One Thousand Books!

We are reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe this trimester

One year ago there were 0 books in the Keetmanshoop Junior Secondary School library.

As of today, there are over 1,000 books -- and counting!

Some days I wish I could wave a magic wand and make all the problems and pain in my community disappear.  If I can't do that, then at least I'll celebrate in the small victories, and today that is recognizing a milestone: 1,000 books have been donated by dozens of people, who shared in a vision to help improve literacy at this school.  It's still a long road ahead, but with my Principal and Head of Department on board with this, I have hope that the library will continue to grow, and more and more students will learn to love to read.  I hope their world views will expand.  I hope they will find this as another way to spend their free time (when not much else is offered for youth here).  I hope they will improve their English reading and writing skills.  I hope that a culture of reading will grow.

So, thank you, thank you.  As I mentioned on Facebook:  thank you to Darien Book Aid.  And thank you to the friends & family, and friends & family of those friends & family who have contributed to this success in a school tucked away in the south of the second most sparcely populated country on Earth: Namibia.

Dankie almal.

Hey, don't judge.  Maybe one day we will have a super smart 10th grader that will devour Zen and the Art of Motorcylce Maintenance. But, look!  We are at book #1001!

I wish I could say that this kid is so excited about reading, that he's exploding with laughter!  Truth:  he's nervous to be on camera.

Why, yes!  I did use Peace Corps newspapers to cover the USPS boxes that contatined the donated books to create book cartons.

Look closey and you will find the ENTIRE Harry Potter series, AND the Hunger Games! These kids are spolied.