New building, finally!
We attended another general meeting with the locals in May and the idea of moving the library to the old teachers house was an issue that rose a lot of discussion. It looked like it wasn't going to happen, especially not that particular day, so we called another meeting for the week after to talk about it more. In the meantime it was decided that it wouldn't be happening in the old teachers house, but then one of the local people opted we could use the clinic, which is only used once a month when the doctors are working there, and once or twice a year the dentists who visit the village use it. So that was it and on the 31st of May, Sassy cleaned up the place and moved all of our books and materials to the new building, with the help of one of the local women. The new library is a fact, we now have one large room with two tables, so we can easily work in two different groups, a separate room, to be a computer room as soon as possible, a storage room and a book cabinet. Yeah!
Sales
We had another clothingsale on the 29th of May, at a fundraiser for the local school, where there was soccer, local food and bingo. The library donated a surprise box as a prize to the bingo and we sold a lot of clothes again and raised $200.
The next sale will be at the Tuna Festival in Pavones on the 12th of June. This is a fundraising festival to the benefit of the organisation that tries to stop a planned tuna farm off the coast of Punta Banco. The money we raise with this clothing sale will therefore partly go to this organisation and partly to the library. If you have any clothes donations, please contact Sassy (tel. 2776 2073)
Goodbye Britta and welcome Charlotte
Britta left Punta Banco to go back to live in Holland again, so unfortunately had to leave the library behind. “I had a really great time working with the children of Punta Banco, it was a very special experience and very rewarding. Of course I will help as much as I can from Holland, by raising money and sending materials. Thanks a lot to Sassy, it was a pleasure working with you because of of your positive energy. I will miss you all and I hope to be back within a couple of years”.
Fortunately we can welcome a new volunteer to the library project; Charlotte. She just arrived in Punta Banco and will be living here for the next two years to manage Rancho Burica and volunteer at la biblioteca. Welcome Charlotte!
New load of books
At this moment, there is a new load of books and colouringbooks on the way from San Jose to Punta Banco. These books are all brand new, bought with money donated and raised with the cloting sales! Update of the booklist will follow as soon as possible.
Volunteers
We get more and more help with our little project, donations in the form of money, clothes, books and materials. Via via we now have connections with private schools in other parts of the country that are willing to help and the number of helping contacts keeps growing. Facebook is also a big help in communicating about what we do and in having more and more connections. Become friends of Biblioteca Punta Banco on Facebook and join the group Friends of Biblioteca Punta Banco! Also the locals are now taking part in the library, mothers helping out with art projects and reading to the kids and older kids are helping out the younger ones on the computers. There are plans to make the library into a multifunctional communitycenter, which will be possible if the help we get keeps on growing like it has been up untill now.
Thanks
Again, many thanks to everybody that has helped us out in any way to achieve what we have achieved!
