Biblioteca

Estamos terminados! The once glorified storage closet is now a functioning library.

The pictures are in chronological order. The first one is obviously before we started. The first thing we did was wipe down the whole room and then we painted the ceiling, walls and floor. Once we finished putting our paint-water mixture on the wall we moved to our next paint project.

We wanted to get the kids involved so we drew a tree trunk on one wall. Then we undertook the daring challenge of painting each kids hand and having them somewhat-neatly put handprints on the wall for leaves. It went suprisingly well. Even the 3 year-olds clothes stayed paint free. Also, we thought the older kids might not want to get involved but it turned out they saw what we were doing and were eager to join in. It was nice to see how happy all of the kids were to join in and even the director of the school wanted a turn. We had so many participants that we even put a row of ¨grass¨ on the bottom to make sure everyone was included. Before packing the paint up for good, we added clouds to the ceiling.

Our next challenge was to actually build a place for the books to go. We spent half a day wandering Chimbote trying to find building materials and another half a day carrying those materials to the school. Crossing a highway with an unassembled 8 foot bookshelf is no easy task. We ended up doing this a second time so in total, we constructed 3 bookshelves and refurbished one bench.

While going through all the old piles of junk on the roof of the school we gazed over at the neighbor´s roof junk pile and spotted a winner. One old woman´s trash is another man´s treasure. We saw a used, old, booth from a Chinese restaurant on the same roof where two women were doing their laundry. After a quick discussion, we thought it would be best to shout out at the women in our broken Spanish to ask if we could buy it. After several failed attempts to get their attention and then communicate what we wanted they motioned for us to come over. After carrying the booth and the years of dust accumulation that came with it; we cleaned, sanded, and spray-painted the ¨couch¨ seen in the picture.

Now that our library was complete, we had the difficult task of filling it with books. Throughout the whole project, we were in constant communication with the United States trying to get books down here. We were successful - books are on their way. We didn´t want to leave an empty library so we went to two local book stores and cleaned them out. We filled the shelves using these books and some books which were piled in the directors bedroom (located at the school). We ended up having enough to make it look like a decent library, but unfortunately there is no way they can add variety to the library without having them sent here.

On our last day at school, we had a grand-opening celebration. The entire school gathered in the courtyard and the director said some kind parting words. After we both gave a short speech (Mike´s consisted of improptu beat-boxing) we comenced the breaking of the champagne bottle tradition. They hung a champagne bottle from the doorway, and Mike smashed it with a hammer with the kids unsafely close.

All in all, it was a great experience and hopefully something that will benefit the school for a long time to come.

... and now, reader participation time. As said before, books are on their way. We have been in contact with the Bayard Taylor Library in Kennett Square. They ¨adopted¨ the biblioteca at Mi Segundo Hogar as their summer project. They are not only collecting Spanish books but also money donations for shipping which can be more than the books themselves. We have been in contact with Donna Murray who is very kindly making flyers and possibly putting an ad in the newspaper. If you would like to donate, the contact information is:

Phone: 610.444.2702

Email: dmurray@ccls.org

Bayard Taylor Memorial Library

216 East State Street

Kennett Square, PA 19348