On Books

On Books:

While I can't say that everyone in the village is an avid “reader”, I can claim that most of the locals are at least avid lookers at books. Literacy is low. It seems common for the children in sixth grade or at least high school to be better readers than their parents if their parents can read at all. That generation gap and the fact that this reading is almost all in English rather than Bislama probably means big changes are coming to Epi and Vanuatu.

I get copies of The Economist and they are a hot commodity among the villagers. Some read through the brief bits of world news at the very beginning, some read the headlines in the rest of the magazine and then ask me questions, while some just like to look at the pictures in the adds for fancy watches, banking services, and Chivas Regal. When a sign is posted in the village, a crowd gathers. When a pamphlet is handed out, it is handled carefully and studied thoroughly. It seems that people are thirsty for words.

Deciding to do something to help, I went to the local primary school and Epi High School. Both schools have surprising libraries stocked with donated books. There are new Encyclopedia Brittanicas, text books from New Zealand, donated stacks of fiction, and the Harry Potter series. From what I can tell, however, these mostly just collect dust. I got permission to borrow some and bring them back to the village. I thought getting the kids to read after school would be difficult, but all I really have to do is put a stack of books out and the children swarm. They read them out loud, by themselves and to each other. Sometimes they ask to read them to me so I can tell them what an Egyptian pyramid is and what “Pharaoh” means. All these books were sitting there and all it took was for someone to check them out.

My favorites have been a series of children's encyclopedias from Golden Books. They are hilariously out of date and politically incorrect at times, casually referring to China as a land of peasants and Bosnia as “the most backwards country in Eastern Europe”. The map of Africa we looked at was unrecognizable except for the outline of the continent. What's a “Boer” anyway? So, while I don't expect to spend much time discussing the geopolitical realities of the 21^st century, the B book had great entries on beavers, buffalo, and bubble gum, complete with pictures. Unfortunately, someone must have absconded with a few of the books from the library. I think E was missing. So, if you ever come to Epi, please be patient if you encounter a family that knows about America, Beethoven, Chemistry, and Damascus, but not much on Elephants.

-- Daniel --