If I had to come all the way to Nicaragua to ride down the highway in the back of an open pick-up truck, so be it. 
Sunday, Denise, David, and I, along with John Furlong of the Brentwood, Mo. Public Library and Amy Wiza of the Wisconson/Nicaragua Project, piled into a truck bound for Granada, a picturesque colonial city about 50 miles north of San Juan del Sur. Sunday was the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin, (Fiestas Virgin de la Asunción) and the town center was packed to the gills with street vendors, live music, people on stilts wearing grotesque masks and huge dresses (there is a name in Spanish but we can’t remember), and lots and lots of horses. A bit unclear as to how all that fits together, but it was beautiful and exciting.
I rode in the back of the truck by choice, and halfway there, David joined me. In a country like Nicaragua where an entire family?including one or more infants and/or toddlers?can safely ride across town on one bike, US laws that prevent a grown adult from sprawling out in a truck bed to catch the wind and rays seem absurd by contrast.
We were on our way to Granada to meet up with Helen Korengold and Carol Rea, former teachers who have teamed up with Bill Marquad and Judy Herschfelt, American expats now living in Nicaragua, to open Granada’s first lending library. Their project, called “Puedo Leer” (“I can read”), began in April by bringing books to area schools on a rotating schedule. They currently have about 200 books in circulation at about 9 schools. The books are sorted into groups of ten in cloth bags and the bags are rotated through schools for 2 weeks at a time.
Bill and Judy have donated a stunning space adjacent to their home in central Granada for the public lending library, which we visited. Neither Bill or Judy are librarians, but they are friends of Jane Mirandette, and like Helen and Carol, have an interest in libraries that comes from loving to read. They started talking about the project about 18 months ago, about a year after landing in Nicaragua and meeting by chance. After learning about the Biblioteca Movíl and visiting here, Helen and Carol applied for support from the “Library in a Box” program offered by Jane?s foundation (as well as other grants.) At the Granada Library, they have modified the Library in a Box and created their own model and cataloging system. (The Library in a Box does not include a cataloging protocol.) Like the Biblioteca Movil, they have also received support from Scholastic to build their collection. Over lunch with Helen and Carol, we met their friend Donna Tabor, a former Peace Corps volunteer who came to Nicaragua in 1996 and never left. Donna is associated with a Pittsburgh-based 501 c 3 that has partnered with Puedo Leer to apply for funding from USAID for their work in Nicaragua. Among other things, Donna has established an adult computer training program in Granada, and also established a home and school for orphaned boys.
Local carpenters built all of the shelves and tables being used in the library space and Luis Garay, a children’s book illustrator and author from Granada has lent his excellent illustrations to Puedo Leer?s collateral materials. We missed meeting Luis that day, but managed to catch up with him a few days later in San Juan for a terrific lunch meeting. (My blog postings have about a 48 hour delay?) Luis?s most recent book, which he donated to Puedo Leer, illustrated an abridged version of the Popul Vuh, the Quiche Mayan creation myth. All of his books are quite widely available in Spanish and English. Luis has recently returned to Nicaragua after spending a good bit of time in Toronto.
The grand opening of Puedo Leer?s library in Granada will be this Saturday, August 26, the day we return to Boston; however, we helped get them in touch with Rosa Aguilar, the President of the Nicaraguan Library Association (ANIBIPA), who may be able to attend. They were very excited. It could be a further step in establishing a network of lending libraries under the banner of ANIBIPA. Along with librarian training, this is one of Rosa Aguilar?s goals for ANIBIPA before her term concludes this year.
For more information about Puedo Leer and the Granada library, contact:
Helen Korengold at [email protected] or Carol Rea at [email protected].