Pochocuape Location Update

Thanks to a friend of mine, I have an image of Pochocuape from Google Earth–and consequently the latitude and longitude!

Here’s the screen shot he sent me:

Pochocuape

(Click to enlarge)

Using the latitude and longitude, the location is pinpointed on these maps as well:

http://www.gorissen.info/Pierre/maps/googleMapLocation.php?lat=12.042678&lon=-86.181578

http://www.mapquest.com/maps?l=12.0426&g=-86.1815

With the first link you can zoom in pretty far and click “satellite,” but the best aerial image is, by far, the one found by my friend.

New: FAQs Page

It will soon be possible for you to find out everything you could possibly want to know about the Library Mission simply by clicking that wonderful little tab entitled, “FAQs.” As of now there is a rather small list of questions, so comment below with any question you may have. This is dual-purpose because you will get your question answered and others will get to read the answers all in one place. =]

75 and Counting

I got a chance to go to another library book sale today. Consequently, the Library Mission now has 75 books. (I have no idea how many we are getting from Club Leo yet.) I added them on LibraryThing , so check it out. By the way, I spent a grand total of $4 for these. Not bad at all!

Club Leo

I have some exciting news! The Library Mission is having its first organized fundraiser of sorts, that is, we are going to be doing this thing called Club Leo. Flyers have been handed out to a small group of people from my youth group for this first time, and the deadline is December 11th. Unfortunately, those of you who do not know me personally cannot participate in this as of now.

Club Leo works like this: a person looks at the catalog and places an order for a book that will be given to the Library Mission. He or she then writes a check to Club Leo or gives cash to Autumn, the kindergarten teacher who is running this for me, and she then writes the check for that person. However, I cannot in good conscience let anyone to mail a check–and especially not cash. When next year comes round and my youth group starts planning the trip I will return to Nicaragua on, there will certainly be something that everyone can be involved in. Until then, visit the Amazon Wish List, look for Spanish books at resale shops and library book sales, and spread the word!

Where is La Chureca?

Edit December 27th: I found a good visual of La Chureca’s location.

You can enlarge the image below by clicking it. As you can see, La Chureca is located directly north of a body of water named Laguna Acahualinca. According to what I’ve read, Acahualinca apprears to be the name of a district in Managua. Click here to view the lake area in Google Maps.

The main points in the bottom left-hand side are translated approximately below:

1. La Chureca has existed for more than forty years.

2. Daily, more than 200,000 metric tons (~220,000 US tons) of trash arrive at the dump.

3. 120 families living in La Chureca are the primary beneficiaries. Although, in general, the number of beneficiaries totals 18,000.

4. 1,500 to 2,000 workers take charge of separating still-recyclable material that is discarded by Managua.

(Image source)

I figured some of  you may be wondering about the specific location, so I have attempted to find a decent image. Here’s what I came up with:

Click the image to go the site I got this picture from

The following quote is taken from the site where I found the image: http://www.ehponline.org/members/2007/10713/10713.html

“The main municipal domestic and industrial waste disposal site in Managua, La Chureca, which covers an area of 7 km², is located directly on the south shore of [Lake Managua]. Approximately 1,000 persons work regularly at the waste disposal site, collecting recyclable waste for selling. More than 50% of those workers are children < 18 years of age. A thick cloud of smoke covers the area as the waste is burned to retrieve iron and other materials. Electronic waste is rarely found at the dump site. The waste is not compressed, the sunlight is intense, and a constant breeze from the lake sweeps the area. Thus, substantial amounts of airborne dust are generated.”

Here you can better see the location of Lake Managua within Nicaragua:

Pochocuape is another place I have mentioned. It is a rural community in Managua. Here’s a video–not taken by anyone I know personally–of  Pochocuape.

I recognize some of the kids in the video, actually. =] And when I was there, that warehouse was filled with food. The picture I showed of those boxes in one of the first posts was taken there. For more detailed information of Pochocuape’s location, read this blog post.

