This article "Education nationale : Bientôt des tablettes électroniques dans nos écoles" caught my eye on ereaders coming to Burkina:

L'une des innovations, selon Koumba Boly/Barry, sera l'introduction prochaine de tablettes électroniques dans les salles de classe pour y remplacer les livres scolaires. Bientôt donc, les élèves auront des manuels électroniques à la place des livres d'Histoire, de Mathématiques ou de Géographie en langues nationales, en français et en anglais, a expliqué le ministre en charge de l'Education. L'introduction de cet outil technologique qui sera gratuit avec l'appui de la diaspora burkinabè, de la BAD, de la Banque mondiale et de l'UNICEF, connaîtra une phase expérimentale dans des écoles et centres d'alphabétisation afin de mieux déterminer ses caractéristiques, notamment la résistance et la facilité de lecture.

According to the article, it will all be funded from grants and so not cost the government anything. Hmmm.... really?  And why not fund libraries first? Hmmmm....

I loved this comment:

Avant les tablettes électroniques, construisez d'abord des écoles. Dans une classe de 150 élèves avec 30 tables. Comment utiliser les tablettes. Mieux, il faut se rappeler que le burkina ne se limite pas à Ouaga seulement. Il ya des chefs de départements qui n'ont pas encore d'électricité et des écoles sous paillotes. N'en parlons pas des villages.
Donnez nous des écoles et des table-bancs. Pour les tablettes, il faut attendre en 2030. A moins que ces tablettes soient destinées aux enfants des ministres. Mais il parait qu'ils ne sont inscrits au faso ;

Burkina Faso's State Secretary of Education gave a speech on how urgent it is to reform the Education system in the country. The happier thing she announced is that primary education will be an obligation and free for everybody. So the parents do not have any reason to not send their kids to school. This is a strong statement, but the governement will need to follow with strong actions. People need more schools, more libraries, well trained teachers, especially in the rural zones. A 30% literacy rate in the country is still very low and only 21% of women can read. Considering the important influence of women in a child's education in Burkina Faso, the government needs to do more. Read the article on the national elevision's website

Emilie writes:

My mom (the librarian) shared this video with me. It's great that this stunt really woke people up about the importance of libraries. It's still incredibly sad though, that the group had to resort to ridiculous claims of book burnings in order to do so.

Seeing this reminded me of Alameda, where I currently live, and the recent vote on Measure C. Measure C proposed a half-cent sales tax that would pay for city projects including funding a library, cultural and recreational facilities, improving schools and fire protection/911 emergency response. In a city full of old, rich white yuppies, it obviously and unfortunately failed. I can't help but think that some sort of version of this stunt could have helped change ignorant minds...

When you come across something like this, in the Texas legislature statutes from 1915, it really makes you wonder about calculating all the tax payments that black people (virtually all descended from slaves and disenfranchised but taxpaying in the South from around 1880-1960) made that went to pay for services for white people only...

I have recieved two boxes of books that I ordered on fastpencil. It a total of 55 mini-book that will be used in the coming Summer Reading Camps. The first titled : L'Hygiene Est Pour Tout Le Monde is written by Kara Coughlin a former RWA program student in Burkina Faso. The second book is the Bwamu-French version of Moringa a book by Alison Wallace and Christopher Davis two Peace Corps volunteers currently in Burkina Faso. More books here: FAVL's Books

Dounko wrote about the village libraries' subscriptions to Planete jeune, an African youth magazine :

"Le mardi 8 juin 2012 l'équipe favl au Burkina a visité le siège de planète jeune à Ouagadougou (BF). Après un accueil chaleureux de la secrétaire, nous avons présenté notre
association dénommé Amis des Bibliothèques de Villages Africains (FAVL) au premier responsable monsieur Ky. Celui-ci a salué cette belle initiative qui améliore et améliora toujours le savoir en milieu rural. Ce qui va éclairer et donner plus d'opportunités et de chance de réussir à chaque enfant des villages bénéficiaires qui n'avaient d'autres livres que ceux du programme scolaire. A l'issue de notre entretien nous avons abonné les 12 bibliothèques que FAVL soutient au BF. Cet abonnement qui durera 2ans à compter de juillet 2012 à juin 2014 va permettre aux populations des villages d'acquérir les informations au même moment que celles des villes pour un meilleur épanouissement, a été l'œuvre d' Emily Wilson, une donatrice qui ne cesse de nous encourager et a qui nous disons merci. Très touché, Mr Ky na pas résisté au geste du donateur et l'a accompagné en offrant à chaque bibliothèque 3 journaux (n° 128, 129 de planète jeune et le n° 505 d'Amina un magasin pour femmes) soit un total de 36 journaux et posters. Pour Ky cette belle initiative doit être soutenue par les autorités communales afin de permettre un équilibre scolaire entre les élèves des campagnes et ceux des villes. Monsieur Ky se dit convaincu que plus de cent lecteurs liront chaque journal ce qui va donner un impact positif sur le contenu des journaux planètes jeunes aimés par tous. Au nom de l'Association nous lui avons remercié tout en invitant à visiter une de nos bibliothèques un ces jours."

An interesting slideshow on the BBCNews website. It talks about girls being servants in other people's houses (which is very common amongst the civil servant set here in Burkina). Some of these girls are lucky because they get sent to richer relatives who can pay for their schooling and provide better food. Unfortunately, others are put in horrible situations where they are taken advantage of, treated as slaves and abused. Gives you a little perspective on the tough situations girls often face when they (or their parents) are seeking a better life. Luckily, some of the girls have figured out how to break the cycle and find work as tailors or carpenters.

The library in Ouargaye is coming together nicely. The renovation of the building is done. Dounko is working on ordering furniture (chairs for kids and adults, tables, a desk for the librarian, bookshelves) here in Ouaga to have them sent to Ouargaye. The furniture will be ready in about a month, and then we can start buying books and filling up those bookshelves! We hope to have the library open by the end of July. So the librarian will have plenty of time to do any last minute preparations before the reading camp in Ouargaye at the end of September, for which we already have two very eager volunteers signed up. So we're looking good in the centre-est.
 

"I love reading" "so do I" This is what these kids are saying in this drawing, which will be the front design of the t-shirts for the Summer Reading Camps.

Last Sunday was the Bay Area Burkinabe get together in Oakland. Like every meeting, this was the occasion to fraternize and eat good African dishes even if there was some typical American food (KFC and cookies). Anatole Tiendrebeogo, who organized the first meeting of Burkinabe in Oakland, is leaving California to go back to Burkina Faso where he will be working in Saaba. Anatole will possibly join the Reading West Africa program in Burkina this fall. He is a very nice guy and I think that the students and the FAVL team will appreciate working with him.

From Tyler Cowen's Marginal Revolution

Brazilian prisoners are now able to shorten their sentences by reading books and writing essays about them.

...four days less for every book they read.  Inmates in four federal prisons holding some of Brazil's most notorious criminals will be able to read up to 12 works of literature, philosophy, science or classics to trim a maximum 48 days off their sentence each year, the government announced.

Prisoners will have up to four weeks to read each book and write an essay which must "make correct use of paragraphs, be free of corrections, use margins and legible joined-up writing," said the notice published on Monday in the official gazette.

The story is here, and for the pointer I thank David Zetland.  Here is the Reddit discussion.

So somebody thinks reading a whole bunch of books has some effects on a certain category of people.... pretty wild actually.   Wish they had designed this as a randomized experiment.

