I'm famous! Okay, not really...

My school decided to write an article/press release about my work in South Africa, and I must say it was well done. It doesn't say much more than my followers here already know, but it's still a nice piece, and I hope it gets some donations to go towards the bookmobile. Here is the link for your reading pleasure.

http://www.uri.edu/news/releases/index.php?id=5567

As always, thanks for reading!

Last-minute work

Monday and Tuesday one of the groups of students was having a computer-literacy class, since many of the people here had never used a computer before in their lives, and they really needed these skills to survive the rest of the semester and to be an asset to their employers. There were nearly 30 students, however, and only one teacher, so Sunel and I both went to act as assistants in the computer class. A few students needed some really basic help and it would be detrimental to the rest of the class to hold them up by waiting for them to get up to speed, so we acted as roving personal tutors in the class. These people smell really bad, particularly the Zambians, and the Gambians, and at times I literally had to leave the room because I just couldn't take it. I don't think they know what soap is, nor deodorant. I understand that they come from a rural area, but that's not an excuse for stinking to high heavens. The people in the village don't have running water, and they still know how to bathe. The smell of this group of students was enough to make me glad that I'm not going to have to be here for the rest of the year.

Tuesday, maybe two hours before quitting time, the mail came, and in it, the first shipment of children's books in Tsonga! I decided to stay late that night, cataloging and processing the books. It gave me a real sense of accomplishment that my work really paid off. The books weren't in the hands of the children yet, but they were here. They existed. Books where there were none before. And hopefully soon my successor will have enough books and the proper organization to distribute them effectively. Wednesday I showed the books to Grace, one of the staff members who lives in the village and speaks Shangaan to come and see what she thought of the books, and she was all kinds of excited when she saw them and heard what they were intended for. So I feel affirmed that my efforts have not been wasted, and that soon, the rural children of Bushbusckridge will no longer be in need of reading materials.

My favorite book was called "Ndzhuti" which means "Shadow" and it's about a boy who is afraid of his shadow until he figures out that it's a part of him. It's such a cute book.

Tuesday night was another huge thunderstorm (there'd been big storms at night for almost a whole two weeks), and this one knocked the server out, thankfully after I'd finished putting the books on the system, but that meant I wasn't able to get online to finish any work or let people know I was coming home. By the time I left on Wednesday, I don't think it had been fixed yet. Wednesday morning, Thokozani saw a lioness walking just outside the fence, and he called Gawie to take me out on a last-minute game drive to try and find it, but we didn't see it. Par for the course. I've been just-missing campus lion sightings the whole time I was here, and both times I went to the Kruger they were nowhere to be found. Were it not for Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, I'd still be denying that they exist at all, but I don't think I was ever meant to see them in the wild. I did, however, have a close encounter with a puff adder two nights in a row this week. The first night, it was near the house, trying to find a way in, and Gawie came to remove it. The second night, I was taking a walk around the fence in the evening and nearly stepped on the thing. I think it might have been the same one, too. This thing was fucking huge. Not the deadliest snake in existence (you've got 24 hours before you die, rather than roughly 2 hours like with a cobra, boomslang, or vine snake, or +/- 20 minutes like with a black mamba), but you still don't want to get bitten by one. It's comforting to think that in about a day's time I'll be home-sweet-home in New England where nothing found in nature can immediately kill you.

Last full week

This week the long-course students arrived. This meant that I gave tours of the library, answered questions, and spent way too much time helping people print. I also cataloged more of the reports, and although I didn't fully complete them, I did manage to get up to 800-something out of maybe a thousand done. I was at a stopping point, and I left it so the remaining sections will be the easy ones for the next person to do.

As for the bookmobile project, I'd like to think that I made some progress, because the volunteer who's replacing me wanted to get in contact with me about the project so that she could continue it. I have since emailed her a summary of what I've done, how, and why, and what the next steps might be. She responded with further questions, and we've had a regular dialogue going. I'm now hopeful about the project and I feel a bit better about leaving it without seeing its completion because I know that it will be continued in my wake.

Lame duck

That's how I seriously feel here at the college. Like anything I do doesn't really matter anymore because I'll be gone in two weeks. After them putting it off all week, on Friday I finally had a meeting with the higher-ups about the bookmobile project. We're not doing the Books for Africa thing, but we are going to go ahead with the project in other ways. I'd already gone and ordered some native-language books, but they probably won't arrive until after I leave.

Other things this week have been to re-focus on my standard-operations responsibilities and other projects. So, back to cataloging reports and helping Sunel re-organize the collection to be more standardized in its subject classification. Admittedly, she did most of it, asking me for help only sometimes, because I did have other things to do. We had to ready the library for the incoming long-course students. They're the ones who will be dominating the campus for the rest of the year, and the ones that actually use the library the most. So Sunel and I put together displays for their first two class learning modules, made the shelves neat, organized, and properly labeled, got all their usernames/passwords/printing codes sorted out, and did all other manner of little thing that needed to be done.

