All protocol observed, let the reading commence!

As I eagerly shared in my last post, the library room has been completed! So you may be asking, "What is the way forward?" Trainings and implementation of course! :D

Doing a read aloud to explain
good and bad library etiquette

Last Monday was the 1^st day of Term 2 for primary schools, but there has been a national strike so no teaching happened the whole of last week. The teachers still showed up however, so I tried to keep their minds a bit occupied.

I held a “Library 101” training to inform them of how to properly use and run a functioning library. It was a lot of information to absorb, but it went very well! They seemed to enjoy and had a lot of questions.

Information covered was:

• ·         Introducing what a library card is
• ·         Demonstrating how to use a book mark and place holder
• ·         Reading a story that shows good and bad behaviors
• ·         Discussing the rules of the library
• ·         Explaining fees and other consequences
• ·         Giving examples of how to rate a book’s condition
• ·         Practicing filling out a log book and library card
• ·         Touring the shelves and how the books are organized
• ·         Determining a set library time for pupils use
• ·         Deciding to do a test run with the P7 class first

The story I made is a somehow knock off of
"Goofus and Gallant" from "Highlights" ;)

A pupil informing the teachers
how to use a book mark

Explaining and showing examples
of books ranked as
New, Good, Fair, Poor, or Bad

Practicing how to fill out
the log book

Demonstrating borrowing a book
and how to fill out a library card

Today, even though the strike is still on, the teachers called the P7s to attend lessons because they don’t want them to miss out. P7 is the last level of primary school. At the end of the year there is a huge test that determines if they are qualified to move on to secondary school. It’s very important and I appreciate my teachers for taking this initiative to help them during this strike.

I used this to my advantage to do my “Library 101” lesson with them. This also went well and they had a lot of questions which was very encouraging. At the end, every pupil got his or her own library card. During library time after classes, 42 of the 63 pupils came to browse and borrow a book. Sorry to say, that was way too many to be in that small room on the first day, so I had to send some away, (haha, I rhymed) but this whole week is theirs alone so everyone will have a chance.

They got their library cards!

Perusing the library for the first time :')

Checking out books!

I’m sure there are going to be a lot of improvements that we’ll have to make as we work out the kinks, but I consider this a successful first attempt. Pretty sure this term is gonna be bomb :D

Take a look, it's in a book,

READING. FREAKING. RAINBOW!

The library is (basically) done! Look at it!!! :D

Ok so maybe it doesn’t look like much, but look at it before!

Did that help impress you?? >:)

I knew it was going to be a good day the moment I woke up.

Let me derail for a sec and tell ya about that because it’s still just so unreal to me. Picture this: I’m lying in bed, my eyes open, and I’m instantly confused. Can you guess what I hear? ….absolutely nothing. It’s TOTALLY quiet! Not that where I live is absurdly loud, but it’s Uganda, there’s always some noise somewhere. I immediately go outside to see if the apocalypse happened overnight and I just didn’t get the memo, then proceed to sit and enjoy the silence. I’m there for 15 minutes before I hear the voice. Whose voice? Couldn’t tell you. There’s always someone lurking behind some bush somewhere. “Mzungu, bye!” And it’s like the universe was waiting on that signal! All of a sudden everything’s happening normally again. The rooster crows, the wind hits the leaves against my tin roof, the hens come to peck at my compost, music starts playing in the distance, and I also hear a baby. I bring myself back to reality and get to work.

So this library. My school doesn’t have one. As you can see in the before picture, the room was being used as a staff room with books put on broken desks as shelves along the walls, never ever used or touched by teachers or pupils.

I had some small funds for library purposes and I knew I wanted to use it for shelves, but that’s expensive, so after brain storming with a fellow PCV, I came up with a cost-efficient way to do it!

Two and a half weeks ago, my friend and I began tearing it up, literally! We broke apart the already broken desks to use the timbers from them.

Safety 1st

His family sells bricks so we acquired some and began constructing.

Neither of us had used cement before,
but they turned out strong!

Then we found a place that sold timbers a bit on the cheap side, so we got some of them and constructed ourselves some wooden shelves.

Look at me now, Sharits!
Using a book and a ruler as a square because
these carpenters don't know how
to make anything straight :P

One of my teachers showed me where to get the cheaper paint, lent me his brushes, and even did the painting for us.

Next came the daunting task of organizing the books, cataloging and numbering them, then placing them on the shelves.

and we'll be getting 1,000 more in a month or so!

Don’t forget printing & cutting 1,000 library cards and making a log book!

Today I swept up the room, straightened out the desks, put labels on the shelves, and hung up a few posters. I declare that as basically done ;)

There’s still a lot of small things to do, (tidying up, making rule charts, what) but I’m so very excited for Term 2 to start on Monday! Gonna get right to work on doing trainings with my teachers on how to use a library so we can bring the knowledge to our pupils so they can start reading and checking out books :D

Kids and adults have been shuffling
in everyday since we began!
Some just to see a white girl doing
"man's" work, but some are
actually excited for it! 

**I’d like to give a special shout out to my amazing friend, Tonny, who will never see this post, but still deserves recognition. Without his help, none of this would have been possible! He’s a 15 year old student struggling to find school fees for his S1 year, but he still refused to accept any payment from me because all he wanted to do was help, which he did in more ways than I could ever name! :)