Back to the old grind

Well I almost had a meltdown on my first full day “back”.  I had spent a nearly-sleepless night the night preceding my flight, trying to remember all the things I needed to do.  Semi-conscious from lack of sleep, my flight seemed unreasonably long because of an only partially working media screen. I couldn't seem to get video at all, and the prospect of listening to not-the-greatest music over and over again was not appealing.

Then, upon my arrival, I discovered that the public access to the Ouagadougou airport had changed, presumably for security reasons, and, for a few minutes, I thought my ride wasn’t there. Scary, as I was arriving in the dark, without a working SIM card for my phone in Burkina Faso. Fortunately my ride and I found each other, and we stopped at a bakery so I would at least have something for breakfast the next morning. But then there was no working wifi in my room. How addicted we have become to these devices...

And the next morning, I learned that there was a problem with the library software.   Actually, it was more than that, there had been some major hiccup in the NETWORK, and the library software was NO LONGER ON THE LIBRARY’S COMPUTER!  I spent the greater part of the morning with Fina trying to reinstall the software—and diagnose why it wouldn’t install—there was a corrupted file involved somewhere causing a problem.  The last backup of the data was November 25.  And so no surprise that there were piles of hand-written barcode numbers of check-in/check-out data to record... 

But just seeing the software installed again on the library’s computer was a HUGE relief, so I’m not complaining… So this time I didn't have to wait until it was late enough in the afternoon to call Canada (where ResourceMate is based) for installation help, and hope that the Internet connection would have sufficient bandwidth...

On another note, there's apparently a group of literacy specialists soon to be here at the SIL Center from all over West Africa, meeting here this very weekend.  It seems all available housing is booked up, and there is no room for me to stay here, so I'll be moving off-campus for a week.  I did mention Friends of African Village Libraries to one such specialist, now working here at the Center with SIL, who was formally living in Togo, and she may be interested in a field trip.  As I mentioned earlier, FAVL has opened up 20 new libraries in the north of the country over the past year or so with a grant from Catholic Relief Services.  That means they have more than doubled their capacity, now at 34 village libraries here in Burkina Faso!

Michael's book

back cover

Above is Michael Kevane's book on reading in Burkina Faso.  Michael is one of the co-founders of FAVL. Note the child in the photo is reading one of those great African "Aya" comic books--the kids love them because they can relate to her life and her crazy adventures. Michael's book is available in the SIL Library.

 

Here's a page from one I bought at the Paris Salon du Livre

 But because of the influx of extra people at SIL this coming week, there is no room for me at the Center, and I have had to move "off campus" for a few days.  I am staying with Kate Royal, a woman who works with the Fulani street kids, which I mentioned in a posting a couple of years ago.  I love the new wall-hanging in her living room...