Excitement in the world of the library

So, I'd more or less given up hope on this whole "mobile library" project. I'd called and written to every library in Limpopo and Mpumalanga (the two provinces we sit between), and none of them were of any use. Neither was the department of education. Neither was anyone else. So, I cut my losses, decided I'd bit off more than I could chew, and figured I ought to be happy with what I got, which was adult fiction books for the entertainment of the people who actually use the library (servicing user's needs), and then just carry on with my other library duties.

Then, after handing in my mid-term journal, my faculty supervisor for this internship back at URI contacted me about making a personal donation to the cause, and possibly getting other library students on board as well. This of course was amazing news. You have no idea how elated I felt after reading that email.

The rest of the week went by in a happy flurry of passion-driven library work. After feeling hopelessly rejected in all my attempts to get book donations, here comes a promise of cash to buy new books. There was so much to do!

I spoke with Sunel and our department's supervisor, Kathleen, as well as the finance department head, Sharmain, to figure out how to handle it. We set up an internal project fund for the mobile library, I forwarded donation instructions/banking details to my professor. After that, I did some research and came up with a wish-list of 50 titles in Shangaan to serve as a base collection. It's so hard to find native-language books in South Africa, but I did manage it. Also, with renewed enthusiasm to search, I found some charitable NGOs to solicit for either book or money donations, and began writing up proposals. I've identified three major charities and solicited two of them already. One of them has already turned me down, but I'm not despairing. The third one is pending approval of my supervisor before I send it out, and the second one has not responded yet, but that's okay. There's still hope.

Gosh, I'm so excited about this project now! I feel like now that I've finally gotten the ball rolling on this thing, it's getting close to the time that I have to leave this place, and I fear I won't complete anything meaningful before I go, and Lord knows if the person after me will be able to pick up where I left off. I kind of want to stay longer, or come back later, or something. But I know I can't.