"Books are the best weapon in the world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!"
-Doctor Who
We're winding down to the end. Apologies for being MIA, but I'm trying to finalize my projects before it's time to hit that gong and officially become an RPCV! For those who still like me and want to partake in camaraderie and beer buying, my official finishing date is July 13th, and I'll be home most likely the 17th after a quick romping around Paris. I can't stay away from that pain au chocolat.
I'm looking forward to many Eat-n-Park dates, Meadows runs, Pirates games, and snuggling the stuffing out of baby Landon, but until then: projects. My girls club, Uganda's PEARLS, has officially been taken over by my counterpart, Madame Esther. She attended the DREAMS workshop with me and was trained on how to run a girls club to promote Determined, Resilient, Empowered, AIDS-free, Mentored, and Safe girls (we love those acronyms). I have every confidence that she will lead the club in a powerful direction when I leave.
My main focus now is on the girls' school library. Remember all the planning, fundraising, tea parties, and meetings? Well, we now have something to show for it; it's really coming together! The carpenter has finished the work on the furniture, and he even refurbished our two giant bookshelves and made them stronger for us! Painting is nearly done, and the books are slowly being organized on the shelves. The goal is to create a space for the students to come and be able to freely be in an environment where they feel comfortable to improve their reading skills. I know my favorite extra period in elementary school was going to the library. It's easy to be enveloped in the space and lose track of time while you find your new favorite book. I hope that's the kind of library we create.
This is just a check-in, so enjoy the pictures. I have to finish some painting, and those social studies text books aren't going to organize themselves. All yinz enjoy now.
BEFORE:
DURING
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| Bookshelf on a boda |
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| All my helpers for the day |
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| Teacher Tophil was my biggest support in this project |
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| Steven was so helpful carting the furniture on his boda |
AFTER
Thanks to everyone for your overwhelming support. The kids are super excited to be able to use this space and explore new books! I'm pretty busy in the upcoming weeks with finalizing everything, doing COS medical, taking the GRE (again), playing an obnoxious amount of Dungeons and Dragons, and having tearful goodbyes with my community and cohort (and cat). Keep an eye out for the end-of-Peace-Corps blog post, I promise it'll be coming soon, mom will surely bug me about it.
Until then,
Kelly
Enjoy the cat tax:
