I’m sitting here, in Kibungo, listening to the rain pound on my roof, trying to remember last week. It feels like months ago. It really is a world away. I’m typing in a Word document because my modem isn’t working and district internet is totally unreliable. Sometimes great….sometimes not working at all.
My flight was rescheduled until May 1st so I had two weeks to kill in Calgary. There are worse places to be but after about a week of everyone I know being at school and only being able to watch so many Gossip Girls in a row, I was starting to get a bit bored. So Monday I volunteered at CBC with the Calgary Reads book sale. (Have I mentioned that this is my favourite time of year???) My job involved….sorting books into categories. Pretty straight forward but I was constantly getting distracted. “Oooooh look at this book….This one is soooo good…..oooooh look at this one. …..I wonder what its about?” I was scheduled to help on Tuesday as well but arrive and there was nothing to do. The sorting was done. Thursday I got to see AMP who I haven’t seen in years and she had just arrived in Calgary from Toronto. “Thanks Volcano for letting me meet an old friend!” Friday I enjoyed a great lunch at Mercado with my dad and brother and then made my way to the arena to wait in line for the book sale. I arrived at 3:15 (it didn’t start unil 4pm) and planted myself in the quickly growing line. Some of the book swap girls – and Shory, who we are trying to convince to join book swap – met me a few minutes later and we were there and ready to build our libraries for a fraction of the price. We were so prepared. Some of the girls were CBC Calgary Reads book sale virgins. But thankfully, I had emailed them a preparation list to help them be successful. It went a little something like this:
1. Bring a Twoonie for the entry donation. Using a $5 bill is acceptable as change will be easy but a $20 is not practical as the time wasted getting you change is time that could be used to search for books)
2. Bring your own bag/box/case for books. Personally, I use a stylish Swiss basket with a padded handle. This pays off when I'm carrying my basket on my arm and the weight of all the books leaves marks on my arm.
3. Bring cash. Give yourself an allowance and limit yourself. For me, it's like a kid in a candy store or Helena Guergis. I just go crazy!!
4. Go directly to the Best Sellers table. Get what you want. THEN check the other tables for the same books. They are sometimes put on different tables as well and you can get the same book for cheaper. If you find the same book, return the higher priced one to the Best Sellers table for someone else to find.
5. Feel free to give your opinion. If someone is fondling a book that you have read, feel free to tell them how good it is. You can do this also even if the book is crap. Because if they take one that you've already read, they will leave one that maybe you want.
6. Work as a team. Working together to get the books you want is more efficient. You may have to give a title AND description of the spine to make searching easier. Going at this alone will lead not only to frustration but you may end up looking at 1996 biographies of Mulroney or Michael Jordan instead of what you really need.
And work as a team, we did! We had our bags and baskets loaded to the brim and then stepped to the side to pare down the pile, so that we could go in for more. Aimey was charged with spending $40 that her students raised for the libraries here (I have converted the rest into American money to bring to Rwanda). At the end of all of it we had piles of books by everyone from Marian Keyes to Gabriel Garcia Marquez and a pile of books for the libraries here.
Saturday….well, Saturday I packed and at 7:20, boarded a plane bound for London. The sky was free of ash cloud and Rwanda – and its nice weather – was waiting.
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