Day 8

The distribution of books begins. 24 communities will now receive various amounts of books to use for projects ranging from primary school libraries to mobile book mobiles. Please look for stories from these various organizations, as they are a truly amazing account of the efforts that

locally managed organizations are making in Africa. I will re-post them as the relevant pictures become available.

Meet Kashe. She is a teacher at Bulera Primary School (and mother of the cutest child in the world), which received a donation of 1400 primary leisure and textbooks thanks to the efforts of their Returned Peace Corps Volunteer Margaret Mimnaugh. Kashe made the trip into the nearest town to their village (Mityana) early Tuesday morning to pickup 30 boxes (!!!). Thank you Kashe and Margaret!

The real story of Bulera Primary School (from PCV Margo):

When I arrived at Bulera Primary school in April 2008 it was very apparent to me that the families, children and teachers living in the village of Bulera, Uganda had a deep passion for learning. After spending a year in the village, working with teachers and students to develop literacy programs, we were all very eager to do more. Book clubs, group readings, spelling bees, book reports, and creating our own stories, were just a few of the ways we worked as a family to expand literacy and knowledge in the village. I had spoken to the teachers about developing a library but it seemed almost impossible with the daily obstacles we faced in the village to survive. Together, with the teachers of Bulera Primary School, we worked together to write and submit a grant through the United States Peace Corps to build and sustain a functional library; what would be the first library ever created in the village of Bulera and all surrounding villages in Mityana District.

After months of preperation and discussion, the grant was submitted and approved! The students and staff worked tirelessly to make our dream of a library become a reality. Children carried bricks to school on their heads, teachers worked long hours after class to clear the land, parents walked from miles around to see the progress of our dream! In October 2009 the library was complete and I began working with the teachers to develop the skills necessary to sustain the library on their own. Students were also involved in the entire process to ensure that they knew this library belonged to them. Several students painted murals and handprints on the walls to make it their own. When then training and building was complete we began letting students into the library; and knowledge into their minds. Now that Bulera Primary School had the capacity to hold books we still needed the books themselves. With the help of Books for Africa, friends and family in the U.S. and devoted fellow Peace Corps Volunteers like Eric Myers, we have successfully delivered over 1400 children's books to the library at Bulera Primary School. The teachers and students have been waiting patiently and eagerly for this incredible opportunity to improve their lives! Everything will change now! LOVE LIFE!

The books of Ngora Girls School arriving. PCV Amy Wilkinson organized the lorry truck pictured above to drive across the country and pick up over 180 boxes of books for several volunteers, including 60 boxes of books for Ngora. All the girls pitched in the effort to unload the truck, continuing the trend of women empowerment begun by Wilkinson and PCV Becky Poole, who were witnessed at St. Adolf loading boxes onto the lorry for hours amidst exclamations of "Eeee Ehhh, these American women are tough!".

The real story of Ngora Girls SS:

For the last two years I have been stationed at Ngora Girls S.S. It’s an all girls boarding school with a population of 500. If someone were to come out and visit our village they would arrive eight hours later from Kampala, covered in a layer of red dust. Despite the heat and lack of precipitation, the Ateso people are some of the most motivated, hardworking, and tall people I have ever met. Over the years I have come to call Ngora Village my home, call my students my sisters, my supervisor my mother, and my neighbors my family. Although I came to teach at Ngora, I have become the student.

When a volunteer first gets to site they are loaded with ideas, naiveté, and strong A

merican cultural glasses from which they view their new home...despite their conscientious attempts not to do so. PCV minds are filled with ideas on how to improve their new home, their community, and how to bring their village up to speed as best as they can. These ideas are not always feasible or realistic. As time progresses, you learn many things. You learn how to assess where your community is, what they truly need, and what will remain when you are gone. Two years is a long time to be away from home, but it is quite ephemeral in regards to any sort of change, or even a needs assessment. I am now on the tail end of this experience and it seems as though I am finally looking through the same glasses as my school.

The school already has a full time librarian and dedicated building for a library. Unfortunately, the school librarian is not well supported. The books are few, old, and in terrible shape, so he spends the majority of his time reading the local newspapers or hovering over me while I conduct computer lessons. Whenever the library is open you can always find girls in there, and I know that I should be happy that they are there, but instead I found myself depressed at the idea of the quality of resources they have available. They are thirsty for knowledge.
When I heard about this project from Eric, I knew it was the answer to the problem at my school. I was able to raise enough money to purchase 2,500 books and a laptop for my school. A reading atmosphere is not a term people use to describe Uganda, but within our community at Ngora Girls it is the head mistress' goal to make it a central part of our mission. The girls are confined to a small compound throughout the school year. The distractions are very limited: no TV, video games, magazines, substantial computers, or internet. Once the library is complete it is our hope that it will be their gateway into new worlds. Their time will no longer be idle, and they will be consumed by books just as we have been lucky to do our whole lives.

Books expand minds, widen the world, and motivate people to strive for something better in life. Thank you for allowing the girls of Ngora School strive for something more. Thank you Eric, and thank you all my supporters! This library is going to rock all the girls and teachers at Ngora Girls long after I leave!

The next day PCV Haley White picked up 11 boxes for her organization Bushenyi district. Another testament to American women, she spent the day lifting the 30lb boxes from one taxi to another on the 7 hour trip home.

To come....

Friday will bring pickups by an NGO in Mubende that is distributing books to 3 schools, as well as a pickup from Centre for Community Deveopment Programs, a great NGO out of Kampala which supports at-risk youth in computer training and University placement.