On Saturday, the FAVL team led its second annual training for Peace Corps volunteers wishing to help facilitate our summer reading camps. Despite some technical difficulties (because I am about as technologically knowledgeable as an 80 year old) that did not allow me to present to full effect the fantastic PowerPoint that I had prepared, the training was successful. After presenting the FAVL team (Donkoui, Alidou, Dounko, Antoinette and I were present) and FAVL's mission and presence in Burkina, we talked about reading camps, why we do them, how they are organized and where they take place; how to integrate our theme of hygiene into reading activities and use the educational books; how to work with the lowest level readers and how to organize a reading camp in a volunteer's own village. We got through all of the material a lot more quickly than we though, but the volunteers seemed genuinely interested in the project and were eager to bring up their own ideas and suggestions. We worked in small groups (each group with a member of the FAVL team) about how to use educational books. One group worked with Bouba et Zaza Protègent Respectent L'eau, another with Bouba et Zaza Mesurent les Dangers et Fatou Perd Ses Dents. Each group read their story and then talked about techniques they could use for training kids on the topic in the book while reading it. The groups mentioned a lot of good ideas including having the kids talk about the images before reading the text, explaining difficult vocabulary words, asking comprehension questions and asking the kids how the stories relate to their lives. The volunteers really liked the Bouba et Zaza series, and said they thought the kids would get a lot out of the books. When it came time to sign up for the camps, a couple volunteers signed up for more than one, and a couple others called some friends to recruit them. They also appreciated the delicious riz gras, bissap and pain de singe that Salimata and her sister so kindly prepared for us. The 2012 edition of the reading camps look to be off to a successful start!

We like to think that philanthropy isn't wasted, but there are plenty of stories of how a generous impulse ended up with little to show for it.  See Playpumps.  There are a host of reasons. 

As I continue with background research on history of libraries in the late 1800s in the United States, I am continually amazed at some of the stories of individual philanthropy.  Today, though, was a distressing story.  I came across this pithy summary of the library philanthropy of William Maclure a wealthy Scottish immigrant, world traveler and geologist who donated his fortune to establish libraries in Indiana (after a falling out with Robert Owen's New Harmony society in Illinois):

"In a number of towns in Indiana and a few in other States free libraries for workingmen have been established through the liberality of the late William Maclure of Philadelphia whose gifts and bequests for this purpose amounted to about $150,000 in sums of from $400 to $500 for each library With two or three exceptions these libraries have been unfortunate and many of them have become extinct Seventeen of them in Indiana reported in all 11,495 volumes in 1874 75 with a total circulation of 13,380 volumes Only two reported a yearly income which for both amounted to but $110. The administrator of the estate writes: "As all the funds of the estate have been expended and as there is no mode of forcing the societies to carry on the intention of the testator the libraries will probably be lost""  From Public Libraries in the United States of America, Issue 4, Part 1, 1876, p. 454.

So his fortune established perhaps 300 libraries (at $500 each; remember that around 1840 a book cost only about 30-50 cents $100 would have purchased 200 books, more than enough for a nice small town library in 1840).  But only 17 appeared to be functioning in 1876, 35 years later.

One of them was the library of Poseyville, possibly:

In the early 19th century, a Scotsman named William McClure came to Southern Indiana. He was interested in the education of the working man, and upon his death left his property so that each Township in the State of Indiana could recieve a portion to be used for the 'Workingmen's Library'. Robb Township was given $500. A selection of books was made and a small 2 room cottage was rented, becoming Poseyville's first library. 

1861 began the Civil War. Poseyville's young men left the area to join the fight. Interest in the library ceased.  In 1901 the state of Indiana passed a law giving the right to levee a small tax for the support of libraries. Poseyville incorporated and officially became a town in 1901 and had a township library. The Town Hall was built, and the upper room was furnished by Mr. George Waters and books were moved into it. Miss Ottie Sands was elected its librarian.

Between 1901-1904 George Waters wrote to Mr. Andrew Carnegie to establish a library in Poseyville. At first there was no response to this letter. Mr. Waters went in person to meet with Andrew Carnegie about building a library in Poseyville. He recieved little encouragement. He was not easily discouraged, and wrote to Mr. Carnegie again. This time the reply came and stated that if a site were found and 10% of the money could be raised as permanent support, the sum of $5000 would be given.  Mr. Leroy Williams donated the ground for the library to be built upon. Andrew Carnegie supplied the $5000 in 3 installments for the building of the library and later donated another $500 for library furniture.

Now I want a grandchild named Ottie Sands, of course.

Former FAVL volunteer Alison Yue (in Ghana in 2011) organized a fundraising activity in her business writing class. The project had to focus on a non-profit that "we share a special connection with" and Alison wrote that:

this being said, all I could think about was FAVL. This past summer working in Ghana with Jessica was a life changing experience and I have grown immensely by volunteering with your program. My group and I want to work with a program that has significant value to SCU, the students, and faculty. With your permission, our group would like to work with Friends of African Village Libraries as our beneficiary!

Today under my door I received $272 from the fundraising dinner at Zeni Ethiopian restaurant in Saratoga. Many thanks to all who participated!!!!!

A library entrepreneur in Kenya wrote recently asking for advice, so I thought we would post my and Kate's replies. 

My quick thoughts:

If your librarian could travel to Uganda, I am sure a training at Kitengesa Library in Uganda would be very useful.  Alternatively there is a community library in Busia operated by an NGO called Maria's Library that might be a good place for help and networking.

There are a number of documents on the FAVL website you might find useful:
http://www.favl.org/links.html  Also of course on the blog there is plenty of useful info.  We have not had time to pull together everything we have learned in terms of practical tips.  A pity.  But mostly it is all common sense I think.  Running a library is pretty straightforward. The hardest problem I think is ensuring that there is long-term institutional oversight somehow... The question to ask is, 10 years from now, who will be ensuring that the library is open and operating reasonably well.  if there is no one credibly making that commitment (people in the community saying they will volunteer, if they are not reasonably wealthy, are not that credible, in my experience... the many shocks and constraints of people in villages make it infeasible for them to take full "ownership" to repair leaking roofs, by more books, etc.  Sounds like though you are embedding in a successful cooperative, so maybe there is nothing to worry about there.)

And Kate wrote:

It is terrific that you are planning to set up (or have already set up?) a library in western Kenya. I don't know Gisambai District, though I do know the Ugandan side of the border fairly well.

Michael's advice below is both good and important, and I hope you find the FAVL documents useful. His reference to ten years is appropriate: the library that I am myself most closely involved with (the Kitengesa Community Library in Masaka District, Uganda) is now just ten years old, and it has really taken that long to build it up as a strong community institution. If I had left it after just two years, it would certainly have collapsed. And I'm afraid continuing financial support is likely to be necessary for at least that long. A friend has just done a study of successful libraries in Uganda, and it appears that there are two essential factors: (1) strong community backing, and (2) a regular income, especially for paying a librarian, but also for maintaining and expanding the collection.

With regard to the collection, please consider buying some of the books locally. Heinemann Kenya, now owned by Pearson, has published many good books for African children and teenagers, especially in the Junior African Writers (JAWS) series -- and while people in our Ugandan libraries are happy to have any books, they are much happier if those books feature African people and address African issues directly. I'm also worried that if a library is stocked exclusively with donated books from northern countries, children (and adults too) will get the idea that writers and publishers have to be Wazungu. Finally, it's really important to get books in Swahili for a Kenyan public (though they're little use for southern Ugandans), and, again, those are produced by Kenyan publishers as well as Tanzanian ones.

