Jill Gurr

Toni Vaughan is one of our GX teammates from Belfast. I grew closer to her during our Belfast phase. She works for Barnardo’s and has been happily married to Chickey for 13 years. He’s an IT tech for the Belfast City Council, and is an absolute sweetheart!

They live in a beautiful big “Craftsman” house built around 1920. It has four rooms and a bathroom upstairs, with a dining room, two living rooms, toilet and kitchen on the ground floor. There is exquisite built-in decor throughout the house, and Toni has enhanced it with her own unique style.

The house overlooks the ocean on one side…

…and Toni’s garden next to an agricultural field with hills on the other.

Toni and Chickey hosted three of our GX partners: Mary, Jessica and Sbonello. They were amazing hosts. Chickey cooked scrumptious meals, and cleaned the dishes!

It was my favorite place to hang out. They threw Rafiki a surprise birthday party (with Jessica, Mary and Martha baking the cake).

They even gave me a surprise belated birthday party, since my birthday was on February 25th (in between our journeys to South Africa and Northern Ireland). Toni and Chickey’s house became like a second home to me, filled with love, warmth, delicious food and drink, and stimulating conversation with brilliant people.

My host Kelly Colbert liked hanging out with us too, and now she and Toni plan to stay in touch.

I had some amazing conversations with Jessica while I was there…

… Along with everyone else. I’ll always treasure the memories of the time that I spent with Toni and Chickey (and all of my other friends too) at their house!