Books. Books. Books. and the fact that there simply are NOT any.
You can't go a block in quaint little towns in America without finding book stores. Used book stores, New book stores, private owned and corporate giants. I've looked in the Mercado - no books. Looked in all the little shops - no books - looked at the grocery - no books. Gwen says the children say they have NO books at home. We brought books. They LOVE them, love reading, but there ARE NO BOOKS!
We stopped a taxi today because we saw a sign that said "bibliotec" Finally!!!! It was american run, all the books were used american paperbacks, for all the gringos that live here. Seriously? I sat and talked to the volunteer running it and she couldn't think of a single place in Puerto to buy kids books. I'm to the point that i want to just start handing out books to every kid that i see. I can't imagine ANYONE growing up without BOOKS! I need to come back here with a suit case FULL of books and just hand them out like candy. Anyone know of a grant for THAT? I'll buy my own plane ticket and bring a tent - all i need is a nice family to loan me a corner of their yard for a few days - and a SEMI full of BOOKS! And i can't just mail them, because they won't GET here - or if they DO get here, some customs official will have imposed a great big TAX on them to be paid by the reciever - and no one that i want to give my books to has money to pay tax on such a gift. But i hear that most things simply don't make it by post anyways and its best to not even try! I need a grant for books, need to borrow a camper van (since realistically i can't drive a semi), i need safe passage through the border towns, and need to go from small town and village to small town and village giving books to kids next summer. And i need all these books to be in Spanish please. Real spanish and not just bad translation of english books. Then i need to teach these kids how to write their OWN books. Ok, so i either need to move here or face the fact that its after midnight and i should go to sleep because i'm getting carried away.
I have read SOOOOO many books this summer. I take books for granted. They are my best friends and some of my favorite vacations. I can't even imagine NOT having a book in my house - not having ACCESS to a book ............ i'm going to have nightmares tonight.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
Are there locally-based groups that bring in travelers for a specific tour or activity? Like a biking group, or eco-tour? Maybe the people who run those would be willing to solicit a Spanish kids' book from each customer that comes on their tour.
ReplyDeleteHm. I guess that'd get tricky, as people might have a hard time finding them in their country. Here, it's getting easier, as they sell kids' books in Spanish in the grocery store.
If I were going on a tourist package to Mexico, and in the literature it said that the company providing the tour participates in an initiative to provide books to kids, and a new Spanish language book would be much appreciated, I would certainly get one, while buying my other travel supplies, and just stick in my suitcase and bring it with me. (sorry for the painfully long run-on sentence- sort of stream of thought)
I'm sure there are lots of reasons why that wouldn't work, there always are, unfortunately.