Miraculously, our PCV Books for Africa Crate was “cleared” on Friday, October 12th, which means the books can now enter Ethiopia with Duty Free Status. This is significant, because without “deed of donation” being recognized, we could not have afforded the costs associated with clearing the crate. All the work would have been for nothing. It would have been a true defeat. The bureaucratic process caused me quite a lot of unexpected anxiety, reminding me why I normally appreciate a totally different type of work (such as teaching and working in the creative arts).
Short version of a very long story: Chad and I worked with our contracted FIDO representative Getachew for 5 days last week and finally got the 9 official papers with purple stamps the Custom’s Office requires to grant Deed of Donation status. This complete story is actually quite long and complex, and I’m simply exhausted from the process.
What I learned about myself during this process is that I am capable of understanding complex interrelated bureaucratic processes. Now that I have personally experienced the true and heavy weight of Ethiopian Bureaucratic Systems, I feel better prepared to bring the books to our own community.
Why? Because now I will design a new, bureaucratic “Project Agreement” between the PCVs (Chad and I) and our CTE ELIC and Primary Schools. Specifically, these books will be designated as one part of a “Literacy Pilot Project” in which the donated books will NOT be locked up in a library. Our agreement will clearly state the importance of using these books on a daily basis and not punishing anyone (teachers/librarians/students) (monetarily or otherwise) for any future loss or damage to any of these books. This will be spelled out in very bureaucratic terms (Article III: Obligations of PCVs; Article IV Obligation of Primary Schools, etc…) and through bureaucratic means, these donated books will not be entered into the normal inventory lists of local government primary school libraries.
Through bureaucracy, we hope that the books we bring to our host institutions will be put into regular use by students and teachers in Primary Schools. We will create accessible “Mini-Libraries” and/or “Lending Libraries” and the books will be handled, read and hopefully enjoyed by students and teachers alike. At the end of our Pilot Project, an inventory will be taken to assess the use of the books and assess any loss or damage. After we leave Debre Markos, some time in 2013, the books which remain in the community will most likely (quite probably) be locked up, but this will not be up to us to decide. We will be long gone. What will remain is the concrete memories of reading/handling books and Early Grade literacy experiences of students and teachers during the Pilot Project.
This is all necessary and it cannot be avoided. The Bureaucratic System must be understood and utilized to keep our books from being locked up in a prison library system, where teachers won’t check out books because they don’t want to pay for their loss or damage. Librarians will also be held monetarily accountable for any books which are lost/stolen or damaged, and perhaps they could also lose their jobs.
Cheers everyone!
I grew up in DM and completed my primary and secondary education in DM, currently living in Philly. I am moved to hear your efforts to bring books to DM with assistance from Books for Africa. We shipped 35000 books to DM in 2007 (probably boxed in school libraries!! we helped with building the high school library) and our PCV teachers (from the 60s and 70s) were active participants in fund raising as well as coordinating the effort with Books for Africa. TOur PCV teachers visited DM 3 years ago. I was referred to this site by one of them. Since I went through the frustrating process of getting the books into Ethiopia duty free, I understand the relief you felt to get the permit to do so. Let alone you, even those of us who were from that society could not fathom why it is so difficult to help our own people. Part of it is that everyone wants that instant gratification; looking the digital pictures from the camera right there and then or items downloaded from the web. Think of what you felt when the kids started to sing what you taught them after few trials right there and then.
A project (teaching) with protracted benefit/outcome is mostly frustrating given the ever ending ‘ishi nege’ Ethiopian bureaucracy. Our PCV teachers could not control their joy to see us, their middle school students, succeed to a level beyong theirs and ours imagination, but they had to wait more than 40 years with no progress report card in between even with no indication if we came out alive from Mengestu’s red terror.
I am interested to hear more about your pocket books project as we are also trying to encourage (smart) young boys/girls in DM to read and mentor them, support them financially to be more assertive and be leaders of their community and country. Any insights you might have on this would be appreciated.
Your stories with the all its joys and frustrations draw us back and challenge us to do more, you are our inspiration!
With warmest regards.
Dear Ato Kebede,
I appreciate so much hearing your comments. There were many books from the United States in libraries, most of which contained a purple stamp indicating that they were donated by the Rotary Club. Was your project through the Rotary? I know the books are in the Public Library and are out for people to use. The main difference between the current books (from your shipment?) and our project was the targeting of lower grades. Lucky for us, our boxes of books from BFA were filled with a nice mixture of books–from KG level board books, simple picture books, and more difficult picture books. Already, just by delivering the books to the schools, the kids were excited by the images and simple text they were able to read. For example, one student helping me carry books to his library exclaimed “Thomas!” when he saw the title of a book about Thomas the train.
In reality, some of the books will not be in the hands of students as much as I would like. But with programs to promote reading culture, they could be handled and read by children with guidance by older students or adults/teachers/parents. Reading is a social activity at first, and after that children love to read independently if the books are appealing.
Working on this project with Debre Markos schools and city administration was very meaningful. I’m sure if someone inspired comes along and finds the donated books, they will be happy to have them and will use them actively in reading programs. The books are in Dibza cluster schools, Negus Tekla Haimanot Cluster schools, Dil Betegel schools, the public library, the Missions of Charity orphanage, and 60 picture books are even the College of Teacher Education. Though the CTE did not want to take any picture books, I insisted that they must have good stories in English as a part of a teaching college library. Yes, I know, the books ARE for children. Who do you think these Pre-Service Teachers will be working with during their practicum? And who will they work with after they graduate? Children? Yes. For the most part, children. Who would have thought I’d have to work so hard to get quality picture books (carefully selected for African themes, folktales, fables, excellent illustrations, and so on) into a College of Teacher Education? Oh my. What a different world and different attitude towards books.
Now we no longer live in Debre Markos. But I will always have fond memories of our 1.5 years in Amhara! I miss the tegabino and the injira every day.