For training, yes, your people would certainly be welcome to spend some days at Kitengesa, though I'm going to have to formalize this with Dan Ahimbisibwe, our librarian, because we're now getting so many wanting to do this! There are other libraries, too, closer to where you are that might be helpful: the Bushikori Christian Centre near Mbale; the Busolwe Public Library in Butaleja District not far from Tororo; the Caezaria Public Library in Buikwe District. All these are members of a network of libraries called the Uganda Community Libraries Association (UgCLA), of which I am the chairperson, and which is affiliated to FAVL (most importantly, FAVL helps us raise funds in the United States, while in return we give FAVL some East African heft).I'm attaching a list of our members both to give the contact information for the libraries that I've mentioned (though I have to admit that I have been unable recently to contact Bushikori by phone) and to show you how extensive the network is -- we have about 100 member libraries, even if not all of them are active. I think this network is extremely important. We have a conference every year through which the managers of the libraries get to know one another and exchange ideas, and we do our best to get grants to support projects for selected libraries, usually on a competitive basis. This year, for example, we are administering a project with ten of them for Book Aid International. We also visit as many of our member libraries as we can -- on Monday, for example, I'm off to Mbale to monitor some of the BAI project libraries and to get to know other libraries that have joined us in the past year. This combination of activities is critical to sustaining morale and to building capacity. UgCLA has a website, www.ugcla.org, but since we're having problems at present keeping it up to date, the best source of information is FAVL's blog, where you could search either for Uganda or for UgCLA.

There is as yet no such network in Kenya, though there are a number of community libraries, and I keep hoping that someone will take the initiative to bring them all together. Western Kenya is not so far from Uganda, though, and we already have one member from Rwanda, so I don't see why your library shouldn't join UgCLA if you wanted it to. Our next conference, in January 2013, is likely to be in Mbale, in fact, so it would be relatively easy for your library representative to get to. The subscription for this year is 30,000 Uganda shillings, though in 2013 we're raising it to 50,000 and are also asking for a 50,000 shillings contribution to our Development Fund -- a suggestion made by our members at our last Annual General Meeting when I explained how much money we were losing on each conference! The 100,000 shillings total will be payable at the conference, but that is the only cost since UgCLA covers accommodation etc. There are now 2400 Uganda shillings to the dollar, by the way, so it's not such a very large amount of money.

As part of a research project that I will be working on diligently all summer, on the history of American public libraries, I was getting acquainted with what Americans were reading, and what was recommended to them to read, around the turn of the century.  For example, the journal Public Libraries, that had started being published in 1896, had a short report from the state librarian at Albany in New York.  They had surveyed by mail 800 small libraries in the state, asking them to select, from a list of 500 books, which 50 they thought were "best for a village library."  Interestingly, the number one book (receiving the most votes) was J.M. Barrie's Sentimental Tommy, which I had never heard of, but which really is quite interesting, with its really catching opening:

The celebrated Tommy first comes into view on a dirty London stair, and
he was in sexless garments, which were all he had, and he was five, and
so though we are looking at him, we must do it sideways, lest he sit
down hurriedly to hide them. That inscrutable face, which made the
clubmen of his later days uneasy and even puzzled the ladies while he
was making love to them, was already his, except when he smiled at one
of his pretty thoughts or stopped at an open door to sniff a potful.

Second most votes went to Sir George Tressady by "Mrs. Humphry Ward" who wrote dozens of moralistic Victorian novels... seemingly the opposite of Barrie!

A great book by Christine Pawley - Reading on the Middle Border: The Culture of Print in Osage, Iowa, 1860-1900 - on the reading habits of residents of Osage, Iowa, suggests that a favorite poem seems to have been Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant.  More interesting is that Pawley finds that the most popular book in 1890-95 in the Osage Library (in terms of check outs) was A History of England, reminding us that perhaps the elite Protestant readers of towns like Osage loved to be reminded of their "victory" over the Catholics, who often constituted the working class in Midwestern towns.

For more highbrow readers, below is advertisement in Public Libraries for books (at 50 cents a copy!).  I wonder what The Story of a Bad Boy was about!

I've had a long Skpe call with Donkoui today about projects going on in Burkina. All the coordinators, animators and volunteers are working actively on the final details of the Peace Corps volunteers workshop which will take place tomorrow in Ouagadougou, at the Peace Corps Bureau. The objective of this workshop is to enable the volunteers to work with the kids in the reading camps, based on the experence of the FAVL staff.
Also, Donkoui and I talked about the future Multimedia Center in Hounde. The FAVL staff is really enthousiast about the idea of producing micro-books locally. There is a lot of books ideas that they would like to see published and make them available for the village libraries. More information about FAVL micro-books here.

Dounko writes:

Du dimanche 17 au mercredi 20 juin 2012 j'ai fait une sortie à Houndé. L'objectif de cette sortie était de rencontrer Donkoui et Alidou pour finaliser le deuxième numéro du bulletin Echo des Bibliothèques suivi d'une sortie pour constater les progrès ou insuffisances aux bibliothèques et bibliothécaires.

Arrivée à Houndé Donkoui, Alidou et moi, nous nous sommes rencontrés au siège de FAVL. Les points inscrits à notre ordre du jour sont les suivants :
1. Échanges sur le deuxième numéro écho des bibliothèques;
2. Programmation des dates de tirage aux choix des participants des camps de 2012;
3. Divers

Abordant le premier point des écrits pour le bulletin ont été donnés à Donkoui pour faire des ajustements ou résumer certains textes jugés trop long. Quant au deuxième point portant sur le tirage du choix des élèves du camp de lecture 2012, nous avons défini les critères du choix de la manière suivante : la présence de 2 membres de l'APE, 2 membres de l'AME, le directeur de l'école ou son représentant et un représentant de la mairie.  On fait écrire 25 oui et 5 attentes pour chaque camp. Concernant le dernier point qui est celui des divers, Donkoui a fait le bilan des tâches effectuées à savoir la rédaction des demandes de soutiens au niveau local, la rencontre avec le maire de Béréba et l'adjointe du maire de Boni, les notes sur l'évaluation du mois de mai, etc. J'ai fait le bilan du cross et les demandes de soutien au niveau de Ouagadougou. Nous avons pris l'initiative que les camps de 2012 soient parrainer par les maires ou des personnes ressources des villages bénéficiaires des bibliothèques afin de les impliquer dans la participation des camps de lecture.

Après je suis rentré à Béréba où j'ai rencontré le directeur de l'école de Béréba pour lui expliquer comment va se dérouler le choix des participants au camp de lecture 2012. Compte tenu des examens la date a été reporté au vendredi 22 juin. Quant à Dimikuy la date du mercredi 20 juin a été retenue après conversation avec le directeur de Dimikuy.

French readers, I have two great books for you!

J'ai toujours hésité a donner mes impressions sur les œuvres d'auteurs autobiographiques. Dany Laferrière en fait partie. En effet, que peut on dire sur l'œuvre de L'enfant de Petit Gaove, auteur essentiellement autobiographique, sans se surprendre en train de parler de sa vie, ce que lui-même décrit? C'est pourquoi je vous suggère de lire non pas un... mais deux de ses livres: Pays sans chapeau, et L'énigme du retour.

























