Looking after books in Africa

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post is about how one how to guide has just been reborn to help readers in Africa get their hands on more books. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).  

Back in 1994 I wrote a book for Voluntary Service Overseas called Setting up and running a school library. It did really well for VSO - was used by loads of their volunteers, hopefully leading to more books being shared and read all over the world. By 1999 it had sold 20,000 copies. It was even translated into Malaysian.

I did the work from a rented student flat in what was then a grotty part of east London, Dalston. I remember writing the book chilled to the bone after spending two years in the South Pacific (volunteering for VSO).

My real babies pretending to eat books - that's
how much they love to read.

Midwives 
Writers sometimes describe their books as babies. Certainly some books have a life of their own. Not long after Setting up and running a school library was published (by this time I'd moved to live in Oxford) the book was translated into Malaysian and found its way into many of their schools.

Roll on timeNow a US organisation called the African Library Project has just done a revamp of the content so "my" book has a new look, new content and a new name - How to Set Up and Run a Small Library in Africa.The NGO - its remit is "saving lives, book by book" - is currently focusing on Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Malawi and Ghana.

The "new" book is available as a pdf from here. I'm thrilled to see this second, perhaps third, life for a library guide from an organisation that by the end of 2012 had started 894 libraries in Africa (boasting around 950,000 books).

So here's good luck to all readers, and an extra pat on the back to anyone who is managing a library in the tropics, however small their book collection is. Sometimes it seems every insect is against you!

"It's 7am and this is the voice of Africa"

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. Here's how a mistake tuning the radio alarm let me wake up in Ghana without a single uncomfortable or carbon heavy air flight (pic is of a wind-up radio). This post is by Nicola Baird 

I always wake up to the Today radio programme. But thanks to a simple tuning mistake on Monday the boring, but essential, info from John Humphrys and Sarah Montague was replaced by Voice of Africa 94.3FM offering a very different world. One with music and a lot of shouty phone numbers...

I found out that allowances are going up for lepers in Nigeria, orphans will get a late new year lunch, and if you're after fresh goat meat and tilapia at better prices than Brixton Market then head to Channing Town..

I've spent about six months total in Africa (mostly Kenya but also Zanzibar and Zimbabwe), and the strange thing is that on the longer visits I used to tune into the World Service. It was so comforting hearing stories from all around the globe being explained in the crisp tones of BBC English. In contrast Voice of Africa explodes into the bedroom with energy and fun and gruesomeness - how amazing to be whisked to Nigeria and then Ghana with such ease.

If I've learnt anything about virtual travel, then it is make sure that you listen to the local radio station, wherever you are. As Voice of Africa puts it, "it always seems impossible until it's done".  Enjoy the speediest flight you'll ever make just by jiggling with the radio dial. Or tell your DAB what to do.