La Biblioteca

At last I will tell you all about the main focal point of why I decided to travel to Ecuador for a month - Manna´s programs.

First and foremost, the library.

It should be no surprise to any of my close friends and family as to why I love libraries so much. Its because it is my second home away from home. I love the large tables and chairs, private study spaces, and the rows and rows of books - all collectivity smelling like old musty paper - nothing could seriously be better.

So then, its no surprise to me that I would want to help with the library here after seeing it. Sure, I am most interested in health but the library really is an incredible space. Manna´s library is located in the community center on the edge of three neighborhoods: Rumiloma, Tena and San Fransisco. As you climb the three long flights of stairs on the left is the library, an open space split into different sections with colorful walls, dark wood floors and giggling children everywhere. The most obvious part of the library is the Kids corner. There is an art wall in which the kids put their art, make art or play games. Then there is the reading corner filled with bean bags and carefully leveled books in spanish, then some in english. Take a few steps left and you are in the adult section, made up of a couple of bookshelves full of books ranging from a Dummy´s guide on how to use photoshop to A Hundred years of Solitude - all in spanish. On the other side of the library is a teaching space and then the doors to the teen center - a large room with a guitar, board games, ping pong table and video game console. The teen center is decorated by a spray paint mural that is extremely beautiful and done to show that spray paint can be a form of art too.

Children´s english classes take place in the library as well as math and literature homework help. The most common visitors are the young regulars - kids who come every day and know all of the Profe´s names. However adults sometimes do come and the teen center is often filled with boys playing halo (some things are the same no matter what country you are in!)

While I am here, I hope to help a lot with the library. I am currently painting a column in the adult corner. It is a picture of flowers, bugs, sun, grass, clouds and sky. There is a space facing the column in which next week I will go get a plant for (which matches the plant theme of the column). I am not a natural artist, so drawing and painting such a large area has been an adventure. Many people, mostly the little kids, like to come and watch me and I get to practice my spanish skills and we talk about their favorite colors and if they like to paint. Its really fun. :)

I am also working with another volunteer, Allie, on promoting a reading club, in which kids read 8 books and home and fill in worksheets about the books. After each book they get a piece of paper which is part of an ice cream sunday. At the end of the ice cream sunday they actually will get to eat a real sunday. Some kids are really interested and one girl already has her ice cream bowl!

I am also working with Jen to make a toothbrush holder for the bathroom. When kids enter the library they wash their hands and brush their teeth, but as of now there is no holder...So that adventure will ensue soon. Lastly, I am working with a lot of volunteers on putting together a literacy class which will be taught twice a week for about an hour for kids who are struggling with reading, or on the brink of being a ¨proficient¨reader. I am really excited to start this because it reminds me of 4th grade in which we would help 1st graders read during the day. I loved it...they were our reading buddies. I'm really excited to be able to connect with the kids more too!

So in a nutshell, that is the library. It is just one of the many spaces in the community center, but it is definitely the focal point. What really makes this space though is the energy, creativity and happiness that emanates from this space. And it is unique as well. There are no other lending libraries anywhere near our area in Rumiloma. As a kid, what would life be like without that new shiny book you take home from the library? or as an adult, an interesting drama book or how-to book to read on the weekends? Life would be so different...

Although this is no college library teeming with young determined minds and hundreds of old books, it is in a way better, because it is the center of its own community: a place to learn, make friends and foster a love for learning - one of the most wonderful things I know of.