It’s the start of the third week for Vaka 95 and we’re really in the swing of things now. After a breakfast of eggs and toast and a quick morning meeting we’re off to work. It’s rained much of the night and still looks threatening this morning, so most of us travelling clockwise opt for the bus, although Teresa bravely heads out on her bicycle. As usual, she arrives at Takitumu School at the same time as Elaine and I. Connie heads on to Imanuaela Akatemia School on the bus.
Children are playing in the field in large and small groups when we arrive. Some are filing back in line to their classrooms. A sixth grade student, Emily, unlocks the library and reading rooms. It’s the start of another school day.
I begin by entering the book information and inventory previously written out longhand into Ana’s laptop computer. We had finished entering all of the new book information last week, more than 500 new books; and this bit is all that remains to be done. Of the inventory, I mean, not the entire library project. The library card boards that Ana said would be ready are not quite finished. That’s understandable, as Ana had an extremely big, busy day yesterday since it was her son, Anthony’s, First Holy Communion. Teresa, Elaine and I attended the mass and ceremony and I have to say that I’ve never seen anything like those kids buried under the wreaths of flowers, hibiscus, I think, that they were given by Moms, Aunties and other relatives. Naturally we congratulated both Ana and Anthony again today. Ana said she had even more but they were just too heavy for Anthony to wear, so she took them to the graves of some family members.
At morning break I played some clapping and singing games with the girls and boys – “Lisa, The Warrior” and “That’s the Way Uh, Uh”. I’d learned the games Sunday after church from some of the girls, as well as my teammates who’d clearly had more experience than me. Then I joined the 6th grade boys and girls to learn some drumming rhythms. I wasn’t too bad and enjoyed it immensely, so now I need to know where to buy an authentic Cook Island drum.
After break, the library card boards showed up as did another pair of volunteers. Linda and Gary are a retired Santa Cruz surfer couple who sold their home and are traveling the world. I’d met them the previous week at Cook Islands Public Library when Gary mistook me for the real librarian. I told him about Global Volunteers and what I was doing, which led to his asking where he and his wife could volunteer their time. I told him about Takitumu School and Ana the principal. So today, they showed up around the time it started pouring again.
We spent as much time as the next hour or so trying to plan the library card boards. The idea was that visually finding and removing their card from the “Check In” board to the “Check Out” board would be more rewarding and give the kids more responsibility for their books and library. However, the boards available were too small for the 132 cards to be hung up on. We considered several surfaces and we considered several methods involving glue, velcro, nails and hole punching. In the end, Gary volunteered to buy binder clips in town and he had a car. So he and his wife Linda and Stephen a 6th grader made 2 runs to town in the pouring rain! We Globals could not have done that using the local bus as our transportation. Putting aside the remaining technical details and giving accolades to Elaine for her help after reading was done, I believe that the final check out system looks great and should work just fine. Ana said no school on the Island has a system like the one we’ve devised, not even Titikavaca College and they’ll be wanting to use her schools library. We finally called it a day at 4:00 p.m. and left Ana and Anthony blowing up gold and white balloons and to tie them with gold ribbon. Tomorrow, there will be a library opening ceremony at 9:00 a.m. with cake for 132 ++ made by one of the teachers from the bananas Anthony would have liked to eat. The media is invited. Ana said I’d better be ready with a speech but that’s not my thing. I’m just so happy that we finished the library project and have left Takitumu School with something to be really proud of. Many, many hands and minds went into it. I believe we’ve contributed to Global Volunteers purpose of enhancing equality and self esteem. Tomorrow, I’ll show each class and their teacher how the Takitumu library system works. But for now, its time to eat Rosie’s fabulous supper, lay low and rest up for the big day tomorrow.
Susan

Thought for the Day:
Go Team Go --- It’s fun to see you glow on this Global Volunteers experience.