The following is intended to be a tongue and cheek DIY post:
2. Find some people that need a library. In our case, we had already been invited to participate with a different non-profit,
ETCA [threads], in Nicaragua and asked about their needs.
3. Find organizations that are already in work in your chosen area! If you can't find one, go back to step 2. You will not be able to start or sustain a library in a foreign land without at least one organization that is already on the ground there and doing great work.
4. Figure out how much money you need. $3,000 was our magic number - it was easy and rolled off the tongue nicely. It turned out to be about right for our 400 books starter library.
5. Determine your unique purchasing needs; if there are books locally available or if it makes the most sense to buy the books state-side and ship them. Managua, Nicaragua, like most big cities, had bookstores and our dollar to cordoba exchange rate translated into great prices. Additionally, shipping there is unreliable and expensive. Easy choice for us!
6. Raise money through Traveling Stories and their easy online donation tool! This allows your donors to receive a tax-deduction.
We raised the bulk of ours through a children's literature theatre we called Storybook Campout. The rest came from donations from friends and family.
6. Go to your chosen foreign land. We paid for our trip out of our own savings as we intended to travel for a bit after we finished. I don't like it when other people ask me to pay for their vacations, so I didn't ask anyone to pay for mine.
7. Meet with your partner organizations (and various political entities as required). We were obliged to meet with the mayor of the El Transito area (he oversees about 15 small towns). He was unhelpful - I'll leave it at that. However, ETCA [threads] and
NICA were fantastic. Without their help, there would be no library. These two, along with future donations through Traveling Stories, will sustain the library for years to come.
8. Steal an organizing system from a successful library in the country. We took a trip down to San Juan del Sur where the first lending library in Nicaragua still lends books. It's a wonderful place full of kids reading and doing homework. The staff was gracious and patient with our questions and set us on course to organizing our future books.
9. Secure your building. Although we were promised a building by the above mentioned mayor, he did not come through. We were forced to scramble for a new location. Thankfully Julie of ETCA pulled through with Rancho Fifo, an old building on here property. It was in great shape, all things considered, and accessible. We had the option to use the public school building, but we felt this would isolate the kids from the private school in town.
10. Remodel your space and build/buy shelves. We chose to build shelves as we had some shelves from an old US Embassy donated to us by NICA. We had a local carpenter redo the shelves, sand and paint them, and add a wall within Rancho Fifo so Julie could still use half of the building.
11. Set book buying goals. We intended to target the younger demographic in town. This being said, we started our book list with the schools. We asked the teachers, who are both surprisingly Nicaraguan and well versed in the needs of their kids, and they provided us with their wishlist. After their list was fulfilled, Emily and Hannah, who work with kids in a formal setting regularly, selected the remaining children's books. We included some popular titles, some books with lots of pictures and info (think books about sharks, soccer players, etc.), and lots of useful resources for the teachers. We bought about 5 cookbooks and those were quite popular with the ladies in town.
12. Buy your books. So we went to many, many "bookstores" in Managua that didn't actually sell books (well, not in any great quantity anyway). We finally found our match in
Hispamer (To Read is to Grow - AMEN!) and they were a great resource. They even allowed me to negotiate a 10% discount on our entire purchase. In a country with a 15% sales tax, that was a needed help.
13. Get your books back to the library - safely. Yes, I know this sounds obvious, but it is not as easy as it sounds with no car in a developing country where it rains a lot and with people who like to take things out of the back of trucks. Thanks to Julie, we got them back safely while we stayed in Managua to buy more paint and a few fans for our oven of a library. The four gringos got some funny looks boarding the bus with 3 gallons of paint and miscellaneous hardware.
14. Organize your books. We used the SJDS system as stated in step 9.
15. Build a table out of scrap wood that you found (optional). We needed a table and Eric and I needed to get out some creative energy. So...
16. Finish any last detail work in the space. Our painter was not much of one. We got to spend a good chunk of a Saturday and Sunday finishing what our paid painter did not.
17. Stock the library. What a wonderful feeling this was! We hung the maps, the rules, and stocked the shelves.
18. Train your staff and volunteers. One of the most amazing gifts NICA gave the library was a salaried librarian ($50/month for 10 hours/week). He recruited 5 high school students to volunteer who in turn get 1 hour of internet per week thanks to Julie. The rules were straight forward and we spent the most time training on how to restock the shelves and how to organize future purchases. We noticed that, as many of the kids had never seemed to handle a book before, that it was important that our staff keep a watchful eye on those with wild fingers. Darwing, our librarian, is responsible for submitting a report every month detailing book usage, donations, registered users, etc.
19. Hire a truck with a megaphone on top to advertise the new library. Pretty self-explanatory. Best $20 I spent the whole trip.
20. Open the doors of the library complete with cookies and Fanta! The first three days were flooded with 20-30 kids per day. It has since dropped to about 10 to 15 per day, but we thank God for the sustained presence of children reading daily! The library is open every week day for 2 hours.
21. Stand back and give thanks. Specifically, thank you to Julie Sim Edwards for everything - help, the building, the transportion, again, everything. Thank you to Claudia Tinoco from NICA for all her advise and assistance. Thanks to Terri Marlet and NICA and Maribel Pasos for the use of the apartment in Managua, for your organization's ongoing work despite frustrating circumstances at times, and for your vision. Thank you to all who donated. We still feel like you couldn't have used your money in a better way! We sincerely thank God for opening so many doors. We often couldn't believe how well the path was paved before us.
We could not have imagined better success or a better way to spend a summer. More personal reflections in the next pots.
