The library is the room in the centre with the new shutters and roof, next to the condemned classroom which is still in use.
My first meeting with Ritah.
During our meeting some boys came in and made themselves at home! Also in the picture is Cathy.
The 'Interesting Corner' which at the moment mainly focuses on football!
About 30k outside Masindi, on the outskirts of Budongo Forest, is a small village called Nyabyeya. Most of the inhabitants are subsistence farmers, though there is also a small gravel pit where women with babies on their backs work all day digging and grading the gravel. In the village there are a few small shops selling the bare necessities such as kerosene, oil, soap, home-made rope, etc. and a few roadside stalls selling fruit and vegetables. It’s a typical village with groups of men sitting around enjoying the local brew and playing cards.
The journey from Masindi to Nyabyeya is along a marram road which, when dry, makes driving difficult with the clouds of dust but, when wet, is probably worse as the surface becomes like a skating rink. I’m always amazed at how many people walk this road, day and night, often with young children and babies. Some are carrying jerry cans of water, firewood or baskets of produce from the land balanced on their heads. On a good day the journey is quite pleasurable and if you’re lucky you can see colobus and vervet monkeys, baboons and the occasional chimpanzee.
Just outside the village is the Nyabyeya Forestry College and in Budongo Forest itself is an important Field Station carrying out work on chimpanzees.
Nyabyeya also has its own primary school. It is here that the Budongo Forest Conservation Trust have opened a small library to try and raise the academic and language skills of the children. It will also be an important meeting place for the children where they can be taught extra-curricular topics such as conservation and skills which will help them become useful citizens to the Budongo community. The library is funded by the Trust which has paid for the renovation of one of the condemned school buildings and also pays for a full-time librarian called Ritah. So far all the books have come from donors in the UK. The library has a long way to go. It needs many more books, particularly text books, and resources such as charts, posters and other teaching aids.
It is through a friend of ours, one the chimp researchers from the UK who lives at Nyabyeya, that I have been asked to help for one day a week. Cathy and her mother have been involved in raising the money and setting up the library. I have never thought of myself as a librarian but have decided to give it a go! My new jobs begins next week with the start of the new term.
Here are some photos of the library. As you can see, it looks quite sparse at the moment and we only have mats to sit on, but a lot of work has been done to create a safe environment. The roof has been replaced and there are new shutters and doors. The adjoining school rooms remain condemned, with roofs that leak, no windows or doors, but they still have to be used as there is no alternative. The school has a few newer rooms but they are not enough for the number of pupils.
Maggie
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