Help Build a Library!

For those interested in helping me build the first library in the West African village, Adjengré located in the country, Togo where I am currently living and working as a PeaceCorps Volunteer please visit the PeaceCorps website here: https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=693-363. In addition to achieving that warm, fuzzy feeling that you are helping out an impoverished West African village; for each person who donates we will put your name and the state you live in on the wall of the library so your good deed will be immortalized for all time. If you would like something else on the wall just email me at: pspjhp@gmail.com. Thank you!!

Starting a Library in Adjengré

Well the library has officially opened! There is still a lot to be done, but we have started! As one says in French, petit à petit, little by little.

The Togolese people I am working with on the project have decided to name the library, "Enlightenment," in English. I am in the process of building a library, which I know most people who are reading my blog already know about, located at the local high school here in Adjengré. Since it is the first library in Adjengré, the decision to put it in the high school (which is comprised of some 800 students and is not centrally located) was a difficult decision, but ultimately I was convinced by the following facts.

1. Less expensive – The school is giving me a huge classroom located between the director's and the teacher's office to be turned into a library. This removes the cost entirely of renting or building a room which for a well constructed building would raise the price for the project to well over $10,000.
2. Sustainable – Currently we are in the process of creating a committee made up of students and teachers which will oversee the running of the library. Otherwise I would have to be paying for a librarian and if the pay would stop for some reason so would the library.
   
   
3. Culture of Learning – I live in a farming community, which is predominately what towns are in Togo except, maybe, the largest cities in the country. Reading is simply not something that is done here. People will watch TV and play soccer, but nobody reads magazines, or newspapers or really anything unless you are a teacher or student. So while the library is open to the public it will be used primarily by students. Also, my belief and my hope is that by starting this library it will create an environment of researching and reading for the students that is lacking now. At first it will be used for class assignments and then as the hidden vaults of knowledge open, and their contents are revealed, the students will open these vaults not out of necessity, but simply for the pleasure of finding an answer to a question or for the pleasure of enjoying a good story…I might have stated that slightly dramatically, but the fact still remains that someone has to plant the seed and no one else seems to be doing it.
   

There are currently around 70 students who have registered for library cards. Each library card costs 200cfa (.40 cents-ish) for 1 years of membership. The money will be used for repairing books and hopefully, the purchase of more books. There are currently 2 bookshelves, 1 chair and 1 small table which I have paid for in advance just to get the library started until hopefully, the donations arrive. Below are some pictures of the process.

Note: 3^rd Photo titled "Organizing" - the man on the left wearing a blue fleece has helped me immensely. His name is Kodzo Tégbé, or Jean-Claude for short. He is an English teacher whom I have been working very closely with on a variety of projects. He is completely obsessed with the English language and speaks almost perfect

English, but has never left Togo. He is a major driving force behind this library and has been working tirelessly during his off hours at the school, setting the library up and organizing a committee to run it. Understandably, projects that have such a high involvement on a community level tend to be the most easily sustainable.

Carpenter
October 26^th, 2010

Moving In
October 26^th, 2010

Organizing
December 15^th, 2010

The library as of December 15^th, 2010

The stamp we had made in Sokodé (a big city 30min - 1 hour north of me) for the library.

It reads:

BIBLIOTHEQUE

LY ADJE
B.P. 03
ADJENGRE

<<ENLIGHTENMENT>>

It means, in English:

LIBRARY

HIGHSCHOOL ADJENGRE
B.P. 03
ADJENGRE

"ENGLIGHTENMENT"

Coming From America

I really enjoyed my time in America. I was able to see a lot of friends because they had come home for the holidays as well as a lot of my family and my extended family. I was able to travel to Arizona and spend Christmas with my family there, then for New Years I celebrated with a few college friends in Washington D.C. and between Arizona and D.C. I hung out with other close friends. I had a lot of fun. Still, it was pretty bizarre coming to America. The country that people in Togo talk about in a way that makes it seem like the promised land.

So immediately when I got off the plane I noticed how clean everything was. There were no black plastic bags littering the ground where I walked. Anyway, here is a list of some of the things I found strange after living and working for a year and a half in an impoverished West African country:

• General cleanliness of…well everything…the roads, stores, me
  
• How expensive everything was…for a dollar one can eat a really good lunch here in Togo
  
• There were no pot holes in the roads
  
• Even in the late evening there were people walking around and stores and restaurants were still open
  
• Faucets…and how when you turn it on there is hot and cold water
  
• Very hot showers
  
• Really just running water
  
• The internet was so fast
  
• Everyone was talking on their phone
  
• No one commented on whiteness
  
• Not including my friends and family, people passing by were pretty unfriendly
  
• Bartenders, waiters and waitresses were very friendly
  
• Speaking in English
  
• Outlets didn't spark when I plugged something in
  
• Etc…
  

It was weird the things I found weird. I never expected I would appreciate outlets that didn't spark or being able to drink water straight from the tap. I also didn't know how much I missed Adjengré and my house. I realized that I really have made this my home. I am missing my friends and family and fast internet of course, but it is good to be back.