Shelving Books

Student librarians accepting books from the ambassador (credit: US Embassy in Fiji)

As I was volunteering shelving books at the McMinnville Public Library as a middle schooler I never thought I’d be showing off my very own Primary School library to the US Ambassador to Fiji as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  And still, just this week Ambassador Reed did come to visit Wailevu East District School’s library.  She spent some time talking with the four student librarians who are part of the library committee and even brought a box of BRAND NEW books for our collection!  But it’s not really my library.  I’m just helping the amazingly dedicated teachers and rock-star students at the school to get organized.  And it’s one of the most fun things I’ve done as a Peace Corps Volunteer!

The library as it was for the visit.  Hard to see everything, but it's much nicer than it was!

When I first arrived in my community I introduced myself at the school and told the head teacher about my library background.  She expressed interest telling me about the plights of their small, disorganized collection, but after nine months I hadn’t done much at the school but co-write a proposal to renovate an old hall into a new space for the library.  I did, after all, live in another village and there had been two Peace Corps Volunteers living on the school compound until then.  But when the other volunteers had gone and the proposal had been turned down because of new priorities for the granting organization, I decided what to do what I could to find ways to improve the library.  

The library as it looked before I started in on it.

I remember when my mom was visiting and went over to see the library.  There were damaged books everywhere, nothing was organized (even fiction and non-fiction were mixed together), the room was used as a tool shed with cans of paint and weed eaters lying around, it also housed all of the sports equipment for recess, and the only people I ever saw in the library were teachers using the school printer and copier.  My mom was appalled and as soon as she returned to the states she began sending me boxes of books for the library.  I wasn’t comfortable leaving all those clean new books in the mess of a library, though, so they piled up in my house and I wondered what I could do about it.

Peace Corps Volunteers helping with a Literacy Camp.

As it turns out, I am not the only volunteer in Fiji working with libraries.  Soon after my mom’s visit I was invited to help with a Literacy Camp at another school library on my island.  It was a big success with the students and Library Services of Fiji decided to continue the program, adding teacher-librarian training and functional literacy workshops for mothers to their services.  All of the volunteers involved were motivated to do more library work, too.  In June I headed out to a friend’s village and helped her to finish up the work she had been doing in her library.  In two days we labeled boxes of new books, entered them in the accession, organized the books and even put up decorations.  On top of it all, I got to witness the motivation of the students that helped in the library.  So it was with a renewed enthusiasm that I returned to my community’s primary school library.

Helping at Tacilevu Libary.

I feel like I spent days just sorting and repairing books.  I could tell the library was being used, though, because whenever I’d come back after a few days everything had been moved.  I started working with the student-librarians during their lunch break and recess.  They helped me sort books into “Easy Fiction,” “Junior Fiction,” and “Non-Fiction.”  Then we started with call number labels.  The fiction books were easy, with the just the authors’ last names.  Then came the non-fiction which we had to catalogue based on subject – easier said than done.  Yet, at the end of the school year (in November) the books all had call numbers – even those that had been piling up at home.  To top it off, the two teacher-librarians had attended a Library Services training and were eager to help.  We’d even written a new grant for the refurbishment of the old hall for a new library space.  Over summer break we got most of the books put in the accession register before I had to start writing lesson plans for the Library Skills classes I had agreed to teach.

Last year's student librarians with the teachers involved in the library project.

In January the new school term started and I started library classes right off the bat.  It was during one of those class days that I got the call about the Ambassador’s visit.  She would be visiting Wailevu Village to see the many Peace Corps projects in the village.  The whole village was excited; none more than my student librarians who would be meeting the Ambassador face to face.  With a new alphabet on the wall (care of my mother) the room cleaned of the non-library stuff and all the shelves straightened and dusted, everything was perfect for the visit.  But the library is still very small and pretty soon the paint cans and rugby balls are going to show up again.  Our project is not finished, but we’re on a roll.  We’ve accomplished a lot, and have big plans for this term, too.  In May we’ll be hosting our very own Literacy Camp during the term break!  We hope to have the old hall refurbished and the library moved to it’s new home by then, but we can’t do it without you.  If you can, please make a tax-deductible donation to the renovation project on the Peace Corps website.  Or, if you prefer, send books to the school (not to Peace Corps) to improve our collection by following the tips below.

The hall we hope to renovate before the Literacy Camp in May.

Tips For Sending Books to Wailevu East District School:

·      The books most needed by the library are good quality junior non-fiction and junior fiction.

·      The library could also use kids magazines of the “Ranger Rick” or “Cricket” variety.

·      If you would like to send books or magazines, please consider just sending a few in a mailing envelope as it is cheaper for the sender and the school (flat rate mailing envelopes cost about $18 USD to send to Fiji and doesn’t go through customs.  Boxes are considerably more, and the school must pay a $6 FJD duty on each box received that is valued under $400 FJD and quite a bit more if valued over $400 FJD, something they cannot afford.)

·      Any mail should be addressed to Wailevu East District School – Library, PO Box 440, Savusavu, Fiji Islands, South Pacific. 