Amazon Wish List

Hello! It’s been a while, but I’ve been working on stuff. First, thank you to all of you who have clicked this link somewhere and have taken the time to read this. A huge thank you to everyone who has visited more than one time! (Have you told a friend about the Library Mission today?) =]

I’ve been scouring the web for a few things. My “free Spanish books” googling didn’t turn up much except online books and pdf documents, but those may be of much use in the future. (Maybe we’ll print some?) The other thing I was searching for were some lists of award winning books written in Spanish. I came across a couple good sites with the help of my sister and started creating an Amazon Wish List with our findings. Comment below and let me know what you think.

One more thing: clear contact paper. I need some. Since I plan to send some books down there in a matter of months I really need to start getting together everything that is needed to cover them–and actually cover a few so I know how hard it will be, if it actually works, how much contact paper I’ll need, and how long it’s going to take to cover all of them… etc. Woohoo!

Now Accepting Book Donations!

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me at librarymission@gmail.com

Planning Ahead

Last weekend I had a mini-meeting with David Zinn, outreach pastor at Ginger Creek. We discussed some things, which I will share with you here. You may have noticed the sidebar which clearly states our intention to start a partner library in Pochocuape. For those of you who don’t know where/what that is, Pochocuape is the nickname for a rural mountain community in Managua, Nicaragua. This is the location of the compound, built by Perry Brown, that contains a clinic, school, church, feeding center, and more.

Why make “two” libraries? La Chureca is closely connected with Pochocuape, as Perry Brown works with Maria. Since I’m believing for hundreds–if not thousands–of donated books, then there needs to be somewhere to store them once they are in Nicaragua. Pochocuape, since it is very safe, would make the perfect storage facility for the books that are waiting their turn to be read in La Chureca. And what better way is there to store them than a way in which they are being used? Kind of like a mobile library, the books in La Chureca would be circulated at different times, allowing for a smaller and more manageable collection that can be frequently updated, and thus more interesting.

Another thing I learned were some plans for December and January. It’s my church’s goal (as of now) to bring up Perry and Maria those months, respectively. Once they are in town I will have a chance to be in a meeting with them and figure out more logistics. Until then, we hope to send several books to Maria with the mission trip in January. Then she can introduce the idea of a library, inform them on how one works, and generally generate interest. This will give her a testing period to discover things she needs to run the library that wouldn’t have been thought of otherwise.

We hope to have the whole thing in full swing by summertime.

Community Interests & Goals

That books I’ve been reading–as well as other documents–about starting small libraries have given me some great things to think about. One of these is community interests. For example, a fishing village would likely be interested in materials relating to fish or fishing, but not those on raising crops in the desert. Libraries are wonderful sources of both entertainment and information. However, it’s my job right now to make sure that they get the information they would find useful, and the entertainment they would find entertaining. Once we have someone down in Nicaragua that I can talk to, it will give me a better idea of what specific materials will be worthwhile to have in La Chureca. There will understandably be limited space.

For now it is hard to say what materials, specifically, are needed. The best thing to say would be children’s books, because the ideas used in them are fairly universal, and reference materials such as encyclopedias because they enhance the classroom experience. Books that are more generic, versus specialized, are better. You can get some ideas by the books that I’ve picked up from library book sales by going to the LibraryThing account linked on the right side. It’s pretty hard to go wrong when it comes to children’s books. However, it’s a good thing to keep pictures in mind: kids in Nicaragua would probably like to see pictures of kids that look like themselves.

This leads me to the topic of goals. I have written down goals that will assist me in writing a good mission statement. Here’s what I can up with…

Goals:
-to improve lives through the provision of enriching resources.
-to make the people feel valuable and loved
-to generate enthusiasm for reading
-to provide tools that will help them improve their future in more ways than one
-to nurture interests and hobbies that will make them more valuable members of their society
–not to change their culture, but rather to give them access to more of it

Other Goals

I mentioned earlier that a friend of mine is planning to do something pretty exciting in Nicaragua, as well. (He’s actually that guy with the backpack in the picture a couple posts below.) What he wants to do is work with OLPC–One Laptop Per Child–and get some for Pochocuape. Like my goal with the library is to start at La Chureca and branch off to Pochocuape, his goal is to start in Pochocuape, and branch of to La Chureca. For many reasons, his decision is sound. I’m going to be helping him in any way that I can, so I hope you will as well. I’ll keep you posted. Right now he’s planning and collecting information before asking for project approval from both OLPC and our church.

Check out this video.