Ces œuvres de Dany Laferriere sont l'histoire d'un exile répété, de la fuite d'une dictature, toute aussi répétée! De père en fils. Le père de Dany homme politique haïtien, dandy et grand séducteur devant l'éternel, se voit contraint de fuir François Duvalier (Papa Doc). Il s'exile a New York et il y meurt dans une quasi paranoïa, sans jamais plus revoir sa famille. Dany, quand a lui, échappe de justesse aux hommes de Jean-Claude Duvalier (Bébé Doc), s'exile au Quebec ou il devient écrivain et homme de média. Ces deux romans décrivent un esprit révolutionnaire, provocateur et persévérante, s'adaptant à son milieu sans pour autant perdre ses valeurs haïtiennes; valeurs si chères qu'une mère omniprésente dans ses récits a su lui inculquer à lui Vieux os, dans son existence québécoise. S'il faut prendre un jour le temps d'écrire l'influence de la politique Haitienne sur la création artistique et littéraire de cette île, je pense que ces deux romans de Laferriere sont un reflet fidèle de l'impact de la dictature des Duvaliers sur la société Haitienne avec son corollaire de pauvreté, de misère mais aussi son désir de changement.

We received a visit last weekend from Sara Thompson and a representative from Tin Tua, which is an organization in Burkina that works on French and bilingual literacy in the eastern part of the country. Sara, who has been a big fan of FAVL since she participated in reading camps last summer, wanted the Tin Tua representative to meet with Dounko, who has a lot of experience in setting up and managing libraries. It is a nice honor for FAVL to be so highly thought of in the field of library organization and management.

Dounko writes:

Le samedi 16 juin 2012 Sara Thompson, PCV, et le coordonateur de l'association Tin Tua, Dohami Aly, ont visité le bureau de FAVL à Ouagadougou. L'objectif de cette visite était de rencontrer le représentant de FAVL pour des échanges en matière de gestion d'une bibliothèque communautaire. Arrivés à 13h20mn, je leur ai souhaité la bienvenue dans nos mûrs. Après la présentation, M. Dohami a pris la parole pour donner l'objet de leur visite et l'état de leur bibliothèque communautaire que Sara Thompson vient de soutenir avec des documents disponibles. L'acquisition des livres demande une amélioration de la gestion. C'est ainsi qu'elle a souhaité une rencontre avec FAVL qui a une expérience dans la gestion des bibliothèques communautaires  pour avoir des connaissances et outils de bonne gestion afin d'assurer une durabilité de leur bibliothèque.

J'ai expliqué comment FAVL gère ses bibliothèques en ces points suivants : comment se présente une bibliothèque, les étagères, comment se fait le classement des livres (types de littératures, rangement après consultation etc.), comment se font les abonnements, les cahiers utilisés pour une bonne gestion, le comportement d'un bon bibliothécaire, comment faire connaitre la bibliothèque par la communauté, l'importance d'implication de la mairie pour aider la durabilité de la bibliothèque et , les heures d'ouvertures entre autres.

Toutes ces informations sur une bonne gestion de la bibliothèque ont été données. Des dépliants de FAVL, le rapport annuel de 2011, les fiches de sorties, comment tracer les cahiers de la bibliothèque ont été remis pour servir d'exemple.

Avant de partir chacun a laissé dans le cahier de visite les mots suivants :
- Dohami Aly: «Visite d'échange sur l'organisation et la gestion d'une bibliothèque villageoise. Je suis très satisfait des échanges. Merci et courage.»
- Sara Thompson «Très bon échange avec le représentant. Je suis très contente du représentant qui a bien expliqué tout sur une bibliothèque. Très bien organisé pour une bonne présentation. Merci beaucoup sincèrement.»
 
De ma part, j'ai laissé entendre mes satisfactions pour l'importance qu'ils ont accordée à notre structure, tout en leur disant notre entière disponibilité pour tout renseignement.

Elisée wrote:
Donkoui just sent us the last update of the solar lights impact on the students whom are preparing their primary school final examination in Bereba:

Le premier examen de l'école primaire CEP au BURKINA FASO a débuté le mardi 12
Juin 2012 sur toute l'étendue du territoire. Beaucoup sont les élèves du programme de recherche de FAVL ayant bénéficié des lampes solaires et candidats à ce dit examen.
Les élèves de l'école de KARABA ont composé dans le centre de HOUNDE. Ils sont
venus avec leurs lampes solaires pour s'en servir. Ils ont été logés dans une salle de l'école HOUNDE B sans lumière. Généralement dans ces cas de figure, les eleves apportent chacun sa lampe pour éclairer le logement et pouvoir réviser les dernières notions la nuit avant de dormir. Approchés, les élèves se sont exprimés sur l'utilité des lampes solaires qui se prolongent jusqu'à la phase de leur examen final du CEP .Je cite les propos d'un élève de KARABA : « les lampes que nous avons reçues l'an passé nous ont permis de pouvoir étudier la nuit et de passer en classe de CM2 et nos parents les utilisent souvent pour des activités à la maison. Aujourd'hui, nous les avons apportées ici pour l'examen du CEP parce que chaque année notre école est logée dans des salles de classe sans lumière. Nous avons vraiment la chance d'avoir eu les lampes. Nous souhaitons que nos petits frères en gagnent chaque année. »
Le maitre de la classe et la directrice de l'école qui ont travaillé dans le même centre
d'examen que moi ont dit que l'utilité des lampes n'est plus à démontrer car les enfants s'en servent sans frais. La motivation de certains enfants à apprendre est du à cela. Ils souhaitent que le donateur donne encore des lampes solaire à un maximum d'élèves possible.

Donkoui Koura
FAVL coordinator

"Ugh!"

That was my first impression after reading this Wall Street Journal article: "An E-Reader Revolution for Africa?"

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303768104577462683090312766.html?mod=WSJ_hps_editorsPicks_3

Maybe I'm pulling a Sarah Erdman, author of "Nine Hills to Nambonkaha." While a great writer, I was  put off by her negativity towards technology that actually facilitated and empowered the lives of Africans in rural villages (complaining about the new light posts because it diminished her views of the night sky...please).

But a Kindle for every student? I think it's fair to say that the education system in numerous African countries needs improvement, but should kindles really be at the top of the list?

Maybe it has nothing to do with my pulling an Erdman, but just about how much I romanticize real books, and my reluctance to accept that kindles are the new thing.

Or maybe, I'm just jealous.

Whatever it is, I'm really curious to see how this "one kindle per child" pans out over the next few years. How effective are they? What happens when it breaks? Are students really more engaged in their school work with a Kindle? Does using it help improve a student's academic success? Anyone doing a research project on this? Michael?

My favorite part of summer when I was a teenager was volunteering for the summer reading program at our town's public library (I've said it before, I was a nerdy teenager). The young adult librarian is a very motivated lady who was very active in getting young adults interested in community service. Over the course of the years, the program has evolved and come to be a bigger and bigger part of Brockport's summer activities. So I was happy to come across this blog post from the local city paper that let me know that the summer activities at Brockport-Seymour Library are alive and kicking, complete with Library Olympics. This made me really happy, especially when a lot of articles I have been reading about libraries make it seem like they will inevitably be replaced with computers and a lot of towns are cutting down on funding.

P.S. I don' t know exactly "Library Olympics" means, but sounds like something we should check out for the 2013 edition of the FAVL summer reading camps!

I have to admit, it's always been a dream of mine to receive a giant check. I think it was all the lotto advertisements I grew up seeing on the television. Well on June 7th, that dream came true at an ISO assembly where the librarian presented us with a check of all the money her students had earned during the read-a-thon. The final total was 1.793.070 FCFA that will go toward the reading camps. As a thank you, we presented ISO with a blanket from Bwaba country to be hung in the library after the summer vacation. We hope to be able to work with ISO on projects in the future!

