The Dirt Diggers Donate to Kwaimatta School

When we went up to the States in the rainy season, I of course visited my old "Garden Club" buddies.  So, we got talking about what we were doing and especially about the school in our closest village of Kwaimatta. Kwaimatta has a total of 150 people.  I talked about the saintly headmistress, Iris and all the 57 children from the age of 5 to 14 that were in her one room school. I also told them how we were always looking for ways to help, especially in the coming term when her assistant teacher would be on maternity leave.

 They wanted to help.  Linda volunteered to collect the donations and buy the supplies.  She did a fantastic job.  But how to bring it all down.  We could carry 4 suitcases.  Michele said that she had an old one she did not need.  We met for dinner and packed the suitcase.  

Of course we still had to get it into Karanambu.  You are only allowed 25lbs each on the small plane.  Even weighing with our backpacks on we would have had a big overweight bill, if they could take it at all.  But the Gods were looking down on us.  Gerald Gonsalves, who I have known since we were small boys, was our pilot.  He put up a halfhearted fight, then he checked the weights and said, "take the suitcase in". Thank you TGA! (Trans Guyana Airways). 

As it turned out all of the school children needed new shoes.  Diane and her family came to the rescue.  We collected a list from the Headmistress of all the sizes and 3 bags of shoes were flown in. As it turned out, Gerry was once again the pilot.

The day finally came.  The landrover had to make the trip to Yupakari the night before and did not come back until the next morning.  The driver had gone to sleep.  One of the other boys said, "I will drive!".  Well, he had not driven in over 2 years. Never mind that, or the steering or the gears on the landrover, all in great need of repair!  It took us an hour to drive the seven miles to Kwaimatta.

Half the village was there.

It was worth it!  The children were so excited! .

Everything was greatly appreciated.

But nobody appreciated it more than the Headmistress. Headmistress Iris said that she will carefully ration the supplies as she wants them to last all year!

Thank you Dirt Diggers!