There was a hubbub at the library when we arrived this morning. The day before we did an intensive review of the building and how the new furniture and layout was working and what was needed.
When we arrived about 9:00 it seemed there were dozens of guys around. Wooden tables were being taken out and different furniture was being brought in. All the old furniture was in the backyard. The library got some cool new tables on wheels that are kind of like portable computer training tables. So we got right in there,
moving tables around and rearranging things so that the main floor was a lot roomier and more inviting with the new furniture.
The upper room, which is the youth area, has a couple of work tables and some shelving. We have learned a few procurement lessons. It turns out that we got about half the shelving that we wanted because of the differences in standard sizing, the fact that there are multiple people involved in the purchasing process and the reality that we were half a world away. If nothing else, librarians are resourceful and know how to come up with creative solutions to stretch a rupiah. We have got a plan in place and we will be able to accommodate the collection with some old shelving. We went to the stationery store and we have a few bins now to help out with the children’s materials.
In case we haven’t mentioned, the Canadian ambassador to Indonesia is going to be coming to visit the library, about two weeks after we leave, to handover the bookmobile and to visit the library. This, as you can imagine, is a massive deal for the community and the library. So we have been doing a lot of talking and coaching about what might be said in the speech…."the key messages". We did a whole review of performance measures. So we are very sad not to be there for the special day, apparently all the VIPs at the event are going to get garlands of flowers. We will be there in spirit.
We headed back to Banda for the weekend. Katherine was delighted to have conquered the bank machine. Last weekend it rejected both of her bank cards and we tried two ATMs. This time it worked like a charm so we celebrated with three Heineken’s a piece.
We ate, we swam and then we lounged around the lobby. Our favourite staff person Rommel was on duty and he insisted we watch a big anniversary celebration on TV. We never did figure out what the anniversary was, but it gave us a chance to see all the different cultural groups of Indonesia and the costuming and dance. Right from Sumatera to Papua. And we were most delighted to see the clapping dance, performed by 600 Acehenese dancers. This was particularly exciting because we had heard about this dance as it was depicted on the new mural in the children’s section of the library. We have also heard that they plan to have the clapping dance performed for the ambassador’s visit. We are just such lucky ducks.
We are off to the beach tomorrow, which should be pretty cool. All the other FCM volunteers have gone to the beach and have told us great things about it. We will be staying at Freddies’ in Sabang. More on that in the next post.
When we arrived about 9:00 it seemed there were dozens of guys around. Wooden tables were being taken out and different furniture was being brought in. All the old furniture was in the backyard. The library got some cool new tables on wheels that are kind of like portable computer training tables. So we got right in there,
moving tables around and rearranging things so that the main floor was a lot roomier and more inviting with the new furniture.The upper room, which is the youth area, has a couple of work tables and some shelving. We have learned a few procurement lessons. It turns out that we got about half the shelving that we wanted because of the differences in standard sizing, the fact that there are multiple people involved in the purchasing process and the reality that we were half a world away. If nothing else, librarians are resourceful and know how to come up with creative solutions to stretch a rupiah. We have got a plan in place and we will be able to accommodate the collection with some old shelving. We went to the stationery store and we have a few bins now to help out with the children’s materials.
In case we haven’t mentioned, the Canadian ambassador to Indonesia is going to be coming to visit the library, about two weeks after we leave, to handover the bookmobile and to visit the library. This, as you can imagine, is a massive deal for the community and the library. So we have been doing a lot of talking and coaching about what might be said in the speech…."the key messages". We did a whole review of performance measures. So we are very sad not to be there for the special day, apparently all the VIPs at the event are going to get garlands of flowers. We will be there in spirit.
We headed back to Banda for the weekend. Katherine was delighted to have conquered the bank machine. Last weekend it rejected both of her bank cards and we tried two ATMs. This time it worked like a charm so we celebrated with three Heineken’s a piece.
We ate, we swam and then we lounged around the lobby. Our favourite staff person Rommel was on duty and he insisted we watch a big anniversary celebration on TV. We never did figure out what the anniversary was, but it gave us a chance to see all the different cultural groups of Indonesia and the costuming and dance. Right from Sumatera to Papua. And we were most delighted to see the clapping dance, performed by 600 Acehenese dancers. This was particularly exciting because we had heard about this dance as it was depicted on the new mural in the children’s section of the library. We have also heard that they plan to have the clapping dance performed for the ambassador’s visit. We are just such lucky ducks.
We are off to the beach tomorrow, which should be pretty cool. All the other FCM volunteers have gone to the beach and have told us great things about it. We will be staying at Freddies’ in Sabang. More on that in the next post.
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