A surprise follow-up

Well surprise, surprise.  I just learned through the FAVL website (Friends of African Village Libraries) that a Swiss missionary, Alice, whom I met during my last visit to Ouagadougou, had recently visited two of their village libraries!  Networking pays off! 

I met her through Idda and Urs Niggli, two Swiss linguists working with the Ninkare language, who had invited me to their home in Ouagadougou for a belated birthday dinner.  They had also invited Alice, a friend of theirs, who lived for many years in the village of Mangodara, in the Cascades region of Burkina Faso.  Alice rarely visits Ouaga, so it was quite a coincidence that my visit overlapped hers.  Apparently Alice had started a small private library there in Mangodara, that she runs with the help of student volunteers, and she was absolutely delighted to learn that I was a librarian.  The users of her library of some 2900 volumes, are primarily elementary and secondary students and some government workers. 

I told her about FAVL, and she apparently made note of them, and visited two of their libraries in the region of Tuy, the village libraries of Dohoun and Bereba.  Below are photos of her, borrowed from FAVL's website, that show her visiting two of their libraries.

Dohoun

Bereba

Should you wish to read the FAVL article, in French, the link is below:
http://www.favl.org/blog/archives/2014/06/alice-en-visite-dans-les-bibliotheques-du-tuy.html

Dohoun puis Béréba

Dohoun puis Béréba

Dohoun puis Béréba