The week was not a total bust, however, because I went to town on Wednesday with Tania to pick up some stuff for the library and do some personal banking, and we got to chit-chat the entire ride there and back. Tania's actually really nice, but I hadn't really had the chance to get to know her, since she works on the other side of campus in a department I don't often have cause to deal with. There were game drives all week for the guy making a promotional video of the college, and I got to go on them. Unfortunately we didn't see much, and one of the days we got drenched on, which has made me feel less than stellar all week since then. However, Tania offered to take me to Moholoholo wildlife rehabilitation center with her this weekend, where we'll be guaranteed to see animals, albeit initially sick/injured and subsequently tamed and caged.

Approaching deadlines

This week I've found a fourth NGO to apply for assistance to, who supply native-language books, which is nice, and one of the ones I'd applied to who donate books has responded positively(for those of you keeping score at home, that’s one negative response, one positive response, and two responses still outstanding). These books are in English though, second-hand, and are shipped from America, with the organization who's receiving them fundraising to pay shipping/port fees. You get 22,000 books for just under $12,000.00, which is ten times cheaper than trying to buy that many books. The organization that does this is called Books for Africa, and they work with you to fundraise by hosting your project on their website and your job is to direct traffic to it, and get people to donate, and once it reaches enough to cover the costs of shipping, they send the books. My supervisors were excited when I initially told them about this organization, but after I told them that we'd been accepted and that it's time to take the next step, they're thinking maybe they don't want to go that big. That is a LOT of books, more than one bookmobile can handle, but heck, maybe we can actually DONATE the books to the schools nearby so they can have their own libraries like they've always wanted but never had the money for. The point of the library being mobile was because nobody here has anything and it would be unfair to give to one school and not another, plus we're in the middle of nowhere, so kids can't get too many places besides school and home. But now they're thinking of not going through with it, because it would be too many books all at once. I understand that, but it'll take a very long time to fundraise enough to bring the shipment over, and by then a plan can be made to properly deal with it.

The other thing is that before they go about putting the project up on the website, they require a down-payment of $1,000.00 towards the shipping, which is a lot in rand, that the college can't afford out of its own budget, especially since they've realized that they need to hire someone to run the bookmobile, thanks of course to my convincing. Otherwise it'd never get done since the people here at the college offices are already too busy, and you're not going to find a qualified volunteer who knows the area and is good with kids and with books who's here for any length of time. And the other argument is that say we do get enough money to send it over, it's more cost-effective than trying to buy books, but since they're in English not the native languages, aren't they worth less? Well, no, they're not. Because they're books that we won't have paid for, and the kids all learn English in school anyway once they get to like third grade.

Anyway, I have a meeting with Sunel, Kathleen, and Tania (two managers and the fundraising director) next week to figure out what to do. In the end, though, I'm not staying here, so if I don't like what they're going to decide, I'm out of luck.

Renegades of Funk

So the title has absolutely nothing to do with anything at all. I just wanted to use the word "funk" in my title. I bet they'd spell it with an "e" at the end of it down here, just to be British. Anyway.

I actually have been in a funk this week, though, so my title isn't completely off-beat. I think it's some combination of job stress and leaving soon.

I'll be home in just over three weeks. I'm just beginning to get used to it here, and now I'll be leaving. I might just have to come back and visit someday soon.

Even if I wasn't dating someone down here, I'd have reason to stay. This bookmobile project is not quite finished yet, and I'm worried nobody will take the reins when I leave. I mean, I've laid the ground-work, but it hasn't been executed yet.

I got the idea and ran with it. I secured book and monetary donations. I came up with a cataloging scheme. I came up with a distribution plan. I convinced the management to undertake a job search for a manager for the mobile library - someone who's local so they know the languages, has a teaching background so they'll be good with the kids, and who doesn't have a job already so that they'll be able to fully concentrate on the library. We haven't found anyone yet, but convincing them that we need to be looking was actually a big step. I developed a list of books with which to build the core collection (once the finance department gives the word that the money has been successfully converted to rand and deposited into the project's account, allowing me to actually buy things). I found suppliers for these books (which you wouldn't believe to be so challenging, but it is when you're dealing in non-English language publications for Africa). I've identified and applied for assistance from several charitable organizations to continue growing the mobile library's holdings after I leave.

Why, then, do I feel so useless? Like I haven't done a damned thing with my time here?

I'll tell you why. It's because my pipe dream is not yet a reality, and I have this fear that it never will become so if I leave before it gets off the ground. I really should set more attainable goals.