With all the fundraising successes we've had at FAVL Burkina as of late, I forgot that no matter how much you plan and organize and try to conjole people into participation, sometimes a combination of factors prevents an event from welcoming a lot of participants. Well, sadly, Dounko and I were reminded of this on Saturday morning, when at 7:30 we still only had 4 participants at the Race for Reading. The participants we did have were enthusiastic (one woman ran the 6K and then went back in to run the 3K) and were eager to supplement their participation fees with book purchases. We did make a small chunk of change from generous donations from fans of FAVL and book sales, which was good. We'll need a new strategy for the event for next year, but I think we're up to the task. Here are a few pictures from the event.

OK it was silly, but listening to this book on a long car drive to Los Angeles made a lot of sense.  it is well written and the action moves right along. The theme of "fitting in" is great for adolescents, and the idea that the villain (the "hiver") can also be a tragic figure is nicely done.  Recommended for the 10-13 set.  The story is a young witch Tiffany Aching discovering her power and not sure that she wants it, but events overtake her, and she must make terrible choices.  The senior witch  Mistress Weatherwax is really wonderfully portrayed, lying on her bed with the bees, a perfect mysterious adult.

Books like these jive well my my favorite pet hypothesis about religion, spirituality, etc.: On the gradient of spiritual, the more books like this you read, the more you shift from "believing" specific imagery of the spiritual world (someone sitting at the right hand of God, etc.) and instead "believe" in a universe that is full of mystery, with each specific particular mystery not verified by science equally implausible but still fun if it has a good story.  In other words, all specific "religion cosmographies" may as well be ones written down by Terry Pratchett.  And once you have read enough of these, you can't take the specifics of any religion seriously (the world is disenchanted).  I'd love to know whether evangelical Christians are children's fantasy readers and how they "read" the fantasy worlds.  (See here for early roots of the children's fantasy genre and Christian reaction; I guess if I were really interested in this, I'd have to ask what C.S. Lewis was up to with Narnia... presumably he held the complete opposite view: creating a fantasy world that has "traces" of the Christian cosmography would reinforce belief in a specific Christian universe.

From boingboing.  For a real downer read all the boingboing comments... lot's of unemployed librarians railing against Emporia!

Matt sez, "The School of Library and Inoformation Management at Emporia State University (Kansas, USA) unveiled a comic book aimed at generating newfound excitement for librarianship and increasing the awareness of the many opportunities that an MLS/MLIS degree can provide. From the same team that created Library of the Living Dead and Monster Clash, Supreme Librarians in Metaspace is a promotional comic that highlights the many facets of librarianship in a quirky, tongue-in-cheek manner. This resource encourages librarians around the world to take a look at the profession in a new light. And maybe have a laugh or two while doing it."

Supreme Librarians in Metaspace (Thanks, Matt!)

HT:Sundersterdam

Elisée wrote:

This is FAVL new mico-book. The text and the photos are from Alison Wallace and Christopher Davis, two peace corps volunteer in Burkina Faso. This is a excellent book about the moringa, a multiple-purpose plant used in Burkina Faso. The book titled Làbàɲu is in bwamu language translated in french. Coming soon the moore-french and the jula-french versions. Here is some of the wonderful pictures from the book now available on fastpencil.

See also Ricou's fabulous website Sénégalmétis.

Burkina/the Sahel has been making the news a lot quite recently. And sadly, it is not for good reasons. We're rolling into the time of the year that is called "hungry season" where the stores from last year's harvest are starting to run out and planting is just starting, so new crops won't be ready until around September. Even worse, last year we had a horrible rainy season and refugees from Mali have been fleeing over the border (and staying up north, a region that can ill afford to increase its population when it is often difficult to feed those who are already there). The only things that are plentiful right now are mangoes and onions, which while delicious, do not a nutritious meal make. Everything is quite expensive for even yours truly, so imagine how it is for a Burkinabè trying to feed a family of 8 or more. Almost impossible.

Thus, I was not surprised to once again run across an article about Burkina and an imminent food crisis. This time in the Huffington Post in an article called "The Forgotten Crisis: As the Hunger Season Sets in, Burkinabès Need Not Worry about Body Image." The author provides an interesting viewpoint, though, as well as some perspective for those of us in the western world. She talks about how a lot of people in Burkina do not have enough to eat while in other countries 5 year olds are being put of diets because they eat too much. As we all know, I'm not one for the "oh poor Africa" gimmicks because they provide a picture of a helpless continent that can only be saved by more "developed" countries. A Modern White Man's Burden. But this article makes you think about all the gluttonous food we consume/waste and the millions of dollars we spend every year in a fight to make ourselves thin.

I think the author misses the mark a little bit with the article. In general, Burkinabè do not have body image problems. They are proud when they have meat on their bones. She forgets that even those Burkinabè who are well-fed (like the woman who teases her friend that she is definitely not malnourished) are thought to look beautiful and healthy. Also, they are well enough off to eat well.

At the end of the day, it's an interesting article, but it leaves you wondering what the author is really saying. Just that we should count or blessings and reorganize or priorities? That we should be sending some of our waste to Burkina to feed these children? That we need to send money. She makes an awkward analogy between The Hunger Games book series and the "hunger season" in the Sahel. She just ends the article with a quote "'You see, food and time are running out,'" but offers no suggestions on what we, the audience, can do to help.

If you like space opera then I guess this will work for you.  I found myself basically bored after 100  pages, and then started asking myself whether this wasn't really The Maltese Falcon... the Dwellers (large "floater" creatures living in giant gas planets, who act all naive) were Sydney Greenstreet.... and the hero Faas, Humphrey Bogart?  It really started making sense... A reviewer here suggests it was Terry Pratchett silly, in a bad way... I agree.  I had high hopes Banks would rescue me from a post-Vinge forget sci-fi cause it is just same-old same-old... he didn't.  Anyway, I skimmed the whole novel in about 8 hours, so it would be perfect for an airplane ride.

Still, would be nice if kids in African villages could while away a couple of weeks with an entertaining sci-fi novel like this... a good starter novel, though requires considerable familiarity with the genre. 

De notre coordonateur Koura Donkoui:

Chers collègues,
Cette semaine a été particulièrement chargée avec les activités suivantes:

• l'organisation de la rencontre mensuelle du 7 juin 2012
• la poursuite des contacts avec les maires pour des rendez vous
• la synthèse des évaluations du mois de mai 2012
• la rédaction des lettres de soutien aux camps de lecture pour tous les maires de la province, et une dizaine de lettre remise à chaque gérant pour les ressortissants de sa localité et les personnes ressources ,autres commerçants,
• le contact avec GOURCY qui m'a envoyé la convention amendée à la mairie

• une conversation téléphonique m' a laissé entendre que le maire va apprécié juste avant de m'inviter pour la signature,
• jeudi 7 juin 2012 rencontre mensuelle selon l'ordre du jour suivant

1. le bilan des évaluations de mai
2. Technique de résumé d'un livre( fiche de lecture)
3.  Informations sur les camps (programme )
4. Demande de soutien pour les partenaires locaux

• remplissage de certains rapports
• lecture de la lettre de MICHAEL adressé à équipe FAVL Burkina Ghana
• livres offerts par ISO, ordinateur offert par US embassy
• réparation des hangars pour camps de lecture
• conversation téléphonique m'annonçant l'arrivée du maire de BONI et négociation d'un rendez pour lundi dans l'après midi à BONI pour échanger sur la convention.

