Librerías sin Libros

For those of you that know spanish, you know that you can add an "ería" on the end of any word, and it become the place where you sell that word. Por ejemplo, Zapatería is a place where you sell zapatos, or shoes. So a librería, you would think, is a bookstore. Well I had already learned that in Chile, this is not necessarily so. Renato´s parents own a librería, but there are no books there. Mostly its office supplies, but it also carries any other odd number of things. Apparently librería, also means Staples. When he told me this, I obviously thought it was ridiculous. And a bit upsetting, since book stores are so important to me. Values are built into a language. If you don`t have have a word for something, how can it be important? This is apparent in the poor quality of bookstores in Chile, the even worse quality of libraries, and the generally low interest in reading that I`ve encountered. The government is running a big campaign trying to encourage people to read. Anyway the point is that this faulty definition came to bite me in the ass today.

So I finally started doing something at work. I ´m trying to figure out different ways to get books to the isolate communities where we work, where they don`t have any type of written texts. Today, I decided to dedicate my morning to asking bookstores for donations of childrens books for a library in a community called Camapu el Solar. Even though my boss frowned at the idea, I decided to give it a try. This was something I was familiar with. Asking for donations. I went to the Chilean yellow pages and wrote down the addresses and phone numbers of all the librerías in Osorno. Then, I ran into the problem. There was no one too tell from the listings which kind of librería this was. One with, or without libros. Well, that didn`t stop me. I called about 10 or so listings. The first woman who answered seemed surprised. Books? No, we don`t sell any books. The next woman also seemed surprised. Books? OF COURSE we sell books. Haha.

Once I had narrowed down my list, I went off to do some begging. I printed out a nice sheet with a description of our project and our logo and picture and description of the community that wanted the books. On the way over, I had a craving for an empanada de orno (yes, with meat) and realized that Chile was finally getting to me. I entered into the first bookstore frightened and speaking with much uncertainty. Thankfully, this place was my most willing participant. She asked a few questions and then told me if I came back next week, she would have a pile of books to donate. ¡Exito! I was overwhelmingly excited about my sudcess, and walked to my next destination with a shit eating grin on my face. Wait till I tell Pedro, I thought.

Now since I walk around alone a lot here, I`ve become accustomed to the unwelcome attention of every chilean man that I pass by on the street. I suppose its not much different than the whistles of a big city in the US, but here it seems to be more persistant. Anyways the norm is a kissing noise, but never really anything more so its never really an issue. On my walk back from the first book store, a man said something I had never heard before from a strange man hitting on me. "You are so beautiful! May god bless you!" Hahaha. For some reason at the time it was hysterical, and more well appreciated than a creepy whistle. I continued on to more and more librerías. Some, only full of notebooks, pens and random toys, and others with books for donation.

I came back triumphantly to inform Pedro of my success and of course he didn`t think much of my "I told you so" face. But my other colleages smiled and congratulated me in continuing despite Pedro´s pessimism. I wrote up an official document so that we could sign and officiate the book donations and next week I will make my next round. When I go visit the community next week, I will check out the new book shelf they made and bring them whatever I have collected. I also connected with a local library that has backs of books that we are going to lend out for a few weeks at a time.

Next, I´m supposed to be brainstorming ideas for how to help "organize the youth." My creative juices aren`t flowing at the moment, which is why I´m at the office writing a blog entry. Let me know if you have any ideas. I think we`re going to start with a movie screening.