Starting a Library

They call it a "reading room", I call it a "library".  Regardless, it is a success.  At the end of the day, there is now a place that students can go into to read, study, and do research.

When I arrived at Barclayville Central High School in February, 2013, there was no such place.  There was no such resource in the school, and there was no such resource in the "city".  Which means, there was no such place in the entire county.  And to clarify, there also was/is no place to purchase books.  No dictionaries, no Bibles, no textbooks, and certainly no novels.  Also, there are no newspapers and no magazines - unless you read French - which most people do not.  Finally, there is no internet cafe. 

But there was, I learned, after speaking to a member of the Ministry of Education decentralization team, an empty room to be used for such a purpose.

I tend to believe that most basic projects can be done with little to no funding.  And I was looking for a tangible project that I could complete during my short time in Barclayville.

So, instead of spending my time thinking about funding and proposals, I started asking questions:  "So, there are books in storage.  On a bookshelf.  Can we move them in here?" "Are there other books?  Can we move them?  When?  Let me know if I can carry anything.  I am happy to carry books."  (A good way to get manual tasks done is to express interest in doing it myself - the response is often for someone to do that task before I can hike up my skirt and start hauling stuff.)

In the end, in less than a month, we went from an empty, locked room to a room with bookshelves, additional shelves on their way, books on the shelves, and students crowded on benches to use the resources.  Yes, we had to wait a few additional weeks for the additional shelves and table and benches.  Yes, I spent a couple of Saturdays with a damp dust rag and broom.  But by the end of the semester, I was helping students find materials for their math and science classes, I had students doing research for English assignments, and teachers were coming into the room to consult textbooks.   

                   

                    

Reference shelf:  Old encyclopedias, one dictionary, and two atlases. 

The books are old, sometimes in poor condition, and limited.  There is one dictionary in poor condition.  The encyclopedias are a decade old.  And the Liberian history section desperately needs materials.  But there is now something to build upon.



Thanks to the generosity of friends and acquaintances, magazines were sent to diversify the reading materials in the library.  And thanks to the existence of the facility, the principal was able to contact authorities in Monrovia to say "Now we have a reading room.  Please send us the staff person you promised us, because now he will have a job - staffing the room during school days."  He arrived several weeks later.

The man brought from Monrovia to serve as Coordinator of the Reading Room. 

I think it is natural for people to want something to point to and say "I did that."  That's why we hang degrees on our walls, take and post photos of ourselves online, and show people things.  "Look!  I did that."  We also want to be remembered.  "Be my online friend, take my business card, let's get a photo of us together - remember me."  And finally, we like to be acknowledged.  

In addition to the satisfaction I got from being able to say "Look!  The resource is there now." was the feedback I got from students, administrators, and others in the community.  On the street, a student came up to me and said "It wasn't until you came that we got a reading room.  Thank you."  At my farewell ceremony, it was mentioned by both students and administrators.

I was in Barclayville for a mere six months.  It will take a long time, a decade or more, to bring the Liberian education system to where it needs to be.  There will be many other teachers - from the United States, Nigeria, Liberia, and elsewhere teaching in that school in the coming year.  My hope is that the reading room will be a resource they all can benefit from and build upon.  But, there is also a small part of me, the part that says "Look.  I did that.  And remember me.", that wouldn't mind if one day, when asked who started the reading room, someone answered "There was a teacher, Ms. Gray, who came from America - the first one we had since the conflict.  The first one in the all of Grand Kru county, in fact.  She started it.  She would come to the school on Saturday in these crazy chicken pants, with a bucket and broom, to clean and to organize the books.  She started it."