Week 17 in the library...

YOUR CHANCE TO OWN A PIECE OF cra…HISTORY!
Send me a new non-fiction book for the kids at Ulei (Post to: Ulei Junior Secondary School Library, PMB010, Port Vila, Vanuatu), and I’ll send you our old hilarious one on the same topic!

Here’s some to choose from:

Discovering Computers (1982): “The most powerful computers of the 1990s will be up to a hundred times faster than the present ones. They will fit into a cube a few centimetres in size, and they will have to be kept at about –262 degrees Celsius.” Also, “There could soon be a system in which each person has a special card, with a special number which only the cardholder knows encoded on it magnetically. Whenever a purchase is made, the card is entered into a terminal at the store… The terminal asks the computer to check the shopper’s bank account to make sure there is enough credit.”

Spain, a wonderland of contrasts (1965): “At the airport a pretty uniformed Spanish stewardess helped us from the plane wearing impeccably clean white gloves, all darned and frayed at the fingertips.”

Flutes, whistles and reeds (1962): “Anything hollow holds air. If you set the air inside a hollow object into regular motion, you will hear a pleasant sound.”

The crack and cocaine epidemic (1989): “The actor Stacey Keach spent six months in a British jail because he was caught by Customs with cocaine in his suitcase. It nearly ruined his career.”

Choosing a job: Fireman (1975): “Shirts, socks, shoes and caps are all part of the uniform issue, and a lot of items are replaced annually, so this is a useful ‘perk’.” Also, “Volley ball has become a national sport of firemen and most stations include at least half an hour’s volley ball in the daily routine.” (This books is accompanied by wonderful black and white photos of English sideburns from the 70s).


Last Sunday I had a hangover and it took ages to find a ride home. I bought myself an icypole. I asked a few people for a lift, but nobody was going past Ulei. Finally, a couple of guys I recognised told me they had a truck coming, if I wanted to go and wait on the Tagabe roundabout with them. I hauled my shopping down the road and waited and made small talk. My Bislama is getting better!

“Do you want a cookie?” asked James.
“Just one, thank you,” I replied.
“Why? You don’t eat a lot of sweet things?”
“No, it’s because I drank Tusker last night and now I am a bit sick.”
Everybody laughed. (What? I think I said it correctly!)

Several hours later, a truck arrived, and we all got on the back. The whole way to Ulei people were talking about the horrendous road accidents they have witnessed over the years. Ugh. No seatbelts when you hitch a ride on the back of a truck.

I get back to my hut to find two dead mice on the floor and a giant spider on my bed. Yay.

Reference question of the week: What is static electricity? Thank you Chris Murray for providing the balloons which allowed me to demonstrate! After the demonstration, we looked it up in some science books (“Where do we start? Has anybody used an index before? Ok, let’s try!”) and talked about it. There was an awkward moment when I rubbed my balloon on my head, causing my hair to stand on end, and then said, “Your turn!”, when I realised it kinda doesn’t work with Ni-Vanuatu hair… luckily we all have arm hair! Afterwards the kids said, “Uh, Miss? We didn’t need the balloons or hair, ‘cause it works with a plastic ruler and pieces of paper too…” !!!

Week 16 in the library

Today I’ve been asking myself what I might say if people were to ask me, “How is it over there?” I think my answer would be, “It’s great, I really love it, but it’s hard.” And what would I say if I was asked, “What exactly is it that makes it so difficult?”

The things that make me feel like this is “hard”:

• Living with rats and (new! this week!) mice

• Having to kill rats and mice when they are so cute and I don’t want to do it, but I really have to

• Bugs

• Spiders. Not just a few. Spiders everywhere. Most recently, in the handle of my water jug, and having a party on the floor of the shower

• Cold showers

• No fridge

• No net

• Questioning whether I’m making a difference, and whether I’m making enough of a difference

• Questioning whether it’s “my place” to make a difference

• Questioning aid, government aid, other aid, its distribution in general and my part in aid

• Testing my values continually: What do I think about having to wear a skirt? What do I think about the reinforcement of stereotypical gender roles in the community? Putting up with constant assaults on my (western) feminism

• Feeling that I’m “helpless” in that there are big changes I would like to see made, but which are completely beyond my control

• Feeling guilty that I want to make changes when I have no right to criticise anybody’s culture

• Feeling as though it was once easy for me to support print texts as an information source because I had a choice between print and digital. Suddenly, when there’s no choice, I feel let down by the utter uselessness of old books full of outdated information and I want computers and the net

• Sometimes feeling like this country is a dumping ground for rubbish from the developed world (not just old books, also old trucks from Korea)

• Missing fashion, makeup, handbags, my earring collection, high heels, and needless technological gadgetry and feeling so awful that I do, knowing what a complete waste of time, money and resources all that crap is. And wanting it anyway

• Having this weird, useless, constant, internal debate about what “art” is, why I feel like this place lacks it, and whether “craft” makes up for it

• Being always ready to defend what I am doing here and why this is not a “holiday” (maybe especially to myself)

• Feeling increasingly hyper-aware and critical of people who say, “Oh, you must be having a wonderful time, I hear it’s the happiest place on earth” or “I believe the kids are much better behaved than those in Australia” or “Gee, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could all get back to that more ‘natural’ lifestyle”.

But I still do love it. It’s just hard.

Weeks 14 & 15 in the library

Vahine just came to hang out with me in the library (escaping from volleyball, I believe) and helped me do a poster graph of the loans for the past three months (we used textas, glue and coloured paper, so it looks cool!).

“You’re a way better librarian than the one we had last year,” said Vahine.

“Oh yeah? Why is that?” I said.

“Well… We didn’t have one last year.”

Ha ha ha!

We kept talking. The year before last, the librarian in charge bought some new books but kept them in her house, rather than putting them in the library. Vahine explained that occasionally the girls would do raids on her house and run off with a couple each. When the librarian came to the dorms as the teacher-on-duty, the girls would hide the contraband under the sheets! So maybe it’s not surprising that kids are reading more this year, and borrowing more as their confidence grows.

I don’t know what you guys will think, but there are no fines for overdue books. Miss Iapson, my counterpart, was pushing for fines but I asked her to wait and see how many books we were losing. We aren’t losing that many, as the kids tend to watch out for their friends, and often bring stray books back to the library. They’re also very interested in the Circulation Book, and who has borrowed what (I think privacy issues are outweighed by the talk that it generates: “Who’s got the next Harry Potter? Is it any good? Can I read it after you?”). It also seems silly to me to be fining kids whose parents barely have the money to send them to school in the first place (although the kids do have enough money for local donuts! But they share them with me…).

Vahine wants to be a lawyer, likes Sweet Valley High and Twilight and has a secret boyfriend. But she doesn’t want to get married until after her career is established. She was reading the last Harry Potter book, but left it somewhere. Celine cried because she was up to that one. Helma found it and told Vahine, who gave it to Celine. Phew!

The other reason that the kids are reading so much is because we've been getting so many donations! So, the kids and I want to say thank you...

Thankyu tumas!