Books From Belgians

February 25, 2008

So many of the books that I was in charge of from USAID while working in Kaolack were in English. Although they were useful to distribute to English clubs and English classes at the high schools, we were really in need of additional books for the libraries in the schools and the book mobile. I spent some time during the past couple weeks in Dakar on the phone with the different francophone embassies asking for additional book donations. Today, the Belgians came through for me. The Belgians have regional cultural organizations with missions to countries around the world. It is the Wallonie-Bruxelles delegation that contacted me and told me they wanted to give me books for my project. So I am a big fan of Belgians at the moment. They gave me the news last week, and I went in today to pick up the books.

In case you don't know, Belgians really like their comic books. They have comic book museums and everything. I had learned that about them awhile ago in one of my French classes, but had forgotten since then. But I remembered immediately when I walked into the waiting room at the mission and saw the huge mural of cartoon characters including Smurfs and Tintin. This conveniently worked in my favor. Not only did the delegation provide me with novels, but also with many hardcover children's comic books. So, I am absolutely thrilled with them to say the least. The comic books are perfect for the region, since many kids there don't speak French, so they can be read aloud and the children can look at all the pictures.

Now I just simply need to drag the books back to Kaolack to put them with all the others this week.

In addition, the man I met with at the mission gave me a Smurf calendar for myself. It's going to be one of my favorite souvenirs from Senegal.