Tabuga - Starting It All

Tabuga Library: where I am working now

Today, I will be working in the library. I have designed another game for the kids to play by reading the more advanced books and making flashcards of the words. They will then be able to recognize the words and hopefully pick up the harder books.

This is the entrance to the library

The 500 books they have, we need to fill it up!

Exhibits

World Education

Yesterday, Kari and I went to an Italian restaurant here in Perdenales because I needed to come here to drop off the stuff I got dirty when I was sick. (I felt bad having my host family clean it.) The Italian food was the best food I've had in a while. When I got back to Tabuga, I was greeted by Valentina because I had promised to do her nails. I painted her nails, and then the nails another little girl named Katarina.
After I did their nails, I returned home to show my family Chocolate Chip Cookies. They have never eaten them before, and unfortunately, they did not turn out too well.  Their oven burned them, and they did not taste right. I realized when making them that they do not have measuring supplies at all! They just pour stuff in and eye everything. With oil, they just pour half the bottle in to fry everything they make. It was another interesting observation I made.
I have library later today, and I really hope that a lot of the kids come! I told the kids from my neighborhood to come, hopefully they will. It is tough to get some kids to want to come to the Library, so I bribe them with promises of nail painting or taking their photos or simply just playing with them. I was going to bring cookies, but I don't have any to bring that turned out well. :-(
Tomorrow, I am going on a hike with the man in town who knows everything about the medicinal herbs! I will be taking photos, and recording all the information he tells me on paper. He can't read or write, so it will be tricky writing the name of plants I have never heard of. After the hike, I will come to Perdenale to research all of the herbs I learned about and what other information there is or what other names or uses. At the end, I will publish a book of all the information gathered in Spanish, English, and with photos for the people in town who cannot read. I will do this in hopes that the knowledge of herbal medicines will not die in this town and be replaced by advil and tylenol.
There is a whole pharmacy in the forest, and I want to get to know it!