This actually started off as just a way to get free regular adult fiction books for the library for staff to use for entertainment. I did that. Our fiction section is double what it was when I got here, and we didn't spend a dime. That's all because of me. But then I got the idea to get books for people who actually really need them. That's where the trouble started. I dreamed too big and got ahead of myself. And now I won't be happy until I've accomplished the impossible. Native-language books for the children of Welverdiend. I want it to happen. But I fear it never will.

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Anyway, beyond this, I've been busy with other things at the library here. Some of them are boring duties, like chasing down students with overdue books...or cataloging those god-awful reports. I'm so sick of them. Nearly 700 now that I've done. My progress on this front has been less than stellar in recent weeks, partly because I got wrapped up in my other, more interesting and worthwhile, project: the mobile library. Also, my lesser responsibilities have been eating up a considerable amount of time lately as well. Planning an Earth Hour event for the campus, researching book prices, processing new materials, and *gasp* even helping students! I've also been going through the collection with Sunel to re-arrange it and re-classify many of the books so that the subject areas are more consistent. On top of this, I'm starting to put together materials about my PFE for my "poster session" which is one of the criteria on which I'm graded for this class. It's all so crazy.

Negative Progress

I'm back to being depressed about this whole library project. I get the feeling that the people above me in the library management don't really understand what a huge undertaking this is, and despite them saying that they're fully on board, they completely expect me to do everything on my own. I realize that it is my project, but it requires things that I can't do without more power in the organization, more time here at the college, more managerial support, more planning, and about a gazillion more dollars/rand. Sometimes I just want to give up and go home. Finish my degree, and be a librarian in some quiet little town somewhere in New England. This whole "making a difference in the world" thing is a load of shit, and I can't do it.

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.

Doing good things

Thursday at work was rather interesting. After cataloging another small collection akin to the WWF manuals (these ones were the Redbooks - lists of endangered species), Sunel said she had a project for me. We are a very small library, and as such, have a very small budget. Therefore, any money that we do spend, has to be justified that it meets the needs of facilitating education and training. This means that we don't really have a budget for entertainment, which is unfortunate for the staff and students who live here and don't have transportation to go out after work/class or on the weekends. So, it was put to me to develop a collection of fiction books for the library so that staff and students have leisure reading during their time off, which they had been requesting for some time, but alas, no budget. And there's no ILL or anything like that here, either. If we don't have it in-house, we don't have it, and you're not getting it. The key, though, is that I have to develop this collection with absolutely zero money. Good thing I'm resourceful, and know how to politely beg.

I spent the next two days (minus part of Friday which I spent putting some files into the archives) soliciting donations from local public libraries for discarded fiction books. Initially I was just going to ask for adult fiction books, but noting our involvement with the village schools near here, I wondered if I mightn't ask for some children's books too, because if we're poor, they're probably much more so. Sunel thought this was a great idea, so I had at it. I've actually had a bit of luck and some good responses so far. Next week, actually, Sunel is supposed to go out and collect a bunch of donations from one of the libraries that responded (being that I don't have a car and such), and I'm anticipating the arrival of these "new" books greatly. This is pretty much going to be my baby, my big project, of the semester, in addition to all the routine stuff, and I like the idea of that.

Both days after work I went on a sunset game drive. It was a little harder to capture the animals I saw on camera because of the fading light, but I did see a lot more of them, which I'm really happy about. Funny observation: the whole "deer in the headlights" phenomenon is worldwide. After it got dark, the impala would just stand right in front of the car, frozen in the headlights, just like North American deer, and we had to drive forward slowly with the lights off so that they would jump away from the vehicle moving toward them.

Most of my weekend I spent either cleaning house, catching up on sleep, or shooing critters out of my room. Seriously. A scorpion, a baboon spider, a baby squirrel, our resident frog, and a bat all made themselves part of my life this weekend, in addition to the normal bugs that abound. The elephants were really loud this weekend too. Gawie noted that it's probably the bull elephant we've been seeing trying to move in on some younger females, and either they don't want it and/or the older females are jealous. When elephants get mad, they don't just trumpet, they growl too, and they're incredibly loud. More than once I'd heard them and gone running to the fence to see what I could see, and they were nowhere, but I could still hear them so loudly as if they were right in front of me.

Next weekend, one of the administrators is taking a trip to town and has invited me to come along. It's nothing special, she says, but it'll get you out of the bush for a day. She wants to go get a facial and get her nails done among other girly pursuits, which seems kind of ridiculous for the part of Africa we're in and what we do here, but on some level I understand it. Sweating all the time, bugs, critters, dirt 24/7...I completely get the need to break away every once in a while and do something nice for yourself. I'd settle for a shower with more water pressure than a leaky faucet, but getting my hair done and going shopping will do just as well. I'm also hoping to go on a longer sunset game drive into the night, and farther into Kruger than I've been going, and maybe seeing a couple of big predators too.