Friday, April 8, 2011

The Nancy Franke Library


I just got home from La Inauguracion de la Biblioteca de Nancy Franke (or, in ingles: The Inauguration of the Nancy Franke Library). This project has been a long time coming, and I’m completely psyched (I can’t even think of a word that emphasizes this enough) that it has been completed. I know that having accepted the naming of this library after me seems self-centered, but I honestly worked my tuccus off to complete this project, so when the library commission (or what’s left of it) suggested this, I enthusiastically accepted. PLUS, this is now the best fun fact that I’ll probably ever have about myself.



As you may realize, I only have a week left here in my barrio. It is INSANE to me. I honestly have no idea how the past two years have flown by so quickly. I leave on the 15th (next Friday), and then will be in Asuncion to swear out/festejar, and then will head on a 6 week trip through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia with my Peace Corps amiga. Anyway, I have been completely blocking out the fact that time is slipping past and that I’ll be leaving my lovely Villa Madrid so soon. I got choked up about two weeks ago a few times, but ever since have just continued to ignore it. Tonight I gave a speech at our library inauguration in which I talked about how I hoped that the new library would encourage a culture of reading and a renowned unification of the barrio (which is very segregated by section). The people who went were almost all people I have worked with on various projects throughout the past two years, and I got really choked up twice during my speech. I’m not much of a crier—at all—but it just all hit me tonight…unfortunately when I was in front of a crowd (including someone from the municipality). Anyway, the library inauguration was a huge success (despite me having to take two pauses to collect myself). There were a lot of kids and youth, and a lot of people of all ages stayed after to read and admire our wonderful collection of nearly 500 books. I had the pleasure of watching a 45-year-old woman discover the joys and wonders of pop-up books, which was actually a real highlight in my evening.

The library had looked a bit sparse until today, when we decorated it with maps, Paraguayan bicentennial stuff, and photographs taken by 4 neighborhood youth who participated in the Ahecha project. Ahecha (“I see” in Guarani) is a project that gives PCVs 5 cameras to loan to youth for about 6 weeks. The youth then take all sorts of photos, culminating in an exhibit within the neighborhood. They learn all about photography and then the photos are also submitted to the national Ahecha exhibit, in which photos are taken all over Asuncion for a few months. It is a really exciting opportunity for youth, and we had all the photos on display tonight at the library. Though some of the youth didn’t really seem to get the project, I was impressed overall by their work. And their photos added a lot to the library.

Realistically, this is just a really big step for this community library. My follow-up (who is great and meets all of my requirements—Yay!) will continue with projects, hopefully implementing a mobile library project with the schools, several reading/homework/geography clubs, and any other projects you may be able to think of. When I get back to the States (June 3rd—mark your calendars!) I’m hoping to rally a few groups to send down some books. Though we have a lot of children’s books, the books that the typical read-to Norte child grows up reading are IMPOSSIBLE to find in Spanish down here, and I definitely think they’ll be big hits in the library. (I've found that Where the Wild Things Are is truly amazing, regardless of the language it is written in...) That means, I’ll probably be harassing you. So brace yourself to donate to the Nancy Franke Library.

Prison in Paraguay

April 1st, 2011.

I went to prison yesterday. If you know me at all, you’ll understand that I was absolutely thrilled to be there, and then was totally blown away by what I saw. I went with another PCV to this small prison in Emboscada, Paraguay, which is about 20 minutes from my house. I’ve been to about 6 prisons in the US, ranging from camps (very low security where there aren’t even fences around the facility) to maximum security prisons—both state and federal. This was the first time I’d ever been to a prison outside of the US. The prison in Emboscada was shut down about two or three years ago, mostly due to the fact that the facilities were really old (constructed in 1903), and that there was a great deal of violence and murders within the prison walls. They reopened just over a year ago and currently only house just over 100 men. We spoke to the warden, a few guards, and one inmate. (Yes, just a single inmate—I found that to be a bit strange.) The warden explained about the variety of classes (educational and vocational) offered at the prison, showed us an extensive library, and a bakery with brand new equipment. There is a great deal of construction going on right now, mostly by the inmates themselves, to build a new housing facility which will hold about 500 new inmates.

OK, I didn’t finish that blog entry. But, I did go back on Tuesday with my follow-up Volunteer. We were able to actually go in and enter the housing units this time. I can’t figure out if we were only allowed to see them the second time because: A) day 1 was a bad day, B) the first guard showing us around thought we were slightly delicate, or C) because they figured we hadn’t been scared off too badly round one. It was confusing, but really interesting to go in. Again, they only have about 100 inmates currently, so the housing was pretty small. The guys sleep three to a room generally, on mattresses that lay on concrete bed structures. They’re able to have tapestries covering the bars to their cells, personal TVs, and all sorts of things (including hot plates!) that would definitely be considered contraband in most US prisons. We were shown all sorts of really interesting artisan work, like hand-stitched leather-covered terere (the tea, which is served with a thermos, cup, and metal filtered straw) equipment, neat little miniature boats complete with all the necessary ropes, jewelry boxes, and all sorts of other handicrafts. It was really interesting, to say the least. Another PCV (the one I went with originally to the prison) is hoping to help artisans at the prison sell their goods to other PCVs. She and my follow-up are both very interested in doing classes at the prison, though neither of them have worked in the field before. Is it weird that I’m slightly jealous? Maybe.