This past week I had my Close of Service Conference in Ouagadougou to discuss administrative and medical procedures for leaving Peace Corps Burkina, saying goodbye to my village and readjusting to life back in the states. I won’t be leaving the country until December 10th, but an important part of the conference was discussing how to wrap up current projects and leave village with the confidence that these projects can and will be sustained by the community. And of course I thought about the library.
I am confident that the library committee and librarian have everything under control and running smoothly. I have actually been out of village since August 3rd. In the two weeks I have been away, the committee and librarian had their monthly meeting, which I will be briefed on upon return. The librarian wrote out the monthly report for July and had a photo copy delivered to me in Ouagadougou.
In the month of July, we enrolled 30 new library members (18 students and 12 adults), had 139 books borrowed, and 753 library visits, more than 20 a day. That’s also more than two times the number of visits we had in June, and as I have said before all of these numbers will only go up with the end of vacation and the rainy season.
I stayed here in the capital over the last couple of days to buy more library books with the help of Friends of African Village Libraries. We bought about 100 African novels and children’s books yesterday to bring our library catalogue up to a total of 470 books. And we still have plenty of library book shopping to do! I go back to village tomorrow and can’t wait to deliver all of the new books to the enthusiastic library members.
With the support of our library committee and librarian, the library members give me further confidence that the library will be a success in the years to come. Members have already started requesting specific authors, titles and subjects. Each time I come to village with a new selection of books, the community barely gives the librarian time to catalogue the new titles and put them on the shelves before they are borrowed. As cliché as it sounds, the participation and enthusiasm of the community warms my heart.
I will be sad to leave in December and know that I will cry like a baby. But then I will think about the library and be happy to know that through this project, I will always be connected to Niankorodougou. The librarian and I are continuing with his computer and internet training so that he can send me reports and updates in the future. I will work as the Project Manager for the library from the states after I leave in December.
