The Adventures of Kerri & Matt

Goodbye everyone!

We are officially at the airport waiting for our (already delayed) flight to Quito. Four bags full of school supplies are checked, and our (rather stuffed) backpacks are with us.

If you wish to be notified of updates to the website:

1. There is a box to put your e-mail address in beneath the second map over on the right hand sidebar of this page (Look over there ———->) which will send you an e-mail every time the webpage is updated. This seemed to work better than the WordPress subscription in my test posts.
2. All updates will be posted to both of our Facebook accounts, and to the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/kerrimatt . Following the page is redundant if you are already friends, it was set up for people that aren’t already friends because I don’t know how often we will have internet access to accept new friend requests.
3. Twitter: https://twitter.com/kerri_matt
4. RSS: https://www.kerrimatt.com/feed/
5. Snail Mail: I suppose you could sign up to have the webpage printed and delivered at http://www.netgram.com/ , but it would probably cost you more than physically following us around. So I would suggest getting with the times. (Sorry Grandma(s).)

 

If you wish to be able to comment on a post (there is a form at the bottom of each page, look down), you may want to do that within the next week while we still have reliable internet access. We have to manually approve your first comment to make sure you aren’t some spammer trying to sell sunglasses. After that you should be automatically approved to comment on any page on our website, as long as you use the same e-mail address, and unless you do something the spam filter doesn’t like.

If you don’t comment while we have internet, your comment will be trapped in internet limbo until we find internet and the time to approve you, which could be months. We’ll still read it at the same time anyway, but the rest of the world won’t be able to see it.

Thank you everyone for your kind donations. We have stuffed four bags to their maximum weight and even required some creative packing (You’d be amazed how much stuff you can fit in a puzzle box with the puzzle if you solve the puzzle first!) and some difficult decisions about which books to leave behind when we were overweight.

The approximate count (I stopped keeping track at about the 30th trip to the scale):

Colour Pencils	3 boxes + Bag of used
Crayons	10 boxes + Bag of used
Dry-Erase Markers	4
Erasers	40
Glue Sticks	4
Handheld Pencil Sharpeners	11
Pencils	272
Pens	48
Protractors	3
Rulers	9
Solar Calculators	5
Book Bags	2
Dictionaries and Encyclopaedias	1
Thesaurus	1
Flash Cards:	2
English children’s books	Too many to count
General Science books	A few
Language/Grammar books	A few
Watercolour paints	1 pack
Paint brushes	10
Beads	3 lbs
Buttons	1 lb
Craft glue	8
Craft scissors	2
Puzzles	9
Harmonicas	1
Recorders	1
Frisbees	1
Inflation pumps	1
Soccer Balls	4
New or Gently Used Children’s Clothing and Shoes	16 lbs
Stuffed animals/soft toys	Enough to stuff the rest of the bags when they weighed too much
Science kits	2
Mini stapler	2
staples	2 boxes
Miscellaneous Science Kits	2

Again we would like to thank you all for your donations.

Because our bags are carry on only, we have the opportunity to use our baggage allowance (Max 4 bags 50lbs each) for the first flight to deliver school supplies to a rural school/daycare serving low income families in Ecuador in coordination with Pack for a Purpose http://www.packforapurpose.org/. 

We are looking for new/gently used:

• Large Suitcases/duffel bags to carry everything (These don’t have to be gently used, just capable of surviving one last trip through the baggage handlers, possibly with some help from the cellowrap people at the airport.)
• General School Supplies:
  • Colored Construction Paper
  • Colored Pencils
  • Crayons
  • Dry-Erase Markers
  • Erasers
  • Glue Sticks
  • Handheld Pencil Sharpeners
  • Pencils, Pens
  • Protractors
  • Rulers
  • Solar Calculators 
  • Book Bags
• Reference Materials:
  • (English and Spanish) Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
• Flash Cards:
  • (English and Spanish) Alphabet and Word

• Wall Charts:
  • (English and Spanish) Human Body, Language, Math, Science, and World Maps
• Text/Reading Books:
  • Age Appropriate Story Books
    • 6 months to 5 years Spanish only
    • 6 years – 12 years, English and Spanish.
  • General Science, Language/Grammar, and Math
• Art Supplies:
  • Acrylic Paints, Acrylic Paint Brushes, Beads for Bead Work, Buttons, Craft Glue, Craft Scissors, Earring Hooks, Gage Wire, Sewing Needles, Thread, and Watercolor Paints and Paint Brushes
• Computer Hardware/Software:
  • Solar-Powered Working Laptops and Working Laptops
• Educational Games/Toys:
  • Bananagrams, Chess Sets, Connect Four, Puzzles, and Scrabble
• Musical Instruments:
  • Harmonicas/Kazoos, Maracas, and Recorders and Tambourines
• Sports/Outdoor Activity:
  • Frisbees, Inflation Pumps, Jump Ropes, Netball/Basketballs, and Soccer Balls
• New or Gently Used Children’s Clothing and Shoes 
• First Aid/Health:
  • Band-Aids, Sanitary Napkins, and Tampons
• Games/Toys:
  • Puzzles and Stuffed Animals/Soft Toys

 

Please contact us if you have anything to donate and we will arrange to pick it up.

Thanks,

Matt & Kerri