Friday 25.5.2018

A later start yesterday, a cooler morning and shades of "time to go home" :( but the previous day we pretty well got as far as we could get and felt we could enjoy a complete (and our first!) full day off!!
Tuesday felt harder than expected as we still had a lot of tweaking and tidying to do and for a minute there it felt a bit two-steps-forward-one-step-back but confidence was restored by the afternoon and when we opened the doors on Wednesday morning it didn`t just look like a library....it smelt like one....in the best possible way of course....it smelt of books! And looked like this:




And as soon as you have books you have readers...........

So yesterday it was a leisurely start,a ride into town and a stroll round Maramba Market, a coffee and scone at Munali, a drink atthe incredibly posh David Livingstone Hotel ending up with "the best pizza south of the Equator" at Olga`s.
http://www.olgasproject.com/home_uk.htm

Today it`s back to the library for a couple of hours to put up signs and posters and of course some bunting to make it look cheerful and welcoming, for tomorrow - we open! Well sort of. An "opening" or should it be a private viewing before The Opening. Kelly has invited some of the teachers to come and have a look round. Sophia still has a lot of work to do, not least applying thousands of stickers to the spines of the books to identify them as belonging to the library but she seems keen as mustard to get going and has the best qualification of all - a well-developed sense of humour.

After that....well its nearly home time. Our work here, as they say, is more or less done. :)



P.S. So we were back in just over an hour....job done indeed.

Now, how to spend the rest of this warm and sunny day.........

Monday 21.5.2018

Felt like we reached the tipping/turning point today: we have a recognizable library.

Last lot of books on the shelves and decisions made after discussion with Kelly as to what to do with the stock more suitable for use in schools.

We knocked off at four which gave us a little more time than usual to enjoy the late afternoon sun before it did its seemingly speedy dive below the horizon, always at the same time, around 6.30, by which time we have to have made the short walk to the bar because strolling around in the dark is not a good idea due to the possibility of bumping into a stray hippo......no honestly....apparently they emerge from the river to do a little grazing though "not so much at this time of the year" but we`re not taking any chances.

Anyway it was very pleasant to sit on the verandah and watch the sun filter through the trees and listen to the bird song....



....... not to mention the crash as one or two of the resident monkeys landed on the corrugated iron roof of the cottage. There was a whole.... insert collective noun for a group of monkeys here.... of them on our first day but then they disappeared so it was fun to see them back, even if they evaded all Susan`s attempts to take their picture.


All that really remains now is some final shoogling (official library-speak for shuffling books round), tidying, decorating (bunting anyone?) and talking with Sophia, who is to run the place and has put in long hours to help stock it, about how she intends things to work.
Two more longish days should see us ready to roll and it looks like we might even get a day off on Thursday which could involve a slow start followed by a trip into town, a visit to Maramba Market (of which we have fond memories from our last trip),possibly a second stop at Munali`s Cafe, finishing up with a trip to the incomparable Olga`s. http://www.olgasproject.com


The anticipation of which will no doubt spur us on over the next couple of days.

Sunday 20.5.2018

A day of hard yakka yesterday but real progress on the horizon.
Remember this.......

....which over the last week shrank bit by bit.....

....until we could make it through to the other side.

As that pile diminshed, others grew....

until finally we hit pay dirt.

Of course it`s a truth universally acknowledged that an empty space is best filled with shelves which duly arrived

and we were good to go. Which makes it sound straightforward which it was in one way but deciding what to put where, especially when we were somewhat overwhelmed with the sheer number of books, began to addle our brains.

Fortunately there`s help to hand and bit by bit it`s all beginning to take shape.......

......but there`s no doubt it`s tiring work.

Curiously, though we come home dusty, hot and cream-crackered at the end of the day our now routine evening r & r restores us so well that come the next morning we`re raring to go again.......must be something to do with the beer......

