Library night

So, just wanted to quickly update how the library thing is going. So far it is continuing well. I have since decided that I needed some sort of organized system to teach the children how to put the books in some sort of order, facing the right way, etc. At first I had the kids put them in alphabetical order by title... but that was very difficult to keep straight, even though I employed the ruler technique where they stick the ruler in where they are taking a book out and know where to put the book back because the ruler is there sticking out, they didn't quite get it, and had a hard time consistenly using it. So, last night before the enslaught of children came to return their books and get new ones, I decided to put tape on the spine of the books and numbers them. In no particular order. Andy saw this and was like... um... what good is that? But I tried to explain that it doesn't really do them much good to use the ruler system to keep them in alphabetical order if it is only helping me,.. for my minds sake that they are in a logical order. I want them to be able to use some system and to keep it in some sort of order. Last night they did well, they made sure to put the books in number order and even made sure that I wrote down the number on their library card of the book they checked out. I was really happy that it helped tremendously with them putting the books back with the spine out! Yeah :) Oh, also another pcv made this great life size "book" out of sheets that she had sewn together... it is where you can put it on a person, so they become the "book".. since she is great in Mandinka and was staying the night at our house this week I asked her to do a little presentation to the kids in our compound. It was really good, she talked to them in local language, demonstrating with the person that was wearing the book, how to treat them, where the front, back, spine, title, etc is.. they really enjoyed it. So, for now that is how things are going. Progress. Slowly slowly.