Holla From Kampala: Nine Months Later

No, I was not pregnant (though the recent weight gain might have made you think otherwise). Nine months ago, I began fundraising for Libraries for Life with some fellow PCVs and children’s author, Jean Reidy. We had a target goal of $17,000, but after we joined forces with another volunteer in Central Uganda, we raised over $21,000. As a result, Books for Africa shipped us 22,000 books, 4 brand new computers, and 40 solar lamps. The shipment finally arrived last week, which was a great welcome home gift after Egypt.

As to be expected, there were a few hitches at the Mbale Port when the books arrived. This is Uganda, after all, and it would not be right if there were no problems. We had to argue over excess charges and taxes – it was extremely frustrating. The port workers also decided that they were entitled to some of the books and solar lamps too. They just opened boxes and helped themselves. They took around 7-800 books and 8 solar lamps. There were plenty of books, but I am pretty sure they were taken with the intention of being sold. I was only mad when I heard that one worker took a whole set of the Harry Potter series. Not cool, not cool at all. We were all a little irritated about the solar lamps too, but, as we say, TIA.

This past weekend I went to Iganga to sort the books at Musana Children’s Home. (Jean Reidy was raising the money for Musana and Andrea is the founder). At first, Bryan, Linda, Gary, Andrea, Leah, and I were all a little perplexed with how to go about sorting all the books. (Bryan, Linda, & Gary are PCVs. Leah & Andrea work at Musana). The amount of boxes was intimidating and they took over two large classrooms. We started off by each taking a subject and unpacking the boxes. It only took us five minutes to realize that was a terrible idea because we would run out of space and get really confused. We decided to all work on one subject because it would be more time efficient and organized. Well, so we thought. We all just started to unpack boxes and put the books in piles (there were a lot of sets). We did not realize how many boxes there were and soon the whole floor was covered in a mish-mash of piles. We were all having anxiety, especially because there was no walking room. Thankfully, Musana had a church group visiting for the week and they were extremely helpful.

The boxes were not split up very well between the classrooms – half of each subject was in each classroom. As a result, we had the church team organize the Literature books in the other room and then we had the Musana students bring them down to our room. The students were so eager to help, they would pile them on their head and then come running down the hill to give them to us. It became a contest to see who could hold the most books. After the books were organized, we each decided what we wanted, packed them up in boxes for our school, and moved the boxes to a different room. After Literature, I was exhausted and sore from all the lifting. Literature sort of wiped us all out and we were a little discouraged – we had not expected sorting to be so much work. We decided to sort the Reference books next because it had the least amount of boxes. Also, there was less to organize since we did not have to sort through various types of textbooks and workbooks. After reference, we called it a day!

Sunday was much more productive because we had an idea of what we were doing and we learned from our mistakes. We started off by dividing up the “leisure reading” books because that was the easiest. We just each took the same amount of boxes and did not bother opening them up. We figured we would each get good and bad books, but at least it would be random. We were not up for sorting through thousands of children’s books and novels. Afterward, we sorted the science books and we were really organized. We created rows and organized the books by title and publisher. When the kids brought the books from the other classroom, it was much easier to find their place! We chose our books, packed them up, and moved the boxes. Last was math, which went relatively smoothly. There were a lot of single textbooks that did not have a set, so they took up a lot of floor space. By the end, the room kind of looked like a bomb went off. We finished up quickly, however, because by then we were pros. That or we just wanted to be done!

Bryan and I live relatively close to each other, so we hired one truck to bring our books back to our schools. My school was ecstatic when I arrived. All the teachers came to help unload and they kept saying, “So many books!” and “God bless you!” They were also going nuts over Bryan because he speaks Ateso (another language in Uganda) and he speaks it pretty well. Stephen and Sauya both speak Atesso and they kept calling him their brother. Bryan was clearly better at learning his designated language than I was because I can’t speak Lugwere to save my life. Way to show me up, jerk! (Just kidding…sorta).

My school has hired a carpenter to make brand new bookshelves for the library. We had a little leftover money from the fundraising, so I am paying for half. I will still have a little left, so I am going to buy supplies for organizing. I’m hoping to organize the books using the Dewey Decimal System, wish me luck! I just set up the new computer, which is nice, and the teachers are thrilled. They keep saying, “We’re so modern” and “That computer is smart!” Needless to say, they are very excited about the books, computers, and solar lamps. The P7 students will be able to use the lamps to study for the PLE even when the power goes out, which is great.

Thank you to everyone who donated to Libraries for Life and made this possible. Your support means a great deal to me, and my school is more than grateful. They spent all Monday excitedly asking each other, “Have you seen the books?” I wish you all could have seen the kids at Musana flipping through the books with huge smiles on their faces – they were just excited to touch a book and look at the pictures. I cannot wait to have the books organized so my students can share the excitement. Thank you, again!

Photos courtesy of Bryan: