SUCCESS!

I had the largest success of my Peace Corps Service thus far yesterday morning at about 705am! Earlier in the week I visited the Catholic School in Horqueta with a couple of the youth from our youth group to give commercials about our ´new´ public library. Because most people in Horqueta do not know that it exists, where it is or how it works, what a library card is and how it works. So we went to every classroom (36) and gave a short skit about the library to deliver the info in a slightly more fun way. It was a pretty amazing way to meet half of the student population of Horqueta in one day, but I wasn’t sure how successful we had been – we had fun but not sure if kids 1. Got it and 2. Would ever come and check out the library. So….back to my most successful moment! I was walking to the radio station at about 705am and walked past a boy of about 8-9 years. He said hello and then stopped me and asked me if I was the person who had come to talk to him at school last week? I said yes. And he said he had a question about library cards. He wanted to know if he had a library card could he come check out books anytime he wanted? And I said yes! You get to have them for two weeks and can come as often as you like! And he said, ok-when I get paid this week-I am going to come and get a library card! I could have kissed him! (that would have been slightly inappropriate…so I held off on the lip locking!) I was THRILLED that one kid got it! One kid listened! One kid is going to go get a library card! One kid is going to be able to read more! It was a moment of pure success! And the thought that just maybe other kids got it-like this kid, made shivers run up my spine! I am headed this week to continue our commercials in the other schools in Horqueta to introduce the library hopefully to more kids! And the greatest thing about talking to kids is they go home and talk! I have also had a couple adults tell me they know who I am or at least knew that I exist because their kid came home and said there was a funny Norte at school today doing skits about the library! Which means…parents are going to learn about the library too!
In Paraguay they tease about something called Radio So´o which the literal translation is – Meat Radio. But it really means the human chain of gossip and information sharing that takes place all the time everywhere here! News travels faster than you can walk from one end of your block to the other. Everyone knows pretty much everyone else’s business. Which is good should you want to share library information…but should you not want to share any personal life details it can be a bit ridiculous!