Saturday 19.5.2018

It may be Saturday but no rest for the wicked...or us. To be fair it was a half day yesterday and we made our first foray into Livingstone. From here it`s a forty minute drive whereas last time we could stroll in every afternoon so we made the most of it, buying some stuff for the library as well as visiting a shop full of the gorgeous materials that are used for clothes and furnishings everywhere you look. Satisfactory purchases made, it was on to the Munali Cafe, formerly known as Wonderbake,new premises but still the place to be: enormous scones and fantastic coffee though we did a bit of a douible take at the name they`d given their Americanos.....

Anyway, as we enthusiastically opted for an early start this morning in order to get in a good long day (which we may now be regretting slightly) must pack up and get going. Next post will be all (mostly) about the library rather than how we`re spending our leisure time.

Friday 18.5.2018

Had intended to post more last night and this morning but internet a bit dodgy so just before we set off again this morning...here are a few pretty pictures..........

In the meantime - between these endless river cruises ;) - we have been working really hard - no honestly - but proof of that will have to wait for the next post.

Tuesday 15.5.18

Not quite so flat out today because yesterday, with several pairs of helping hands and lots of enthusiasm we finished opening all the boxes!.

So we awarded ourselves some time out.The next step will take some planning so a bit of list making was in order.

Which is probably a good time to admit to how well we are being looked after and what an absolutely beautiful place this is.
It`s a bit of an artifical bubble - rather like the difference between rural Aberdeenshire and the National Trust properties with their manicured gardens and neat paths - but stunning nevertheless.
Kelly (remember her from the BookBus in Zambia - see previous posts from 2013) recommended a Sunset river cruise on our first night as a way of recovering from the journey. It would have seemed rude to decline ;) and it was the perfect antidote, especially as it included drinks (G&T anyone?) and tasty snacks (the best spare ribs ever) as we floated past a pod of hippos and watched the sun slowly sink below the horizon.

So after a relatively relaxed day today (including lunch at the Lodge

with two other BookBus stalwarts and Waterberry regulars) we are raring to go to the next stage tomorrow, even if it may be a slighter shorter working day for reasons that will be revealed........
.


P.S. Wednesday 16th. We did have shorter day because it was a special birthday for one of our esteemed volunteer colleagues: no fuss she said so all we did was have our own private cruise on the river and a special meal at the Lodge. Definitely no fuss but Many Happy Returns B. ;)

Monday 14.5.18

Another post from the verandah. Had intended to write last night but an early night took precedence after a hot and busy day with those boxes. However - we had some help yesterday and progress was definitely made,books and discarded boxes piling up in a very satisfactory manner .......

Although this is not a BookBus project we might not have been here at all had it not been for meeting Kelly. In the five years since then she has moved on to working here, the community project at Waterberry Lodge (https://www.waterberrylodge.com/community).


In 2009 Waterberry founded Tukongote Community Projects to improve the educational opportunities in nearby villages. They began with one preschool class, and now support over 400 children in 3 preschools and 1 primary school.

And then they built a library! And Kelly obviously thought "Who do I know who works in a library....." The invitation to come and help came completely out of the blue and it took us a nano-second to accept. Little did we know then what an absolutely stunning location we would be coming to, never mind the task we would be taking on. Talking of which, our "taxi" to work will be here any minute so it`s time to slap on the sun cream and the mosi repellent and get going.

Sunday 13.5.2018

So here we are again. Not with the BookBus this time but in Zambia. Already been here two days but still finding it hard to believe.
As I write we are sitting on the verandah of the house where we`re staying, listening to unfamiliar bird song and about to get ourselves some breakfast before we spend another day at the book-face. Or should I say book-mountain.

That`s what 27,000 books looks like and our mission is to make some sort of order out of them for a new community library. Yesterday we worked for about 6 hours, unpacking and sorting and estimate we conquered about a sixth of the mountain. And we`re only here for a fortnight......
Our lift will arrive any minute so time to go and tackle a few more of those boxes......


.......tbc.