Dounko writes:

En mois de mars 2012 le staff régional de FAVL au niveau du Tuy a fait une sortie pour constater les animations faites par les bibliothécaires. L'objectif est de voire comment ceux-ci accueillent les enfants et surtout comment ils animent les séances de jeux. A cette sortie les bibliothécaires de Béréba, Zomizou Koura et Ivette Koura, ont fait une démonstration pratique du jeu de domino apprécié par les enfants du primaire et les enfants non scolarisés en présence du coordonateur régional. Après avoir apprécié cette séance il les a invités à prendre les mesures nécessaires pour la récupération des livres en retard, le respect des dates d'activités programmées et la lecture du guide du bibliothécaire afin d'être plus efficace.

One of my favorite things is when I come across a book that I simply can't put down. You know you've found "that book," when you're in bed at night, planning to read only four more pages because of that early morning meeting the next day, but end up reading four more chapters instead, finally looking up to see that it's 2am (those bags under your eyes and need of two extra cups of coffee the next day are totally worth it!). It's when you're willing to carry a 400+ page book around with you everywhere, in case you find five free minutes to read while running errands (my five free minutes came while waiting in line at the grocery store). It's when you become completely lost in the world of this book, and don't really want to come back. It's when you can't wait to read more to find out what happens next, yet you never want the book to end.

My most recent "can't put it down" book was Lauren Hillenbrand's "Unbroken: a World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption." The title was uninspiring. Ugh, another war story, I thought to myself. But like the saying goes, "don't judge a book by its cover."
Hillenbrand tells the true story of Louis Zamperini. Zamperini was a highly successful runner, whose plans of running in the Olympics and breaking the 4 minute mile barrier were set aside after World War II began and Louie became a bombardier. This is where Louie's nightmare begins...and seems to never end. His plane crashes at sea while on a rescue mission, with Louie and only two other crew members surviving. They end up drifting at sea on a raft for forty seven days (during which one of the three crew members dies.)
After battling off shark attacks and slowly dying of thirst and starvation, Louie and his friend Phil are rescued, or should I say captured....by the Japanese, and become prisoners of war. At this point in the book I'm like "Really?? Give the poor guy a break!" But his story only gets worse. Louie and hundreds of other prisoners endure horrific years in the prisons. Louie, for some reason, becomes the personal punching bag of one of the most dreaded and sadistic guards, enduring daily beatings, torture and torment. Not to mention he suffers from starvation and dysentery nearly his entire time as a prisoner.
Louie is finally liberated by the Americans in 1945. However, to no surprise, he suffers an extreme case of PTSD, has constant nightmares about his time as a prisoner, and falls into alcoholism. Fortunately, Louie is able to get healthy, which he credits to his finding religion. He continues his live today, an incredibly active and fit man in his 90s. I liked the fact that Hillenbrand didn't decide to cut the story short after his rescue, instead portraying the good and the bad realities of Louie's return.
I basically just told the whole outcome of the book, but I don't care. I guarantee that you will still read it, still love it, and still not want to put it down. It is the definition of a "page turner." Hillenbrand is such a great story teller, yet obviously did years and years of research to make sure every element of the story was true. It's not just a biography; it's a historical look at the life of a brave, resilient young soldier during a time of war. Hillenbrand is also the author of "Seabiscuit," which I have never read, and was never that interested in reading before. However, after reading "Unbroken" I think I'll give it a shot. My mom read "Seabiscuit," and as she says: "It was an amazing book....and it was about a horse. I think that says it all."

Over the past couple months I've been reading each story in The New Yorker, and some have been quite good.  Some merely good.  But all interesting and worth reading.  As usual, the blog Mookse and the Gripes (the links below are to there) has excellent reviews and commentary on each of the stories.  Here is a selection.

Monstro by Junot Diaz... I agree with the Mookse people... the style gets very annoying after awhile when the story doesn't actually go anywhere.  But fun to read if, like me, puedes hablar Spanglish.

Referential by Lorrie Moore... it was obvious this was riffing off something, wish I were as smart as the Mookse people and remembered Nabokov's short story.

Sweet Dreams by Peter Stamm... wow... a complex and well-crafted meditation on what reality is... puts you right in that philosophical frame of mind that you want to be in before drifting off to sleep.

The Proxy Marriage by Maile Meloy.... a happy ending romantic love story though a little creepily obsessive... I think in the real world people get over each other.

Despite the ridiculous (truly!) cover this novelization of the infamous Colonne Voulet-Chanoine is worth the reading (it was also made into a film)  I hope we can get copies in every library in Burkina someday.  It recounts a little known but emblematic episode in the history of colonization of French West Africa.  In 1898, fresh from the defeat of the Mossi kings in central Burkina Faso, Paul Voulet and his friend and companion Julien Chanoine (son of a French general) were entrusted to lead a military mission to conquer the Lake Chad area.  The French were in a race with the British to secure for themselves all the unmapped areas of Africa.  With Lake Chad, the French would have control over the entire Sahel from Senegal to the border of Darfur (then an independent Sultanate as the British reconquered Sudan).  Controlling the colonies below Chad (now CAR, Cameroon and Congo) the French would have an enormous bloc on the continent.  But by design or misfortune, Voulet and Chanoince, once they had left the last French outpost at Say, on the Niger River, after Timbuktu, decided to pillage and terrorize their way to Chad.  They "went barbarian" as the saying goes, despite the likelihood that villagers and small kingdoms would have greeted them peacefully and been happy to trade, along the way. 

The book spends time on a romantic backstory of Voulet.  I have no idea whether there is documentary record of the letters between himself and his prostitute wife who spurns him in the end (wow!).  Would be interesting to see if true.  This then forms the basis for psychologizing Voulet, while Chanoine is simply represented as a resentful sadist psychopath.  Anyway, good reading.  Nice description of their battle with Sarraounia.

The books is available here on Amazon.  If you read French, order a copy, read, and then send to FAVL to forward to the libraries.

Elisée write:

This is the only way to be in shape while supporting community libraries in Burkina Faso. Only one week left. Call our Ouagadougou office for registration or any support: +22650361341 / +22676678757 or email at favlafrica@gmail.com

Last night Elisée and I went to the Bissap Baobab in San Francisco (on 19th street) for dinner and dancing. Many of our friends-White, Black, American and African-have been recommending it to us.
We began the evening with a delicious dinner. Elisée had the "poulet yassa" and I had the "mafe" which is basically a peanut sauce. It was so good that Elisée was certain an African "Tantie" was in the kitchen, but a quick peak revealed the great chefs to be two young Hispanic men.
The setting is very tiny and intimate. The seating is a little too crowded together, but the fast service makes up for it. After dinner we headed to the bar and enjoyed hibiscus and tamarind cocktails. At around 10pm, the setting changes. One by one, as patrons finish eating, the staff quickly remove the tables and chairs, to transform the room into a small dance floor with a DJ in the back. Dancing begins immediately. The music was fantastic, a real mix of traditional and modern music from throughout Africa. Elisée was pleasantly surprised after hearing a song from the Congolese musician Awilo Longomba, a song he hadn't heard since high school.
I loved the mix of people dancing in the club. There were a lot of men and women of all colors, and definitely a lot of Africans. I still say that the best dancers on the floor were an elderly interracial couple who had to be in their mid 60s. Overall, a lot of fun, and definitely a place we'll return to.

