With you

‘With you'

Will be synonymous with

‘With me’.

Alfredo Mires

In: La ensoñación del Ñaupa (The dreaming of Ñaupa)

Reading Encounter in Contumazá

Every year in November, our coordinator Ramiro Yglesias from Hoyada Verde, in Contumazá, holds a Reading Encounter in a community where he has libraries. Ramiro tells us about his last meeting:

‘The Coordination of Rural Libraries, Contumazá zone shares the work done in the Reading Encounter last November 12th of this year, which was very rich for having had the participation of librarians, teachers and children readers from different educational institutions, reaffirming the commitment to continue this task, to continue rescuing the uses and customs of our elders.

Sincerely

Ramiro Yglesias Díaz

Contumazá Sector Coordinator’.

Congratulations, brother Ramiro. And thank you very much for taking the initiative to continue organising these events. Let's move forward!

Consuelo with us

Since mid-November, Consuelo Solis Rivera, journalist and reading mediator, has been volunteering with the Rural Libraries Network. 

Consuelo is helping us to organise our reference library, but she has also supported us with a lot of dedication to the training in reading mediation during the last Assembly of the Network, in November. She goes out with us to the rural areas to visit rural libraries and to support the training of our librarians and coordinators. She takes on various daily tasks and simply enriches our team with her talents, her knowledge and her encouragement.

Thank you, Consuelo, for being with us and for sharing.

New roof

The house of the Rural Library Network was built in minga many years ago. And, like any house, we know that it will never be completely finished; we know that there will always be something new to do or something to repair.

Our dining room, for example, is a large space, full of light, with a view of the trees and all the dear plants we planted in the garden beside It's a special place, because that's where we sit down with our fellow librarians, coordinators and all the other volunteers of the Network to share our meals during our meetings. We also share the occasional delicious coffee, remembering those who are no longer here, welcoming those who are joining us, celebrating the life of some of us, making plans, thinking about new dreams... in short.

And, like every space in our house, this time, we were warned that the rainy season would cause it to suffer some inconveniences; it had several leaks, deteriorated wood and one or another tile moved by the kittens that always visit us.

So, with the help of our companions Sergio, Dilber, Sheguito and Javier, well accompanied by Karina, who always gave them the recommendations we hold in mind from Alfredo, we managed to change and improve the whole roof.

As a preventive measure for the dry season, we fixed the tanks where we collect the water from the rains, which we then use for cleaning the toilets or watering the gardens, as well as the tank that collects a little water, so that we don't run out in the kitchen.

Now, we are just waiting for the rains -although they are a long time coming-, or maybe they are waiting for our little roof to be ready to be used for the first time, hopefully.

These repairs have been made possible thanks to the support of our friends from the Italian association Help for Friends, Sarah's Rural Libraries Fund, who are always looking after the maintenance of the Network's premises, and the Belgian organisation Esperanza TM, who recently contributed to the repair of the roof of our book depository.

I am a librarian!

My name is Antony Llanos, and a few months ago I was invited to become a librarian at the Centro Cultural Quiritimayo. My arrival coincided with the formation of a Rural Library in the institution.

I had the good fortune to visit the central premises of the Rural Libraries Network in Cajamarca. It was a turning point in my work as a rural librarian: I entered with trepidation, but every space there tells you something. The bookshelf that can be seen at the entrance impressed me; when I asked, I was told that they are books published by the Network itself that go to the communities.

Continuing to walk through the Library premises made me feel in touch with an imaginary world: the small garden, the phrases written on the stones and the steps, turned my fear into curiosity.

In the Exchange Centre I was warmly welcomed, I was very excited to see the support they give us there. The box of books of different genres and themes that they gave me awakened in me a feeling of gratitude and responsibility towards the work I was undertaking.

At this moment, I understood that being a librarian of the Network not only implies the physical transfer of the books, but also represents a direct connection with the knowledge and culture that the books of the Rural Libraries house: we are carrying the culture of the rural communities of Cajamarca. Each book is an open door to knowledge and imagination, ready to be shared with the children of the Quiritimayo neighbourhood. 

This day we received a box of books and, to tell the truth, I have almost read them all. 

At the Quiritimayo Cultural Centre the books caused a lot of excitement. The children enjoy reading stories from the countryside. I think it brings back memories of their grandparents. Every day they choose a new book. I love to see them queuing up to sign the reader's registration form; the children write their name and sign it, which makes them feel very important.

Throughout these months I have come to understand that the books produced by Rural Libraries are not only physical objects, but powerful tools, another way of learning through the history of our people.

Antony Jahmpier Llanos Valdivia

Through their eyes

I saw the sadness of a hummingbird, it is difficult to imagine it, I know, and I have a feeling that this emotion will disappear soon, because a hummingbird always follows its flight, its mission in time, while it inhabits this earth.  

A year and a bit more will have passed since I was accepted as a volunteer in The Rural Libraries Network of Cajamarca, and I have seen in this time a lot of hard work and effort.

In mid-August I supported the sectoral meeting of librarians in Sócota - Cutervo, I felt very gratified to meet again with good friends, but I was also happy with the meeting - with the common feeling as librarians and volunteers, also to feel that the fabric of the Network is composed of a big family and, well, as often happens in families there are older brothers and black sheep and other smaller ones. There are also hard times, frustration and sadness. However, like the hummingbird, we always fly on.

I saw, from everyone's heart, the sense of belonging, of continuing to be and continuing to walk. Although at times it seems that we walk in solitude, that great family accompanies us and supports us.

Jorge Camacho

To continue reading, to continue being

The Escuela Campesina Alternativa de Pomabamba (The Alternative Campesino School of Pomabamba) ‘ECA’ is an educational project that had the pleasure of having the teacher Alfredo Mires Ortiz as an adviser, friend and companion for many years. If you come here you will see that, in every space, there is something that reminds us of him: respect for peasant culture, conservation of the environment, the house as a community space and the colours of life.

From the educational proposal that we share, the books produced by Rural Libraries is a tool for a transformative education; that is why it is the inspiration in each of our projects, being part of the sacred rite that guides us. A book from the ECA always occupies an important place not only to see it but also to read it and discover something to learn in each page.

Our gratitude to Alfredo for all he has given us and because his books continue to be a light to continue reading and to continue being.

María Isabel Gutiérrez Chávez