Thursday, August 6, 2009

Donkey Mobile Library



During my weekend to Awassa-- great city and I got there all alone in a 5 1/2 hour bus trip. So wish I would have done this earlier, as I realized how easy it was to travel independently through Ethiopia- I made it to the Donkey Mobile Library!!!!

I walked over to the Awassa Reading Room to meet with Hidar, who works there. She brought along her brother Desta to help translate and we headed over to the first of the donkey carts. There are 6 of them and they drive them(is drive the right word for donkeys?) into different neighborhoods and then park them, open them up and set up little stools. The kids then can come read books or check them out by filling out a little card. There were already about 10 kids there at 9:30am reading. They get about 70 kids at that cart each day. I gave the little readers stickers, that was a hit. Then Hidar and Desta took me to a second donkey cart which is parked in the grounds of a government school that does not have a library. I got to peek into the school as well. Wow, our kids do not know how great they have it in the states.

Then when we headed back to the Awassa Reading Room, there were about 15 more kids there on a Saturday morning reading books-- very cool. They all got stickers and I cannot tell you how much I love this program and Ethiopia Reads.

1 comment:

Claire said...

LOVE these pictures. Wish I could have been there to see them myself. So proud of you for the bus trip.