. If you think you can help financial or with some of the equipment we need check out the Vine Trust web page. If you look under Tanzania i think there is a list of materials we need. www.vinetrust.org
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After the visit to the yard it was back to meetings with some government officials including the senior management team in charge of the education programme for the peninsular. Finally we had a wonderful reception laid on at the Convent at which believe it on not I met two people who had stayed at one time in Bo'ness, one of which was the Roman Catholic Bishop who once stayed in the Presbytery on Dean Road while the then parish priest was off on other duties. Its true what they say here in Bo'ness, you always meet someone when you go on your travels, who has lived or lives in the town.
