Thursday was the day of our ANIBIPA (Nicaraguan national library association) workshops in Managua. We were looking forward to this, if only to have them out of the way. But it was a worthwhile experience in many ways.
We worked all day the day before on our presentations, and worked most of the night as well. The workshops started at 9, and we were supposed to leave SJDS by 6 to get there in time. (We actually got there a bit late since we were still frantically printing handouts at 6 AM.)
Denise presented the first draft of her translation of the SJDS library policies document into Spanish. The document was originally written by Jon Furlong, the director of the Brentwood Public Library near Saint Louis, who is also here now. But Jon does not speak Spanish, so the first version of the policies were inaccessible to the library staff and others looking for models for their libraries. Denise spent days working on this, but her efforts will pay off as Nicaraguan librarians are able to take advantage of the document.
Both Victoria and I had agreed to present workshops ? hers on funding sources for libraries, and mine on wikis. We also both decided that we wanted to take a stab at presenting in Spanish, despite the fact that neither of us is anywhere near fluent. That made for a stressful week, as we frantically prepared our materials and reviewed our vocabulary.
I?m sure the participants felt like they were listening to presentations from first graders, but they were incredibly supportive off our efforts to communicate in their language. Victoria had prepared a handout with material on funding sources gathered from the web, and I had a Powerpoint presentation and handout, both translated into Spanish.
For me, the lead-up to the workshops was extremely stressful ? take your normal public speaking stress and multiply it by 1000 to account for the language barrier. But in retrospect, I?m exhilarated that I was able to pull this off. Even if my presentation was halting, I feel like I was able to communicate something new and important to a group of librarians ? and to do it in a language in which I could barely order breakfast a few years ago. I feel like my work on my Spanish is really starting to pay dividends. Victoria and I crack ourselves up because we have to talk around so many holes in our vocabulary. Her favorite ?the person who sits in the chair at the front of the airplane? for ?pilot.? But the fact is that we?re able to formulate these awkward constructions means we?re able to navigate through situations that would have sent us scrambling for a dictionary before.
Heidy, one of the SJDS librarians observed last night that my Spanish is improving, and that I just need to talk to a lot. I think this is right on target ? I feel like every day I spend speaking Spanish here in Nicaragua is worth more than a semester of classes back home.
In addition to our presentations, we also heard presentations from Rosa Argentina Aguilar about the activities and mission of ANIBIPA, Jane Mirandette and her staff, Heidy Herrera y Ruth Perez, on the SJDS Biblioteca Movil and ?library in a box? programs, and a brief speech from the director of the college hosting the conference. In the afternoon, we also did a craft activity (creating a children?s alphabet out of foam), and Jane masterminded raffles of books and various other items.
With the lack of sleep and the long drive, it was an exceptionally long day. But we were all relieved to have it over with, and celebrated by going out to dinner at una restaurante Nicaraguense típica, and most of us (including a few US librarians and a few of the Nica staff) continued the evening at a Karaoke/dance club in Managua.
This morning we?re off to take a quick tour of the Palacio Nacional (national library and archives) in downtown Managua, and then heading to Chinandega to attend the opening of a new library being set up in collaboration with Jane and the Wisconsin Nicaragua Project. Back to Managua tonight.