Part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer is having secondary projects. For Education volunteers, our main job is teaching classes, but we are also tasked with finding other needs to address within our community. So whether it’s coaching Grassroots Soccer (refer to previous post), building latrines, starting a piggery, or building a library, secondary projects are meant to be sustainable projects that will leave a mark on your community once you are gone.
My first secondary project was one that was left to me to do all of the work and make sure it becomes sustainable. The PCV at my site before I arrived planned to start a library. He applied for books from the African Library Project (ALP), which arrived a few months prior to leaving Lesotho. ALP is a non-profit organization that finds donors in the US to collect 1,000 books and arranges transport for those books to start a library. When I first got to my site, I found several boxes of books and an empty room.
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| Library: BEFORE |
Getting started has taken a very long time. My counterpart (the local partner), Ntate (Mr.) Chabana, is a teacher at school. He had built shelves and set up his desk in the library to monitor it, but we had to decide how to organize all of the books and catalog every single one. Almost since school first started, a small group of students would help me write down the information and mark each book during lunch – just less than an hour every day. We actually are still not complete, but most of the books have been recorded and are on the shelves so during winter school, when less students were around, we decided to let them start checking books out.
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| Me with Ntate Chabana in the library |
English is a foreign language to all of the students, and American culture is even more foreign, so I’ve been worried about what books will be able to translate. Even though all of the books are for upper elementary school to low high school reading level, it is still very difficult for most of the students. In Basotho culture, witchcraft is a huge taboo, animals are never part of the family, and development such as multi-story buildings, kitchens with sinks and ovens, just don’t exist, so I wonder what they will think of American books. Only time, trial and error will determine what books Basotho students will like.
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| Library: AFTER |
It’s been a fun learning experience to observe what books students are interested in and what books they are checking out. So far, some students have returned books that were either too hard or disliked. One of the most surprising observations I’ve made is that the students are drawn to the non-fiction books about science, animals, technology and other information (some have even checked out textbooks). Contrary to growing up in the US where we have an abundance resources that allow us to absorb information before we can even walk, they have a shortage of learning material and information. Originally, I thought the main goals of the library were to improve English skills, introduce new ideas and promote creativity. But I’ve been happy to see the library as a real information resource where I hope the students can learn to learn on their own.