Reading by candle light

As children my brothers had this book Fossils Tell of Long Ago. They absolutely loved it. Every night my dad would read the book out loud and my older brother Justin memorized it from beginning to end. I hated this book. I loathed sitting there listening about dead dinosaurs and mud and gross boy things. Once, I even threw the book away in hopes that I would never have to hear it again. My brother angrily collected it from the bottom of the trash can, and I still get teased about it. Despite my dislike for paleontology, I did adore reading. My grammar school friends and I used to compete over who could finish the entire American Girls series first and I spent many nights tucked under the covers with a flashlight reading about Laurel Ingles Wilder and fanaticizing about living in my own little house on the prairie. Throughout high school and college I read passionately, finishing my summer reading list long before labor day and borrowing books from my mothers extensive personal library.

The Peace Corps center here in Guatemala has its own lending library, tucked in behind the computer lab, there are shelves of books with heavily worn pages, scrawled with notes inside front covers from well wishers back in the states, I hope this inspires you to accomplish all you can I’m so proud of you, Love Mom in Ghandi’s biography, I know you didn’t read any of the books in your English 101 class, maybe you’re old enough now to appreciate the education I paid for - Dad, inside The Grapes of Wrath. One can only imagine what amorous prose has been sketched inside the pages of My Love My Viking and the various other novels in the rather large romance section. There is no official check out policy on books however its generally considered to be rude to take more than you’ll read in the next couple of weeks and stealing the entire Twilight series may result in being blacklisted by all other volunteers. The best time to go to the library is when a group of volunteers is finishing there service. Normally all the books they’ve borrowed and had mailed to them during their service end up on the shelves.

Unfortunately, I live nine hours from the training center and have yet to make it back since I moved into my site over two months ago. There used to be a Peace Corps outpost up here in Coban with medical supplies and a small library for the volunteers in the Vera Paces. Federally mandated budget cuts forced the closure of the office a year ago and all the books were returned to the training center. Thank you President Bush. That being said my site mate Chris and I both brought several books with us and have kept ourselves busy swapping copies of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance for the first half of War and Peace (the book was cut in half several years ago by volunteers who agreed it was selfish for any one person to have the entire book at once). Unofficial waiting lists are established for books and locating a copy of a certain book is as easy as sending out a mass facebook message.

I’ve done a lot of reading here in Guatemala. I’ve put up a list of the novels I’ve finished in my five months here. Without television or high speed internet reading has become both a stress reliever and an escape back into the English speaking world. If you feel inspired, send down a copy of your favorite book. It will live a long life here, passed from volunteer to volunteer and cheering us up and making us feel a little more at home when times get tough.