Books for Africa Library Project, Inc.Establishing libraries in rural areas of West Africa |
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| Greetings friends, Hilda and I are resting for a day at Lake Bosumtwe; the lake was made by a meteor a million years ago. There is an hotel on the shore of the lake and here is where we crashed on our journey back from the north of Ghana. We have been on inspection tour to the seven towns that have applied for libraries. It is their responsibility to supply the building, furniture and librarian for the community library, and it is Hilda's and my responsibility to inspect the sites before we give them books to make sure all is in place. As we tell the people everywhere we go, we will not give you books so that they will sit in boxes until the shelves get built. So far only one library has all the requirements; we have spent the past eight days or so inspecting the far flung town libraries. So we're a little peaved and tired. But we didn't shut the door on their requests; we have given the towns two weeks to finish building the shelves and then send us pictures that they are in fact done. Then we arrange for them to pick up the 3,000 to 5,000 books and we help them set up " a proper library" according to the Dewey Decimal system with children's section, juvenile section, reference section, fiction and non-fiction adult sections. Did I mention that the communities have known what was required of them from the very start when they received the application form? Why they wait until the last minute... We think that some communities hope that we will become impatient and then just build the shelves for them. Oh well. They don't know Hilda. It really is better to do it this way and get them to take responsibility for their library from the get go, because if the light bulb burns out or the librarian quits, we are not going to be around to solve the problem. It's called community development and it's usually not smooth, but it's the best way to go. We do enjoy seeing the different parts of Ghana; there's such variety. Few people in Ghana travel to as many places as we do. I mean the remote places. The town we're returning from in the north of Ghana is very remote. We were on a dirt road for about seventy miles, and probably forty of those miles were like a washboard. The fastest we could go was about fifteen miles an hour. The bumps jarred our teeth. Then as we got closer to Bole our destination, we found that they had started to improve the road, paving it from the town south. It's kind of the opposite of what one would expect. We really hope they finish their shelves so we can set up a library. They are remote and it would be such a valuable asset for them. They have the money from the District Assembly that could be used to build the shelves too. In fact, they claimed they had ordered shelves from a local carpenter, but he was delaying. When we happened to visit the carpenter in question, he said they had made the order but did not give him the deposit to buy the wood. We refused to get in the middle we just told them to get the shelves built and send us a picture. We had a special time two and a half weeks ago when Hilda's and my pastor, Reverend Paul Schindler from St. Bernard Church, Akron came with Reverend Kevin Conroy and Lee Friend. The two Catholic priests had served as missionaries in El Salvador and were used to conditions and ways in mission countries. Lee did very well as a first timer in a developing country. We visited Reverend Emmanuel Amadzi and Reverend Moses Debra who had both spent some time at St. Bernard's. Then we drove the group up to Kukurantumi and Hilda feted them. She has a young dance troupe that she works with every Sunday afternoon. They performed for the guests and for over a hundred people of Kukurantumi which came to the library for the quarterly reading contest awards. It was a lot of fun. The young man who won first prize had read over thirty books. He got first pick from the stuffed animals and clothes items that Hilda had brought over with our shipment of books. Each of the remaining contestants was allowed to pick a prize from the table as their rank in books read was reached. There was a contest as well for the adults and some clothes items and books for them to pick from. We sent Father Paul, Father Kevin and Lee to the airport Wednesday the 19th and then started our inspection tour the next day. We went to Mafe Mediage which is in the middle of a large plane which is bordered on the west by the Volta River (where I sailed January first as you remember), and on the east by the border with Togo. That dirt road was about thirty miles long. There are about seven villages in close proximity to each other and each one has a Mafe title before it to indicate their common cultural and ancestral bonds. So Mafe Mediage will share the library with Mafe Kumase and some other Mafe's. Back to the crater lake which I described at the start of this letter. It is very much like the cauldera of a volcano. All around the lake the shore rises sharply to a thin ridge which circles the entire lake. The meteor hit this place and blasted all the land out of the way, tearing the rock into a sharp serated edge round the circumference. The lake is deep...250 feet, and it is more than five miles in diameter with the ridge rising to 900 feet above the lake. It is fed by springs and there is a lot of fishing here. You can see it on a map of Ghana. It is the only other big lake in Ghana other than the Volta Lake. Tomorrow we leave for Kukurantumi, our home. It will be nice to stay put for a week and then February seventh we start going to the towns and setting up the libraries... pending the photos. The one town, three cheers, is Amanokrom. That is the one we visit February seventh to set up the library. For the rest, we will see. God bless you. We remember you in our prayers...the benefactors of Books For Africa Library Project
Kirt and Hilda
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