School Supplies Delivered

Tuesday, March 16

The next morning, we returned to Port Elizabeth to begin the distribution of school supplies which we had previously shipped to Bequia with the food hamper supplies. Over the course of the morning, we visited and delivered a large box of office and school supplies to four Bequia pre-schools, four elementary schools (including the Sunshine School for Children with Special Needs), and the two secondary schools. As in past years, the school deliveries also included printer cartridges which we had carried down with us, after corresponding with each school as to their specific needs. While they are fairly expensive, even in Canada, the cartridges (and the box of photocopy paper that each school received), are badly needed and much appreciated, as the government-issued supplies often run out well before the student exams need to be printed. This was underscored by the following email which I received from Ms. Quashie (Principal of the Bequia Community High School) while we were in the midst of making our rounds to the various schools.

“Dear Mr.Bird: I was at the school yesterday and overheard Mr.Tannis saying that the schools will be getting their supplies today. I am patiently awaiting your delivery as we are doing exams at the moment and we are out of ink so I will be very grateful if I can get the cartridges. Sorry to seem to be rushing you but I hope you will understand.”

When we arrived at the school, only minutes later with their supplies, she laughed and agreed that when approached by a school in need, the Bequia Mission delivers in a timely manner!

One of the more memorable stops on our delivery rounds this morning was to the new Bequia Anglican Primary School, where we were met by our old friend, Principal Madge Hazell. By comparison to the rambling old one-story building that the students used to be crowded into (and particularly the very small temporary facility that had housed the school for the past two years), the expansive, two-storey building which they moved into at the beginning of the school year is an almost incomprehensible leap forward. We also visited the adjoining pre-school room, which was no doubt a badly-needed addition to the school (and which will apparently be a feature all new government-constructed schools).

The pre-school program is being run by Sylvester Tannis’ daughter, Rochelle, and two assistants - one of which is Doccy Gregg, who has long been involved with Bequia Mission projects on the island. Doccy was the original manager of the Adult Workshop which the Armstrongs had established many years ago in the Harbour, although in recent years she has operated her own pre-school out of her home in Friendship. We had shipped a box of supplies to Doccy’s Pre-School, but instead, delivered them to her for use in her new classroom at the Anglican Primary School.

That afternoon, we delivered the print cartridges and supplies for the Paget Farm Government School out to the south side of the island, and on the way back, visited the tiny, hillside home of Mrs. Christine Hanson. Christine is a spirited, although somewhat frail, lady of seventy-eight, who lives alone, just above Holy Cross (Ron Armstrong’s former church) in Paget Farm. One of her feet had become quite badly swollen, making it difficult to get around, and almost impossible for her to negotiate the extremely steep path down to the main road.

I had first visited Christine a couple of days earlier, while delivering food hampers, and had noted that the siding boards along the front of her house had rotted to the point where there was not much left to keep out the wind and the rain. During our follow-up visit, as Lyle, Debbie and I examined the rest of the structure we discovered that, in fact, the back of the house was in even more dire need of repair. The rotted siding had been covered over with rusting pieces of galvanized metal and scraps of wood, while an inspection from the inside (Christine’s bedroom) revealed that several of the studs, and both top and bottom plates, had disintegrated to the point where we soon realized that there was perilously little solid wood supporting the roof! To make matters worse, an aging linoleum floor and scraps of carpet could not hide the fact that there were serious issues with the floor, which sagged unnervingly under each of our steps.
Our measurements revealed the dimensions of the small frame structure was 18 x 22 feet, and after performing a rough estimate of the amount of lumber we would need to make it sound again, we returned to the Harbour to order the supplies. Upon visiting the Caribbean Woods Ltd. lumber yard in Ocar Reform, we were met by owner David (I can’t recall his last name, but he is the same gentleman who gave us a modest deal on lumber and supplies for the renovation of Ainsley Farrell’s house last year). He was equally accommodating upon learning of the charitable nature of this year’s project, and we agreed to pick up the supplies the following morning.