Kate Parry writes:

I have just returned to Uganda, and Dan Ahimbisibwe, the librarian at Kitengesa, has been briefing me about what is going on at the library. The place has become busier than ever. Three classes from the neighboring primary school, P4, P5, and P6 (equivalent of Grades 4-6), come every week for a scheduled period. Since there are about 50 children in each group, Dan puts them in the newly opened hall, and when we have volunteers from Canada, as we do for about six months of the year, the volunteers work with the children. Three classes from Kitengesa Comprehensive Secondary School, S1, S2, and S3 (equivalent of Grades 8-10) also come to the library for a scheduled class period, and again the volunteers work with them--yesterday, when I arrived, a couple of volunteers were helping the students read a newspaper article and look up in a dictionary the words they did not know. Best of all, children are coming to the library on their own. Yesterday when I arrived some 15 children from the nearby primary school were there even though it was not a scheduled library period for them. Apparently their classmates were busy rehearsing for the Education Week celebrations next week, but these particular children were not involved so were spending the time in the library. They were sitting round the table with a pile of books in front of them and each was reading one. One of the volunteers commented that they often come like this and immediately grab books to read.
In addition, the volunteers are now taking books to another school, Hillview Primary School, and have recently taken to visiting regularly the nearby school for the deaf. One of these volunteers knows some American Sign Language, and they are all busy learning Ugandan Sign (I had lunch with them at Dan's house yesterday, and much of the conversation was about particular Sign words). This relationship with the deaf children is quite a breakthrough, and we'll follow it up with a special Children's Day for them.

From Lucas in May 2012:

A lot of reports have being written about the breakdown of the Sumbrungu Library Tables and Benches. In fact, even though some minor maintenance have being done, there is still that need for new chairs and Tables to be replaced.

On last Monday night, the Sumbrungu library with its few tables and chairs could not accommodate its library users. The attendance was so high such that some of them left and was hanging within the Women's Center doing their reading. Most of them were students from Kublia JHS who were given home work to do and they came to use the library text books for references.  The other people were students from the polytechnic year three accountancy who also wrote their mid-semester exams and it was cancelled three times by their lecturer and they were not informed again on the day of the exams. The lecturer only asked them to be preparing for any time he wishes to. According to one Nyaaba Vida, a member of the Class who was also in the library said Tuesday morning 7:45am was his period and he could make them write it.

I was sad when I interacted with some of the students and they were complaining about the shortage of furniture in the library. Some of these questions were coming in my mind. What can I do to solve this problem? If I were one of them what would I do? I then advised some of the J. H. S students to go home so that their seniors the few furniture available and also to avoid noise.

I have also just detected that; there are adverse effects of the presence of the Drinking/Chop Bar near the library. This is especially to the kids under age 10-15 years. As they come to the library, they see people eating and drinking around and many of them as minors as they are never pay attention to their studies and even the girls are at the risk of fallen prey to the B- poly students who buy them some alcohol or food. 

From Lucas Aligire, May 22 2012

I have read three hard books with those simple books that we brought for the book distribution. They are Call Me by My Name, Kwame Nkrumah, Stay away, The Sad end of a C100 note, Ayisha, 31 Days to Financial independence, etc. Brianna read some books and gave them out and asked me to also read them.

We have a programme for the week which is just inventory for all the libraries, today we were at Sherigu library and will be at Kunkua tomorrow. Full report will be sent to you later in the weekend. Myself and all the librarians move to a library to do the inventory and to the other the following day. Maxwell never knew where Sherigu was until today, So it helps the librarians to know each other library and community.  Daruis Asanga is not taking part in the visit of libraries for the inventory. 

.
From Lucas Aligire in Ghana:

Tuesday May, 8th 2012 was FAVL/CESRUD Libraries Volunteer Brianna's last day at Kunkua library. Brianna duties over her four months included the Health Literacy Classes in the three communities,(Sumbrungu, Sherigu, and Gowrie-Kunkua) and also helping manage a large book distribution for the Chen Foundation. She stayed at Sumbrungu Women Center and did the classes for the three communities.

Brianna started the classes at Gowrie -Kunkua with about 14 students though only seven students took their studies seriously and were awarded with certificates signed by her on the 8th May, 2012 at the Library. She made the presentations herself. Everyone was so sad that the classes was coming to an end and Brianna was leaving and they will be missing her.

The Class (Students) showed their appreciation to Brianna by presenting to her a local made basket.

Wonderful praise from the blog MULTILOGUE for Nima Community library in Accra, established with lots of help from Osu Children's Library Fund...

To return to the ochre building it turns out that Nima Community Library(and its adjoining Learning Centre) where I shared some thoughts on leadership last Friday was part of a chain (I engaged with staff from this chain of libraries in Ghana) painstakingly and determinedly put up by Kathy Knowles(a Canadian) and her Ghanaian collaborators. I love the Learning centre outfitted with a stage for in-house theatrical productions and the spacious reading room above it. My area Sakumono and the Manets of this world definitely need this kind of space. The Africa themed décor of both the library and Learning Centre connect its young patrons to who they are (the children's story books which depict the children's everyday realities and produced in-house as well further reinforce this). I was extremely happy that the Republic of Ghana through the Accra Metropolitan Assembly was picking the tabs for utilities and the staff. This is what creative governance should be about; this to my mind is the meaning of local government where concerned citizens engage a sensible, agile, considerate government and her assigns in tackling the everyday challenges of all of us unencumbered by domineering, seducing ideas of social and economic organization from elsewhere. One can espy Nima lying placidly below from the balcony of the Learning Centre with her dizzying patchwork of brown roofs; what other heights can't Nima and indeed our Republic reach with community power?

Elisée write:

David Pace one of the biggest supporter of FAVL had a photo exhibition at the Mercy Center Art Gallery in Burlingame on Saturday June 2. Emilie and I were invited for that event, and we were really impressed with the photos took on friday nights, market days, at Le Cotonnier in Bereba.

A couple of months ago, we started asking the librarians to send a book summary with their monthly report. There are still some hiccups, and we still have to encourage them to write a summary and not rewrite the whole book, but overall it's a good exercise in encouraging the librarians to read, which is important for their promotion of literacy in their respective villages.

Here is a summary from Lucie, Sara's librarian:

Le titre du livre c'est . Le livre nous d'un jeune homme du nom de Naolo qui a perdu son père dès l'âge de 9 jours. Il fut élevé avec ses frères par le frère de leur père du nom de Sour. Naolo a eu une femme du nom de Badé. Badé était une très belle femme, les jeunes admiraient sa beauté, les femmes et même les vieux. Sour le père adoptif de Naolo était jaloux de lui. Il disait souvent que Naolo ne mérite pas une si belle femme. Un jour, Sour appela Badé dans sa chambre sous-prétexte de l'envoyer au marché et il l'a viola. Un secret que Badé a gardé jusqu'au jour de son accouchement. L'accouchement était dur Badé a perdu toute sa force et décida de se confesser. Ce qui fait et l'esprit vient au monde, mais cinq minutes plu tard elle rendit l'âme et le bébé mourut le lendemain. Naolo s'enfuit en brousse pendant les funérailles de sa femme et son enfant. Il courait et marchait pendant trois jours et trois nuits sans manger ni boire. Le quatrième jour Naolo rencontre un djinn (être invisible), elle lui donna à boire et à manger. Après le repas la djinn posa une condition à Naolo, ou ils se marient ou Naolo devient fou ou meurt. Naolo demanda quelques heures pour réfléchir. Quand la dame revient  Naolo accepte le mariage. Ils font leur mariage en échangeant leur sang. La nouvelle femme de Naolo s'appelle Nomikiémadjutici. Leur mariage à une condition, Naolo peut prendre d'autres femmes mais n'aura jamais d'enfants. Naolo a vécut une journée chez les êtres invisibles ce qui fait cinq ans sur terre. Pendant le séjour de Naolo, il a apprit beaucoup de choses et surtout les plantes qui soignent. Les parents de Naolo l'ont cherché en vain ils ont de grandes funérailles pour le charlatan dit avoir vu Naolo une partie de la tête rasée, ce qui veut dire qu'il a un pied dans la tombe. Au retour de Naolo dans son village des cérémonies complexes furent faites des grands sacrifices aussi pour qu'il puisse rester au village. Quand au vieux Sour le père adoptif de Naolo est devenu fou et s'est suicidé.
Naolo maintenant dans son village guérissait toutes sortes de maladies avec les plantes même les femmes stériles ont eu des enfants. Naolo a prit une première femme pas d'enfant, une deuxième, troisième et même une quatrième toujours pas d'enfants. Les rumeurs qui ont commencé à courir dans le village. Pourquoi un homme qui soigne les stériles ne peut pas avoir d'enfants? Naolo s'en retourna voire Nomikiémadjutici pour la supplier même un seul enfant mais elle lui dit que les conventions sont les conventions.

