On blog action day bloggers try to write about the same subject on the same day – this year on October 15th the topic is Poverty.

The one example of of the word ‘Poverty’ I found today in Abingdon was in the Oxfam shop window where you can “Bring in your unwanted M&S clothes, get a £5 M&S voucher and help to end poverty .

In the year 2000 over £50,000 was raised for the Abingdon Millenium project. It included donations from Abingdon Virginia. There is no millenium monument to show for it – no sculpture on the Market Place. Instead, the money went to help fund WaterAid projects in Ethiopia and India.

The idea came from Margaret Rickmann, who with Allan Rickmann – not the actor, left Abingdon about 4 years ago to work for VSO (voluntary Service Overseas) in the Gambia, and then in Cambodia. They did return for a couple of months in 2006 to Abingdon, UK and Margaret wrote on the Rickmann Travelog with a feeling of reverse culture shock:

Day two back in UK. An efficient but pleasant banking experience. A walk along a tarred road. Buses, no rubbish, and cool enough temperatures to walk at high speed – full toubab!

“Let’s get a bus back.” Allan stuck his hand out.

Ïn UK you need to go to a bus stop”-Ah! of course.