Manic Depressive Work

I recently had a grant approved to work on building three libraries. The money finally came through and we have begun working on the project. However, as with most projects here, you hit many road blocks along the way. Sometimes, you want to just quit the project entirely. If it weren’t for the kids and their interest in the books, then I am sure I would have abandoned the project long ago. For example, we had some wood delivered to make bookshelves, tables, and benches. We have money to hire one carpenter, but we are looking for volunteers in the community to help with the construction of the furniture. I thought that surely we would have some parents that would want to help with something that will directly benefit their children. Twice we tried to schedule a meeting with the parents and nobody showed up. The second road block came when the carpenter was scheduled to arrive on a Monday to begin working on the bookshelves. He showed up late in the day, completely drunk. He said he would be there Tuesday. He never showed up Tuesday. So I decided to go to the local government building and ask for their assistance. They agreed to find some workers to send over to the school the next day. Well, it’s now four days later. They keep telling me they will be there, but each morning something else comes up and they are unable to come.

On a more positive note, one of the schools called and informed me that they had cleaned out the room for the library and eliminated the bat problem. They did this all on their own, without me standing there and telling them what to do. That phone call was such a blessing after having so many failed attempts with the bookshelves.

In the next couple weeks we will be traveling to the capital city in a hired bus to purchase approximately 2,000 books. We will have a total of 4,000 books when combined with the books that were donated and shipped here from various individuals in the states.