BOOKS!

17 Apr 12

I love them.  I can’t remember the last time I read for fun!  Although I do love A Sand County Almanac, and the research I do, otherwise I wouldn’t do it, but there’s a distinct difference when the purpose is for “work” etc. 

My brother, god bless ‘em, sent me everything I requested from my care package list suggestions.  I am still rather speechless about it barely able to remotely come near to expressing my vast gratitude.  He knows I didn’t intend for any one person to send ALL of that stuff, but he’s an incredibly lovey and wonderful brother that I think can relate to being thrown into rather uncomfortable situations having gone through basic training for the Air Force etc.  The support truly means more than anyone can know, unless I suppose, you’ve been there.

Anyway, getting to the point, he sent me Farenheight 451 as I requested classic books that I somehow missed out on during my childhood and education.  What a perfectly appropriate book to break the fast of reading for fun!  He mentioned that he had recently read it and that it leaves you wanting more, which it does.  Ray Bradbury is genius and I hope to discover more of his works floating around our PC collection of books from volunteers. 

I was able to find some other good reads there as The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, one of my favorite authors and The End of the Earth by Peter Matheissan chronicling his voyages to and around Antarctica.  I still wish I had some picture books so that I could share my joy of reading with the kids here.  I tried to read a bit of Bradbury’s book out loud to them but that only held their attention for so long.  They know some English, but not that much.

But even if the books were printed in perfect Wolof, I’m not sure they’d be able to read them anyway.  Another ability and skill I’ve taken for granted my whole reading life even though it was a skill I’ve struggled with from the beginning (thanks to Dad for making me read a book a week and to Mom and Dad for reading out loud to us as tots, no one can quite bring the BFG as to life as my mom, or anyone else’s parent as just being read to by your mom or dad is one of those treasured childhood joys I don’t think I’ll ever forget).

I’m very mildly dyslexic, something that tons of practice and awareness has done to alleviate but I still find the occasional bule in my notebooks instead of blue, wondering what on earth a bule is until I realize what I’ve done. 

That “simple” skill though, to connect letters to form words to form sentences, to put it altogether in a comprehensible manner, opens up entire worlds.  I feel like if I could only teach one kid (or point them in the direction of being educated on) how to read while I’m here, especially if she is female, I may as well be educating an entire village.  It’s powerful stuff but any teacher knows it’s a challenge, especially when you add limited time, learning disabilities, and perhaps a lack of motivation, for, where are these kids going to easily get their hands on good books anyway?  What are the chances that they can even go to school past the basic levels when more important tasks linger as growing food, cooking food, and raising children around the obstacles of desertification, deforestation, drought, food borne illness, HIV/AIDS, malaria, pests including goats and children ruining the crops, etc and so forth? 

It leaves me inspired and deflated all at the same time and never-the-less grateful to be able to read and write as I can.  I’m no Bradbury by any means, but hopefully I can at least make sense once in a while with only a few miss-spelled worlds in the wake of my jabbering’s.

In the meantime, I hope I can continue to land good reads for myself, including stories with pictures that I can share with my newly acquired Gambian relatives.  I think they think it looks really weird to watch this “toubab” stare at books on end for “fun” but maybe they’ll be curious to see what magic can be found within those written words.

I’m inspired to keep a book list of books I read during service as my friend has done in her PC blog.  I think I’ll just go ahead and post that under this post and add to the list as it hopefully continues to expand.

Happy reading and imagining of far off places and lands with fictitious charming and wondrous characters.  And savor the fact that you can, if you can, as so many in our world, can’t, yet.

~*~`~*~`~*~*~`~*~`~*~*~`~*~`~*~*~`~*~`~*~*~`~*~`~*~*~`~*~`~*

Farenheight 451 by Ray Bradbury, «««««

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, ««««

The End of the Earth by Peter Mattheisan