BPG is robbed

For the past year I have been collecting clothes and bric-à-brac for a very big fair where I will have a stall for three days. The idea being that the proceeds from sales will be donated to my favourite charity.  As the date of this huge event draws nigh – it is The Steam Fair at Fawley – I have been washing and ironing and getting ready the huge piles of clothes and toys andbric-à-brac ready for selling.

This morning I went to my garage to take more newly laundered clothes in… only to find that thieves have pretty well stolen the lot.

I am so desperately upset. This is my big event for raising money for the Thai Children’s Trust. They do the most wonderful work and support hundreds of children. What started with an American priest called Father Ray having two children dumped on his doorstep, has now turned into the most amazing organisation. “We never turn a needy child away” is their motto, and indeed they don’t. I have volunteered out there and seen for myself the gentle care of children born with HIV. I have laughed and played with orphans – some with huge disabilities, some blind, some deaf. I have seen the refugee camps where children are shoved across a river from Burma to Thailand just so they can get an education.  And I have taught Thai prostitutes English in a effort to help them look after their children and get a better job.

So it was that, with a lot of help and generosity from my friends, all the clothes and toys and bric-à-brac were ready for sale. And now some scumbags have broken into my garage and taken everything of value.

How I wish I could explain to them – these selfish greedy people – how lucky they are to live here with benefits, free schooling, free meals, free medicine. Not much comes free in Thailand and yet they are a charming race – gentle, with a great sense of humour and grateful for everything.

I shall continue to be positive and start collecting again. There is one thing that makes me smile however. And that is the thieves took a very heavy safe which was in my garage.  I bet they thought they had hit the jackpot. The joke is there is nothing in it. Except the instructions which I inadvertently left in there and closed the door!

CALLING COUNTRYWIVES’ READERS WHO LIVE IN THE HENLEY AREA: If anyone wants to donate any clothes or toys please contact Annabel and she will arrange collection. Thank you in advance. The Fawley Fair is held on the third weekend of May, so time is of the essence!