Week 2 in the Library…

I have a new name! It’s Miss Leifau. It means “Woman, New”.

Mr Bursar: “Look Miss Leifau! It’s a dead rat!”
Romany: “Sure is, Mr Bursar.”
Mr Bursar: “It’s a big one.”
Romany: “Yes. That is a very large rat.”
Mr Bursar: “Maybe it was the leader!”
Romany: “I sure hope so, Mr Bursar!”

Bitey and Tiny are dead. I’m really very sorry. When I looked into their beady little (dead) eyes I felt bad. But I’m sleeping better now. Except for the giant millipedes. I thought I may have imagined it, but sure enough, one of them left a giant millipede leg behind when it disappeared (Angus said, “Like Cinderella, only gross”).

Monday: I catalogued all day. I got cross. My back hurt. And I wasn’t even an eighth of the way through the collection, even though I was using Paula Jones’ amazing “Dewey Guide For Small School Libraries in the Pacific”.

Tuesday: Willy the school handyman and Mr Boarding Master came to help me move the shelves. The library now has two distinct areas! Fiction and non fiction! It’s beginning to look like a library. I sprayed the shelves with insecticide. I considered it seriously first. I think it’s the only way. I think one of the shelves has termites. I start shelving the fiction but it’s hard going, as the kids have questions all day: “You got a book about money? You got a book about AIDS? You got a book about plants? How do I use the encyclopedia?...”

Wednesday: I am shelving the fiction section. Most of the books have labels already. I can re-label them later (when I get some labels). I teach some kids how to do it too. They’re a bit confused. “Scuse, Miss,” says one kid. “Can I put this TUE with TUI, or is it different?” I explain that E comes before I in the alphabet. “Oh! I got it!” he says. And then abandons the shelving all together to chase after his mates. No worries. There’s time to teach them all.

Thursday: I take one kid on a tour around the library. I’m a bit excited because I get to go into town in the afternoon. “See!” I say. “This is where the magazines are going to be! And over here, this is where all the fiction is! And this is the stuff we’re chucking out!” She laughs nervously. She thinks I’m crazy. But she and a friend pull up chairs next to a shelf and proceed to read to each other until lunch. Don’t they have a class to go to? Who cares. They’re reading.

In the afternoon I catch my first truck, all by myself. I sit with the coconuts.

Friday: We have a meeting with Lou, our In-Country Manager, and Jim, the AYAD Regional Manager. We talk about what our jobs have been like so far, and who best to approach for funding, and who can write good grant proposals. I feel a little grumpy because I’m the only one with a physical job, and the only one not in town. I’m getting my shelving body back though, so that’s nice.

I meet the amazing librarians Anne Nalpa and Grace at the National Library and Archives of Vanuatu. They say they have some exciting news for me. Shefa Education Department has written into next year’s plan that each school in the province will create a school library. And isn’t it great that I’ve come, as I’ll be able to train them all! And we’ll get workshops going and use the library diploma curriculum from the University of the South Pacific as a basis and and and… Whoa. I get overwhelmed. Lou and Jim assure me that this can be a long term thing, and that I won’t have to do it all in a year. But I could work on some things to help the volunteers who come after me… It’s all about capacity building and teaching people to create their own school libraries… suddenly I can see the big picture again.

There are less than 10 qualified librarians in the whole country, Anne tells me. But it wont always be that way.

Book of the week: Nobody plays with a cabbage (one boy's relationship with his cabbage)