All of November we have been working hard on setting up a library in the village of Tungamalenga. We found a small room in the village office that we decided to rent for our library. I was a little doubtful at first when I saw what bad shape the room was in. It smelled strongly of bat (and possibly human) feces, the paint was faded and chipped, there were cobwebs and insects everywhere, and large chunks of the walls were just missing. But we put a lot of work into fixing the place up and it’s really starting to come together. We spent the last few weeks scrubbing everything down, building bookshelves and benches, painting, making blackboards, making signs, decorating, and taking inventory of the books.
From the first day we started work, our library drew a crowd. I wish I could say that everyone just couldn’t wait to get their hands on a book…but I think they were mostly just curious to watch some white people attempt to build bookshelves. But when people saw the piles of books we had stacked up outside, they really were interested in them. Word spread among the villagers that everyone is allowed to come read books for free at the “mzungu” place. People of all ages stop by, but so far our main customers are kids. At least 15 or 20 kids come a day. Some stay just long enough to see what we are up to. But many stay for hours. They sit out on the patio and read while we work inside. They usually start out reading our small supply of Swahili language books and when their reading attention span wears down they move on to looking at the pictures in the English picture books. Once we get the library up and running, we are hoping to help teach the kids to actually read the English books.
One day last week we were painting the bookshelves and benches with green oil paint out on the patio of the library when a large group of kids came up. Despite putting up a huge warning sign that said “Rangi Mbichi” (“Wet Paint”) and telling them multiple times not to touch anything we were painting, I’m pretty sure every kid that was there that day left with incriminating green on their hands, feet, or clothes. And now there will forever be tiny green fingerprints and footprints all over the patio.
Although the library is miniscule by American standards (we only have two bookshelves, neither of which is full), there is nothing else like it in Tungamalenga or any of the other villages here. Even the concept of a library is foreign to nearly everyone. Because secondary school is a luxury that very few people here can afford, formal education stops at about 7th grade for most people. Books are also a luxury that few people can afford. I hope that the library will give people of all ages the opportunity to continue educating themselves. In addition to giving community members access to books, the library will also provide other opportunities. We have crayons, markers, colored pencils, and coloring books that anyone can use at the library…yet another luxury that few people can afford. We also have word games, math flashcards, maps from all over the world, and photos of animals found in this region. In the future we are hoping to also provide computers and internet access in the library. We also want to start holding workshops and classes there.
We are nearly done getting the library all set up. The next important task is to find a librarian. Since we are only in Tungamalenga half the time and we have so many other projects going on, we are looking to hire a local community member to actually run the library for us. The librarian hunt begins tomorrow…
-Becky Gottlieb