We received word that the renovation of the new library was finished. Dounko went to Ouargaye to take pictures and check out the quality of the work as well as discuss with the carpenter the construction of bookshelves, tables and chairs. He was extremely please with what he saw.

 

 

Here is his rapport:

Rapport  de ma mission à Ouargaye

Le mardi 29 mai 2012 dans la matinée j'ai eu une communication avec le maire d'Ouargaye. A l'issue de notre communication, nous nous sommes convenus sur :
- la constatation de fin des travaux de réfection de la future de bibliothèque en présence de l'entrepreneur.
- la  prise des photos
- un entretien avec le président du comité de gestion installé par le maire.
C'est aux environs de 13h30mn que nous avons quitté Ouaga pour Ouargaye.

Informé de ma venue l'entrepreneur m'a accueillie à la gare. Pour avoir plus de temps, celui m'accompagna chez  Pascal Tombiano, président du comité. Je lui ai donné les objectifs de ma visite puis nous sommes rentrés dans le vif du sujet. J'ai d'abord commencé par la remis de la liste du matériel.

Je lui ai demandé à qu'il trouve un menuisier ou des menuisiers pour faire des devis et ensuite faire une sélection du plus abordable rencontre au maire et nous envoyer. Je lui ai fait savoir que le devis n'est pas un projet donc être réaliste dans le devis. Nous avons conclu ensemble de se retrouver très tôt à 6 heures pour constater le travail de l'entrepreneur et prendre des photos.

Le lendemain matin nous nous sommes croisé à la mairie puis à la bibliothèque.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dans l'ensemble les travaux sont bien faits avec le hangar la clôture WC et une petite terrasse.

C'est après tout cela que j'ai repris les occasions de 7 heures pour Ouaga en donnant rendez-vous à l'entrepreneur de passer prendre son argent restant prévu après fin des travaux.  

 

 

Dounko with the library committee's president in front of the new library

A couple of weeks ago, Dounko requested an audience with his Majesty, the Mogho Naaba. For those of you who don't know, the Mogho Naaba is the traditional king of the Mossi state of Wogodogo. The history of the nabas, the traditional kings of Burkina, is really quite fascinated, though not easily found in writing, which is really disappointing.

I have to admit I was a bit skeptical when Dounko told me that we had an "audience" with the Mogho Naaba. I'm sure he has more important things to do than meet with our little association and talk to us about village libraries. I thought may be we'd be meeting with a representative, not His Majesty, himself. But we actually did get to meet him, and he seemed really interested in FAVL and what we do. He also really seems to love the Peace Corps.

During the meeting, everything we said was translated from French in Mooré, and he only responded into Mooré. I thought it was weird at first that someone who is an important figure in Burkina wasn't educated enough to learn French to be able to communicate with all the dignitaries that come to visit him. I asked Dounko about it afterwards, and it turns out that he was educated in Europe and is a poet. He just holds court in Mooré, which in hindsight seems really cool, like he's the guardian of the Mossi language. 

At the end of the visit, he said he was going to send us copies of volumes of his poetry for the libraries, and gave Dounko, François and me each a Sprite. He even let us take pictures with him. He asked for a picture with me alone standing next to the "paix" side of his chair since I'm in "Corps de la Paix," which I thought was cute.

Here's Dounko's take on the visit:

Le lundi 04 juin 2012 à partir de 09 heures Dounko Sanou, le Représentant Intérimaire de FAVL, et Krystle Austin, volontaire du Corps de la Paix travaillant pour FAVL au Burkina Faso, ont eu une audience avec le chef suprême des chefs coutumier du Burkina, Sa Majesté le Mogho Naaba Baogho.

Nous avons été accueillies au palais royal à 09h05. Après nous avoir souhaité la bienvenue, nous avons donné l'objectif de notre visite : la présentation de FAVL, sa philosophie, les activités menées, les camps de lecture, Race for Reading aussi avoir son soutien, ses conseils et ses recommandations et bénédictions pour un succès des bibliothèques au Burkina Faso.

Nous avons commencé par la présentation du staff en face de lui puis la dénomination de FAVL en français, sa structuration, comment s'est créée l'association, les partenaires, comment fonctionnent ses bibliothèques, les conventions encours avec les mairies, les activités menéessations sur les maladies, la promotion de la lecture) avec les populations bénéficiaires.

Quant aux projets nous envisageons une expansion des bibliothèques avec l'appui des autorités administratives, coutumières et religieuses afin de permettre une égalité de chance entre les populations de campagnes et celles des villes (les enfants surtout).

Krystle a donné des explications des camps de lecture sans oublier l'importance de ceux-ci qui permettent aux élèves bénéficiaires d'avoir le gout de la lecture et s'armer avec beaucoup de connaissances pour leur examen de fin d'année. L'apport des volontaires pendant les camps a été noté.

Il a été invité à notre cross de bienfaisance (Race for Reading) au Parc Bangre Weogo prévu le 16 juin prochain.

Sa Majesté se dit très satisfait de notre visite mais aussi du rôle très capital qu'apport FAVL au Burkina surtout intervient dans le milieu qu'il faut qui n'est autre les couches sociales défavorisées. Il a demandé à savoir plus sur la question de rémunération des bibliothécaires et les livres en langue national disponible que nous possédons dans nos bibliothèques. A ces questions, des réponses claires ont été données par le représentant.

Sa Majesté très émis de nos actes d'interventions nous a confirmé réitère son soutien indéterminable pour à FAVL pour les bibliothèques. Sur place il a demandé nos besoins. Nous lui avons dit le geste qui sauve ou sauvera FAVL. Il nous a promis un geste de reconnaissance dans les prochains jours et se dit ouvert à toute activité que nous voulons mener. En tant poète la promesse de son premier volume de poèmes sera disponible dans nos bibliothèques. Avant de partir il nous a autorisés de prendre des photos avec lui pour témoignage.

Des bénédictions de succès, longévité et courage ont été donnés avant de nous donner la voie. Chacun de nous est ressorti avec une sucrerie donné par sa Majesté et très content non seulement de l'avoir rencontré mais aussi la reconnaissance de l'association par une haute autorité coutumière et ses promesses de soutiens les jours à venir. 

 

You betcha! Sit back and learn a little something with the musical stylings of Halley Brus and the PCVs who've adapted Feist's "1,2,3,4" into a catchy tune about handwashing. Enjoy!