Monday, May 28, 2012

A Special Time - Only in Africa


NEWS FLASH:
New Vision newspaper - Findings of the 2011 national assessment of progress in education report: About 60% of primary school teachers in Uganda cannot read orally. In 2011, the literacy rate (able to read and comprehend) in 3rd grade was at 47.9%, and in 6th grade, 41.3%.

Change is Coming: A packed room totally full of energy, friendship, and love accurately describes the 3rd annual Libraries of Love librarian meeting. The first night, there were 29 present – which included former, present, and future LOL librarians from six cities. It was an incredible evening of singing and moving/dancing, as only Africans can. We had four male librarians and 1 female volunteer to sing solos – plus plenty of inspirational singing as a group. I loved when they sang, ‘This is the Day That the Lord Has Made,’ – adding the verse, ‘These are our friends that the Lord has made.’ Everyone was holding hands, or throwing their arms around one another’s shoulders. Astounding is the only word that enters my mind to describe the evening.

Afterwards, I walked with the Kampala area group from the restaurant to the hotel (about three blocks), at 8:30 in the evening. I laughed the entire time. They were singing at the top of their lungs... ‘This Little Light of Mine’ – adding in verses such as, ‘shine all over Kampala …Mbale … this street …our libraries .. these people,’ etc. – and dancing all over the sidewalks. What a treat! People on the street were laughing and joining their dancing!

Saturday was a day of brainstorming and problem solving, with contests to win prizes thrown into the mix. An example of a contest: one of our librarians read a short book. Everybody tried to guess the title. At the end of the day, many librarians stood to tell of how the libraries are genuinely changing children’s lives, as they are more fluent in English, improved in writing skills, and are able to read and comprehend.

We appreciated Pastor Okumu arriving to share at the end of the second day. He has played a huge part in Libraries of Love here in Uganda. In all honesty, I would not change anything about the two days. It was a remarkable time of bonding and sharing. Libraries of Love is truly that ... libraries - of love.
You might remember the story of Grace and Old Man. Grace has three children – Damasco, Leah, and Florance. I sometimes spend the night in their hut in the bush. The kids walk 1 ½ hours to school. One of our Board members, and his wife, recently donated money to buy the girls each a bicycle. I had a man strap two large bicycles on the back of a motorcycle taxi – yes, it can be done. I jumped on another – and off we went to deliver. Can you imagine? These kids in their wildest imagination would never have dreamed they might own a bicycle. They are very happy to just have food from day to day! This beautiful family is simply thanking God for this miracle, which is exactly what the sponsors would want!

Note: The kids mother, Grace, walks over two hours to work. She is so thin and frail, I worry about her. Her work consists of buying maize (corn), having it ground into flour – and selling it. We actually had a person sponsor the start-up for this work. Grace doesn’t make a lot, but enough so they are eating every day now. If a generous person would like to buy Grace a bike ($110), her smile would be reward enough.

Time to prepare for the 2012 Libraries of Love team to arrive next week!

Thank you, as always, for reading about the journey of Libraries of Love, as well as my personal notes.
- Trudy

Monday, May 21, 2012

Book shipment arrives in Uganda



May 15: THE Download
By Trudy Marshall
Students help unload the more than 900 boxes.
      Executive Director
Libraries of Love paid fees/taxes on May 14, in advance of our 40 ft. container arriving at the border on the 15th. However, the customs officials at the border decided to ‘uplift’ our fees, as they call it. It ended being double the first amount. It was pay, or have the truck held longer, for a fee. We paid.
Loading the truck for the trip to Mbale.
The morning of the download, a truck was to take me to Kusubi Primary, where the download would occur. I would travel later in this truck to Mbale to deliver boxes. My driver called that morning and was in a different town. I had to hastily try to find another truck. When I arrived the downloading of the 943 boxes (40,000 books) had begun. There aren’t words to describe this event. 
The boxes had to be divided between 27 receiving schools/people. Men were handing these 30-60 pounds boxes to 5th-7th grade students who were balancing the boxes on their head or shoulders, moving down some steps, walking a distance and putting the box in a room, which had signs designating receivers. There seemed to be hundreds of students running wild, and enjoying the event. For this mzungu – it was total chaos. My Board later had to remind this event has now taken place for eight years – and has always been successful. I just haven’t been there to witness the phenomenon.
We loaded the boxes for schools in Mukono, Jinja, and Mbale in the truck I had hired. Two drivers and I finally got on the road around 4 p.m.. What was to be a 4 hour trip, became a 7 hour ordeal. It poured rain, and we watched wild lightening shows. The truck had no defroster, and it was pitch black along the roads. To top the night off, there were two bad wrecks – so endlessly long traffic jams. But all’s well that ends well. The boxes / books, which took a year’s worth of endless hours of preparation, have been delivered! May God bless Libraries of Love volunteers and financial supporters for their faithfulness!
Mary Kevin's library moves to permanent room
Students who came to look at the 'new' library in Mary
Kevin's Primary in Kampala.
I have enjoyed arriving at schools where students are excited about borrowing books from their libraries at the beginning of the term. Friday, I spent the day at Mary Kevin’s Primary, where the librarian and I started from scratch and put a library together that had previously been housed in a container. The new headmaster had designated a regular room for the library. By late afternoon, it looked incredible.
Future events:
May 25 and 26: Fourteen Kampala area librarians will travel to Mbale, to join Mbale librarians for a meeting. Many thanks to Patrick Bakka, headmaster at King’s College (high school) who is supplying a school van for their travel.
*One of the Kampala librarians ask if he needed to bring his mattress to Mbale. Few librarians have ever stayed in a hotel, and many have not been outside their city, unless to a nearby village.
What a great time we will have! Love this group!
Students take books to their classroom at Namakwekwe Primary
in Mbale.

June 4 – 19: LOL’s 2012 team arrives and will restock 5 libraries, plus create two new ones. So many great memories of our teams over the past 8 years ... each one unique. Have to love volunteers willing to travel to the other side of the world. And, oh my, how the Ugandan children love them!
July 13 and 14: Mbale headmasters will travel to Kampala to join Kampala area headmasters for an LOL meeting.


I am excited that Mbale Rotary Club has offered their services, when needed, for the libraries!