·      Wailevu East District School is NOT licensed as a charitable organization and any donations to the school are NOT tax-deductible, but the rewards of giving a good book to a child can be neverending.

Baking Days

The Finished Bread Oven - After Months of Baking

Do you know that story about the little engine that could?  Well, I am here to tell you that some days she was really not that optimistic.  The tortoise?  Yeah, she didn’t think she would actually BEAT the rabbit.  And there were plenty of days in my first 3 months (heck – first 9 months) as a Peace Corps Volunteer that I was sure I’d be leaving Fiji with nothing to say when people back home asked me what I’d done for the last 2 years.  But there’s this proverb we have that might as well be part of the American psyche.  You might have heard it, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” I wouldn’t say it’s my personal motto, but perseverance in the face of adversity and uncertainty was the key to the success of my first tangible project as a PCV – the bread oven.

The Bread Oven is a Success!

This project was first suggested in the village by an uninformed new resident who knew nothing about the realities of doing development work (harsh), the profit margins of bakeries (slim), or the working culture of rural subsistence farmers in Fiji (decidedly non-Western).  Yes – it was suggested by me in the weeks following my arrival.  It immediately gained major traction.  And at the same time I quickly realized it was not really a sure fire money making scheme, with low profit margins and a poor track record in other nearby villages.  I tried to divert attention.  We discussed selling homemade jam (and had a jam tasting with papaya, pineapple, banana, and even pumpkin jams), we performed traditional dances for cruise ship passengers (and made a lot in donations), we talked about digging ponds to farm tilapia (responsible aquaculture reduces fishing pressure on the reef and provides healthy protein) and we investigated the costs associated with keeping chickens for eggs (eggs are about 50 cents apiece so are seen as too expensive for most people in the village).  By January the women were adamant that they wanted a bread oven.  And by that point I realized that ANY project that held a large group’s interest for that long was worth trying whether or not we were going to get rich.  I was in, but I still needed information on how to actually do it.

The Inner Drum and all the metal work that went into creating the oven door were donated by visitors.

Luckily I wasn’t the first PCV in Fiji to attempt a baking project with a women’s group.  About five years earlier another volunteer on my island had literally written the book on wood-fired drum ovens and an outgoing volunteer from the other island updated me on how the idea had gone over in his village (the women had made just enough money to start their next project and then effectively abandoned the oven).  Armed with the experiences of others I felt ready to take on the construction of the first actual tangible development project of my life.  The resourceful women of my community planned a fundraiser and we collected double the amount we had calculated we would need to build the oven.  A donation from overseas visitors to the village (my parents) provided the two drums we needed.  And in March we began construction.  We were on schedule to start baking in May.  But then something happened.  We didn’t end up starting baking until four months later than originally planned.

A lot of women helped in the construction process, especially tearing up coconut husks used as insulation.

The second layer of cement goes over the coconut husks.

Most of the construction was done by village youth.

This is the essence of development work – in Fiji at least – there is always something you don’t know.  Hopefully one understands this and can investigate what the hidden complications might be, but I was green.  I was inexperienced with the politics that made one head “carpenter” quit and other skilled workmen or any of the women unwilling to continue construction (even with detailed plans) until another was appointed.  Or, take for example, the un-communicated idea of the women that we were also building a baking shed around the oven and couldn’t begin using the area until a traditional opening ceremony had been performed.  And there was the problem of the women lacking the confidence to bake bread in the oven despite their cumulative decades of home baking experience.  But through it all I did the one thing I could – I asked what was wrong and what I could do to help.   

Our Baking Workshop was Attended by Nearly All the Women in the Village!

Eventually we found a carpenter related to the village that had built a drum oven in another village, we raised money for the baking shed and organized the “dolodolavi” or opening ceremony, and negotiated with a woman from a village on the other side of our district to hold a workshop to teach the women to bake in their new oven.    In September the women began filling orders for neighboring villages and by October were regularly baking (and selling out) two days a week.  In November we reviewed finances and logistics and decided to add a third baking day each week to raise funds for further supply purchases.  In December we discussed applying for grant funding to expand the working area of the bakery, adding shelves, storage, and work surfaces.  This month (January) we dealt with the problem of some people selling bread on credit and of missed baking days over the holidays.  With nearly half a year of baking and business management experience I could leave the women on their own NOW and they would adequately manage the bakery.  Hopefully when I leave in June they’ll be confident they can manage it well and realize that they have the skills to be successful in any project they really commit to.

The Women Bake every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday and usually sell out!

Already we’re in the middle of what some of the women refer to as “Phase 2,”the building of a Women’s Resource Center (the first neutral meeting space in the village) funded by the Department of Women and in February we’re scheduled to begin “Phase 3,”the beekeeping operation which we’ll start with one hive donated by me and one purchased by the women’s group.  I feel like I have a lot of work ahead of me in the next five months with these and other projects – sometimes it feels as if I’ll never be able to do it all – and yet I try.  Maybe I’ll beat that rabbit after all – make it up the seemingly insurmountable hill like the little engine that kept saying, “I think I can,” despite her doubts.

Happy Bakers at the Bread Oven