Slow news isn't good news

FAVL blog is a little slow these days since I am traveling with 26 other family members. Lots of book reading also (my family are all readers). For myself, Italo Calvino, If on a winter's night a traveller... which my mother brought. A wonderful book for reading while traveling on a bus for hours at a time.

Unfortunately, while we are enjoying good weather, and Spain's victory, the rains in northern Ghana are not so pleasant, and they have blown the roof off the Sherigu library. Pictures at right. Some of you will recall this is the second such case- last year it was the Bereba library's turn. A sad fact of life in rural Africa that can only be resolved by... you guessed it... more careful attention, more work, more funds.

Almost unbearable to contemplate reading

Some books are going to be just too sad. A friend told me about Katherine Applegate's book, Home of the Brave, about a young Sudanese boy who comes as a refugee to the U.S. It is written in blank verse ( I suppose that is what is called). I just got a copy today, and read a few pages here and there. Sigh. It's what we all struggle for. So I will read on the plane next week as we set off for another trip to Burkina Faso. BTW, came across an excellent blog of short reviews of children's books- Little Blog of Stories.

How many visitors come to the library in Sherigu, Ghana?

PATRONAGE: Infact the level of patronage for the month of December 2007 was quite good but not as the past months. Statistics shows that this month has recorded 82 as its highest records, 13 as the lowest records for the daily statistics and 85 being the highest, 38 lowest recorded for the night time statistics.
The students also patronized the library very well throughout the year. The month of Jan. had the lowest patronage and Nov. had the highest. The table below shows the total statistics recorded for each month both day and night
MONTH Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May. Jun. Jul. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec.
DAY 980 857 1663 1636 835 940 1149 1634 2321 1328 1316 1006
NIGHT 590 1499 988 1037 1654 1458 1281 1323 1546 1990 2358 1224

Reading clubs are hard in Ghana... any suggestions?

Here is an except from the librarian of Sumbrungu (Darius Asanga) monthly report:

Last year about five literature books (Things fall apart) were brought by the Vice President of FAVL to introduce the reading club but for a while it was ceased with the explanation from some of the members that they are reading different literature books altogether in various schools. For instance, while some read “Things fall apart”, others read the “Gods are not to blame” and with this some found it not beneficiary on the part in reading those books they do not offer in their schools. A move was taken to replace the literature with novels but they claimed it was unhelpful to them since much time is required for their personal studies.

The books had been donated by the local Bay Area Ahmadiyya Community. We'll try to get the reading group back on track. Can you imagine not having time to read Chinua Achebe? Ghana- a country on the move too busy to read!

We think they are pretty cute...

FAVL volunteer Chelsea Rangel spent three months in Burkina Faso doing some amazing things in the library. One of her jobs was to pilot a new program we're working on for volunteers to produce "microbooks" that will be printed in very small runs, and will be very relevant to the local readers. Chelsea worked with the librarians and village residents to produce three books. The text is in French and Dioula, a language spoken by several million people in the region (also known as Bamana), but there are very few books in the Burkinabè version of Dioula. Volunteers Kathryn Ranney and Amy Reggio helped a lot with post-production, and the Santa Clara Rotary Club helped with a grant to cover most of the printing costs. Moquin Press up in Belmont, CA is about to print them up... here's some images. Charlie Wasser was great as the intermediary to lots of stuff to make this happen. We couldn't have done it without the constant encouragement of Kathy Knowles at Osu Children's Library Fund. To all... thanks!!!! These books will end up costing about $5 each, because of the limited small print run. Very few people in rural villages can afford to purchase a book at that price. The average daily wage in a village is something like 50 cents, so $5 is ten days of work. So we depend on grants like the one from Rotary and your generosity to be able to get these books to kids who will read them. Over and over again, in all likelihood.

News from Sumbrungu library...

Calabash Art and Computer classes. Sounds like high school everywhere. From Darius Asanga, Sumbrungu librarian:

As it was stated in the previous reports, which concerns of the change of syllabus of Junior High Schools in the education curriculum, as a result, new subjects were added and these subjects are French, Information Technology (I.C.T), Catering and Calabash Art which are made compulsory for every student to study. This, therefore, calls for the acquisition of such books to meet the yearning demand of the students. Meanwhile, most of them are also receiving their computer practice from the coordinator’s personal computer in the library. There is assurance that no matter how great the number is, each and every one will eventually get access to the computer for his or her practical. It is always done by selecting two to three students into the coordinator office by the computer master (Teacher) until every student had his/her practical, this desire of students to study computer leads to a suggesting that, if two or more computers could be acquire for the training of students it would have being another greatest achievement to the entire student body in the communities.

An interesting study on the quintessential book flood... high hopes and then "oops"

Extensive reading in Malawi: inadequate implementation or inappropriate innovation?
Eddie Williams
Journal of Research in Reading
Volume 30 Issue 1 Page 59-79, February 2007
Abstract
This article reports on the evaluation of an extensive reading programme in primary schools in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in Africa. The programme involved the delivery of book boxes at Years 4 and 5 to every Malawian primary school. Summative evaluation was achieved through baseline and project-end testing, with observations and interviews employed for illuminative purposes. A time-lapse design was employed, with testing in 1995 of Year 6 students (who had not had the programme in Years 4 and 5), and retesting in 1999 of Year 6 students in the same schools (who had had the programme in Years 4 and 5). Results unexpectedly showed a statistically significant decrease in mean score. The article explores deficiencies in programme implementation, but concludes that implementing educational innovations in Malawi requires sensitivity to the cultural-educational context. Furthermore, there is merit in Malawians radically questioning the appropriacy of innovations.