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¡Bienvenido a la biblioteca!
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Yesterday I had my first experience in one of BiblioWorks’ libraries. I traveled to Pampa Aceituno, which is about 25 minutes outside of Sucre. To get there we took a micro, which is what the local bus system is called, as far as we could, then we waited on the side of the road with a dozen children or so until a truck was going to Pampa Aceituno, and we all clambered into the back of the truck. It was a fun ride, being surrounded by all these school children as we drove up the twisting dirt road. I was with Lise, one of BiblioWorks’ staff members who is still in University, and another volunteer, named Charlotte. This particular library is a school library, so it is right in the school, which is great for me because it means that I get to observe the Bolivian school system. Pampa Aceituno’s library only opened a few weeks ago, it is BiblioWorks’ 9th library. Therefore, it is really getting its feet off the ground so to speak. Charlotte and I have a ton of ideas for activities to get the kids really excited about the library and wanting to
use it more. Charlotte is a different sort of volunteer than I am, she was originally working with street children but heard about BiblioWorks so now is doing a pen pal program between the street children in Sucre and these children in Pampa Aceituno. So that was the main activity that we did yesterday. My main focus is going to be nutrition, and hopefully we will be able to start a school/library garden as well as doing some container gardening right in the library. The school has approved the garden idea, so now it is a matter of getting all the supplies and putting in the work. I have a lot of other ideas beside the garden and I just hope that I will have the time to make these ideas into reality.
School runs from 8:00-12:15ish. We finished the pen pal letters around 11, so for the rest of the school day we participated in the kindergartner’s gym class, which was just dancing. It was so much fun. Then we had lunch with the kids, rice and sardines. Every day a different mother, or two mothers, will cook lunch for all the kids. There are about 100 students– yeah, it was a lot of food! It was fun to eat lunch with them, but unfortunately I don’t think my stomach agreed with the sardines as later that afternoon I ended up back in my room really sick. All night long. But, I am feeling much better this morning. Tomorrow I am back to Pampa Aceituno.
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| dancing with the students. |
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| the "lunch ladies" of the day |
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This was the daughter of one of the mothers working
in the kitchen. She was so cute! |
use it more. Charlotte is a different sort of volunteer than I am, she was originally working with street children but heard about BiblioWorks so now is doing a pen pal program between the street children in Sucre and these children in Pampa Aceituno. So that was the main activity that we did yesterday. My main focus is going to be nutrition, and hopefully we will be able to start a school/library garden as well as doing some container gardening right in the library. The school has approved the garden idea, so now it is a matter of getting all the supplies and putting in the work. I have a lot of other ideas beside the garden and I just hope that I will have the time to make these ideas into reality.
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