Books!
Trip Start
Jan 24, 2005
1
22
33
Trip End
Apr 2007
Asuncion,
Paraguay
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
My family came to visit us for Christmas and instead of packing lots of clothes and 15 pairs of shoes (as I so wisely did when I moved to France, a while back), they filled their suitcases with books in Spanish for our community. Freinds, colleagues, and family members donated these books for the purpose.
So the first thing I did was organize the books into reading levels (not very scientifically) and put groups of books in zip-lock bags. Some of the neighbors came by and saw the books and a few kids started coming over and I would give them a bag of books and they would sit on my porch and read. Sometimes we would read together, sometimes they would read to their friends. I started visiting neighbors' houses in the early evenings to read to kids. But when I would ask for the kids, older brothers and sisters, and mom and dad would come and listen and laugh at the funny parts and help their kid with the hard words. It turned into family reading hour. Super cool.
So now that school has started again, I'm doing a math project with my home school, and I've used some of the books to practice counting with Kindergarten. In two other schools, I'm doing a reading and writing project and I've used the books to model alphabets for the wall, and to read the books and make vocabulary cards to practice and make sentences and hang on the wall, etc. Simon has even used some of the books to talk about nutrition and dental health.
My goal is to recruit one of the teachers at my home school to act as librarian. I already check out books occasionally, but it would be better to get someone who lives in the community to get used to doing it.
Everyone who sees any of the books, one, five, or the whole shelf-full, is incredibly impressed. They are impressed by the quality of the books and by the generosity of those who gave them. Books in Paraguay cost at least as much as in the States, if not more. Take into consideration that a teacher in the states makes as much money in one day as a Paraguayan teacher makes in a month, and books are entirely unaffordable. So everyone is pleased to have them.
The other night one of our neighbors came by to visit (for no apparent reason)and was looking at my current novel (in English, of course). This is a favorite passtime of anyone who drops by the house and they always lose my page. So, I showed him one of the books in both Spanish and English. He was enthralled (despite the fact that by his own admission he speaks no Spanish and his understanding is limited) and spent the next half hour stuttering through the English and asking our approval and ended up taking the book home to read with his kids.
Thank you so much for thinking of us this Christmas. We think of you everytime we read with kids :)
