18 Months Later

It's done. A year and a half of work is finally complete. I will open the library known as the Faraony Resource Center on Monday, June 30th.

This has been, without a doubt, the most mentally and emotionally exhausting project I have ever been part of and it almost feels as though it's not real. There is not enough space on the Internet for me to explain in correct detail everything that happened in the past 18 months, but the bottom line is that it is finished and who knows how many people this building will help in the years to come. 

The library has more than 2,300 books jn English, French, Malagasy and some textbooks for Spanish and German. There is fiction, non-fiction, textbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries, childrens books and more. For less than a dollar people in this area can get access to an education that may not have been possible otherwise and that is not a cliche or a joke. I'm sure its no coincidence that the most difficult job I have ever worked on also feels like the most important thing I have ever done in my life.

There are so many people who helped me every step of the way and others who were so difficult that they appeared hell bent on sending me on a taxi brousse to the nearest nuthouse.

I'm not going to use an entire blog to send shout outs to people, but my family has put up with a lot of my crap through these two years and much more before I got to Madagascar. But the most important thing is that they have all been supportive of me since I became a PCV and became part of something that really makes me happy (albeit in a very unique way). All PCVs get supportive packages and phone calls from family, but my mom has answered every one of my requests from helping with fundraising in the US to sending me library cards to the labels I used for classifying books to just being a positive support system when nothing was going right (and the whole time she probably just wanted to say: what the hell are you doing? Come home). Thank you Mom, Dad, Matt and Jared. This post is for you guys. Thank you to everyone who gave money to this project and thanks to everyone who has ever read or commented on one of my blogs. I appreciate the support. You will never know how big of a part you played in helping me finish this. Without further ado, I give you the Faraony Resource Center.

The front doors

     A Peace Corps emblem on the side.

Got a little corny and wrote my name and service years.

This is what it looks like right as you step in the doors.

Going to put 6 small desks back to back to make a table.

The pictures you see above the shelves are pictures of places in the states. People here really like pictures so I thought that would be cool.

That's the librarians desk and some maps. The small shelf is where people will put their books when they're done for the librarian to put back.

Some non-fiction and some textbooks down below.

I got 6 sets of encyclopedias from Books for Africa. Those are the blue ones below the window.

                     Some fiction

A picture from the road with the sign and the back of the building.

My good friend who does Kung-Fu poses in literally every picture. He helped me put the sign in.

Thanks MOM!

The library card asks for first and last name, job (for purposes of payment. It's 1,000 for students and 2,000 for everyone else per year), the date the card expires and signatures from the card holder and the director of the library. 

Picture of the books already classified but no furniture/shelves.

I also have just finished my classes so I have officially finished my main job for Peace Corps for my 2 years of service.

Finally, I took a fairly stuffed taxi-brousse recently and thought I would give you all a taste.