A little background on the project:
There were already bookshelves full of books but they were nestled in the corner of my tiny classroom, and nobody was using them (mostly due to me not having to room open regularly for them).
At the end of my first term at school, a classroom opened up and I got permission to move the library. The students all banded together and helped moved everything in only 2 hours. Over the course of the next few days, some students helped sort all of the books again and we created a coding system that is easy to follow and makes our future sorting much easier.
Through the process, I met Yamusah, who would later become my best friend at site. I appointed him as prefect of the library and he opened it each night for the students to use. Even after exams were over, the students were still piling in to the library each night!
When the second term rolled around, we picked another prefect and started to really improve the space. I proposed a fund raiser where each student would donate 50 pesewas and with the money, I would buy paint for the library. We voted on colors and after enough was raised, I went out and got the paint.
I tried to involve the students as much as possible in the process so they would have more ownership of the library. They painted all of the walls in only a few days and from there I started to add murals that they also picked from a list of possibilities.
The first one was a map of Africa using a common motif that I have used in the path. It was interesting that the students didn't initially know that it was Africa but now I hope they all do.
Then we added the word LIBRARY on the wall to claim the space. This one comes with a story:
In the past years, it was promised that the school would receive computers and that was what the space was initially for. The previous volunteer moved the library a couple times, I moved it once, and I just decided that this would be the last move. The students love the space, it's full every night, and they are learning more than before because of it. More on this topic later...
Then I painted a map of Ghana from space. I know none of the students have seen Ghana represented this way before. It is really neat to see how different the north and south look from space too! Many of them say they don't like this one but I am proud of it and I hope it will grow on them with time.
The next one was a motif that is found in a craft village, Sirigu, in my region. Many of the students are from there and actually have the same design painted on their homes. The entire village is decorated this way. Painting it was literally a pain in the neck and I was very glad when it was over.
Now back to the computer story... At the end of this most recent term, computers magically showed up and the Headmaster asked me to move the library back. Nope. So I worked in secret with the students to lock the computers in my classroom and gave the prefect strict instructions to hide the key at the end of the term so nobody can change the space over the holiday. I left school for a few weeks so I hope all is right when I get back. But I do plan on trying to bring a computer lab to the school soon.
(August 6) I recently finished up painting some Kente on the main wall in the library. This was a process but it adds a lot of character! Throughout the process we had to stand on some very shady scaffolding but I can happily say that nobody was inured in the making of the design.
We also received a donation of 800 new books for the library. I had a huge stack to bring to the school and worked with the prefect to sort them all and find places in the shelves for them. Problem is, we ran out of shelf space so I will have to get new ones made to accommodate the additions.
There are still improvements to come! I will update as more activity occurs.
At the end of my first term at school, a classroom opened up and I got permission to move the library. The students all banded together and helped moved everything in only 2 hours. Over the course of the next few days, some students helped sort all of the books again and we created a coding system that is easy to follow and makes our future sorting much easier.
Through the process, I met Yamusah, who would later become my best friend at site. I appointed him as prefect of the library and he opened it each night for the students to use. Even after exams were over, the students were still piling in to the library each night!When the second term rolled around, we picked another prefect and started to really improve the space. I proposed a fund raiser where each student would donate 50 pesewas and with the money, I would buy paint for the library. We voted on colors and after enough was raised, I went out and got the paint.I tried to involve the students as much as possible in the process so they would have more ownership of the library. They painted all of the walls in only a few days and from there I started to add murals that they also picked from a list of possibilities.
Then we added the word LIBRARY on the wall to claim the space. This one comes with a story:In the past years, it was promised that the school would receive computers and that was what the space was initially for. The previous volunteer moved the library a couple times, I moved it once, and I just decided that this would be the last move. The students love the space, it's full every night, and they are learning more than before because of it. More on this topic later...
Then I painted a map of Ghana from space. I know none of the students have seen Ghana represented this way before. It is really neat to see how different the north and south look from space too! Many of them say they don't like this one but I am proud of it and I hope it will grow on them with time. The next one was a motif that is found in a craft village, Sirigu, in my region. Many of the students are from there and actually have the same design painted on their homes. The entire village is decorated this way. Painting it was literally a pain in the neck and I was very glad when it was over.
Lastly, I painted an elephant and a giraffe on one of the main walls. The kids really like these ones and they are appropriate since there technically are elephants in Ghana and my nickname for the tall students is Giraffe. Don't worry though, they love it when I pick on them.
Now back to the computer story... At the end of this most recent term, computers magically showed up and the Headmaster asked me to move the library back. Nope. So I worked in secret with the students to lock the computers in my classroom and gave the prefect strict instructions to hide the key at the end of the term so nobody can change the space over the holiday. I left school for a few weeks so I hope all is right when I get back. But I do plan on trying to bring a computer lab to the school soon.
(August 6) I recently finished up painting some Kente on the main wall in the library. This was a process but it adds a lot of character! Throughout the process we had to stand on some very shady scaffolding but I can happily say that nobody was inured in the making of the design. We also received a donation of 800 new books for the library. I had a huge stack to bring to the school and worked with the prefect to sort them all and find places in the shelves for them. Problem is, we ran out of shelf space so I will have to get new ones made to accommodate the additions.There are still improvements to come! I will update as more activity occurs.
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