The First Three Days

In the past three days the church in the Buru Buru slum has been transformed from a bare tin building to the beginnings of a colorful library. We started working on the project this Saturday when we bought wood for the bookshelves. We were originally planning to build the shelves ourselves, but luckily Mr. Nyanga,the pastor/librarian, found a great carpenter to do the job for us. The carpenter has been working around the clock to complete the bookshelves, and they look twenty times better than anything we could have built. There’s a certain buzz of excitement and busyness in the library as we work and every morning we find the same kids there, eagerly waiting to take part in the activities.

On our second day we brought paper, pencils, and crayons to occupy the local kids with a decorating project for the library. We needed to provide a distraction to the younger kids who were less interested in reading. It’s been really amazing to see the excitement on these kids’ faces as they read and even see books for the first time. One boy,Joseph, who’s twelve years old and in 2^nd grade, told us on our first day in the slum that he’d never read a book before. Every day since then we’ve watched him come to the library, pick a new book, and despite the commotion around him determinedly read through the whole thing.

When we left Buru Buru this afternoon, the carpenter was starting to build the last bookshelf. If everything goes according to plan the bookshelves will be full by this Friday, and we’ll be able to start reading groups on Monday.

The inside of the library at the end of Day 3