Community Volunteers

Ntombi helps a learner in grade 5 at the computer.

To my surprise, last Friday morning, the day after the big “march,” my principal came to me and asked for the phone numbers of the community members who were interested in volunteering in the library and computer lab. She said she wanted to call them and tell them to start coming on Monday. I was half shocked and half elated – I mean, I have only been waiting two months for these phone calls to be made. Better late than never, I guess. I give much of the credit to one of the grade 6 teachers. She decided that she, too, wanted the learners to keep going to the library after I was gone, and she recognized that was very unlikely to happen unless we brought in some outside help. So she asked the principal nearly every day if the volunteers had been called. Then she started telling a few other teachers to ask the principal if the volunteers had been called. Eventually, the principal realized that even though I was no longer bothering her, the issue was not going away. The principal got the hint and made the calls.

Nobuhle watches as the learners complete their work.

Fundiswa makes certain the grade 5 learners
with signing out a library book.

Of course, it remains to be seen how things work out long term, but the first week seemed to go rather well. On Monday when the volunteers arrived (two came, although the goal is four), they were introduced to the Library Committee, given a tour of the library and computer lab, had a brief computer lesson, and then we took grade 6 to the library. Their only comment when it was over was, “That was easy.” Yes, I agree. It’s just like Staples. On Tuesday, a third volunteer arrived to help, recruited by one of the original two, and things went equally well with grade 7. I was a little nervous about Wednesday, because we would be introducing grade 4 to the library for the first time. Although some of them had come to visit during open library time on Fridays, they had previously never come as a class and never been allowed to checkout a book.  With the Zulu-speaking volunteers at my side, we brought in the first half of the class and things ran smoothly. We gave them a tour of the space, read through the rules, and allowed them 10 minutes to work on a puzzle or play a game. Next week, we will show them how to look for a suitable book and sign it out. When it was the second half of grade 4’s turn to come, one of the volunteers ran the whole class and did an amazing job. Since there was no school on Friday (Human Rights Day), I wasn’t sure about the schedule for Thursday and if we would be in school late enough to take grade 5 to the library, as we usually close school early the day before a holiday. Sure enough, we ended around noon; so unfortunately, we did not take grade 5 to the library as intended. But the whole rest of the week went so well that I wasn’t concerned.

For the first time in a year and a half, I feel like there is a chance the door to the library will stay open even after I leave. Which would be nice for everyone.