Feel-Good Moments

coming to get us for Book Club

“I think you’ve single-handedly taught the community of Accompong to read,” Matt says nonchalantly from the other room of our tiny home. “Wait, what did you just say?” I reply, immediately putting down my own reading book and walking into the kitchen. “I was just thinking about it tonight at the Internet Café (and Library), and I think you managed to teach Accompong how to read…and not just the kids.”

This is a hard post to write, because I don’t want to sound ‘boasty’-as Jamaicans would say-, but I have to share my excitement over Matt’s laid-back observation. Firstly, I must clarify that Matt was a being a bit extreme; I haven’t taught the whole community, nor have I taught them how to read, but maybe more to enjoy reading.

We’ve talked about Book Club before, and many of the small successes we’ve seen along the way. But never have I had experienced the success of Book Club so completely until I came back from Africa. With me being gone, book club did not keep for 4 weeks. Matt sent me emails while I was away letting me know that he had to repeatedly send 30 disappointed kids on their way, when they came by on Tuesdays. However, the most heartwarming moment came when I was working at the internet cafe/library the Monday after I got back. I was sitting at the administrator desk when a handful of Book Club members came in with books in their hands. They didn't know I was going to be there, because as soon as they saw me, they said, "Julie! Yuh back! We miss yuh when yuh ova farin. Yuh cyaan gwe no weh no mo.' That felt good, sure. BUT what was really exciting is that they then proceeded to check in their library books and go over and pick out another book, while I sat trying to comprehend something that apparently had become run-of-the-mill to everybody else. I pulled out our 'Library Rental Scheme' logbook to write down their new books, and found myself flipping through page after page of Book Club members who had checked out books over the last month. Not only has this not happened before, but from my understanding before we reached Accompong, kids never checked out books from the library. I looked up at Matt dumbfounded, and he says, "Oh yeah, all the kids have been coming in here reading and checking out books the whole time you were gone." –again, like it was no big deal.

And this has continued still. I LOVE that I can walk into the internet cafe/library at any given hour it is open, and children will be in the back corner reading books, or parents will be checking out books with their kids. We often pass grandmothers and aunties perusing through their child’s library book, many times with more excitement than the child –which led Matt to add his “…and not just the kids”-comment.

Things are not always perfect here. And we probably have more ‘feel-bad’ moments than ‘feel-good’ ones. But right now, I’m trying to do what all PCVs probably do when they hit those inevitable roadblocks, and remind myself, that sometimes all that frustration and stress is worth it.

JC members helping at Sports Day