I can only stand Dave Mustaine for .00000001 of a second. Until he starts singing, my brain tricks me into thinking I'm into it.
"Hey, this is gooooood. Like, awesome. Do I have this album? Who is this?"
Then his voice comes in and my finger can't turn it back to Hot97 quick enough (Hot97 being the usual radio station of choice).
Sorry Dave Mustaine,it's not you, it's probably me. My apologies.
I posted a link on facebook about a girl in The Bronx who's suing Monroe College for not getting her a decent job. I guess it's a hard case of "trying harder".
It's countdown until K and I head to Cape Cod for a week and try our damndest to do absolutely nothing for an entire week My absolutely nothing includes reading:
Consider The Lobster- David Foster Wallace
Lost In The City- Edward P. Jones
John Cheever: Collected Stories and Other Writings- John Cheever
Maps and Legends- Michael Chabon
Shooting to read all four is a true testament of time, but I carve a few hours out of the day to flip some pages while on the beach.
Philanthropy!
This is a book drive Clarisa Ramirez, Peace Corps Volunteer, is organizing in her community.
Dear Friends and Family:
I’m starting a book-drive in my Peace Corps site and I need your help. The idea started after I brought back a few children’s books in Spanish from the states that I found in the clearance section of Half Price Books. Every kid that walked in through the door wanted to read them, and mothers wanted to borrow them. With those few books I brought back, we are starting a children’s library in the Centro de Nutricion, which is a government sponsored place that feeds children ages 7 and under and pregnant women between the hours of 10 a.m. until noon. I am good friends with members in the Cento’s committee and I’ve worked with them many times. They’re so excited about the idea they’re already talking about organizing a weekly story-hour time.
What’s I’m asking you is to mail one or more books, appropriate for a young child (they like pictures and short stories), to my community. My goal is to receive 200 books! The best way to send them is through the U.S. Postal Service (postage is expensive but less expensive if you send it through USPS) in small boxes, because large boxes are often sent through customs. Also, the “post man” delivers everything here via motorcycle. You can mail them to my address:
Familia Gamboa Leiva
250 metros al suroeste de la Escuela Camilo Gamboa V.
Santa Cruz, León Cortez
San José, Costa Rica
People often say that Ticos don’t have a reading culture, but I’ve found this to be untrue when it comes to children. If you give a child a book they’re reread it and carry it everywhere. The problem is the only places to purchase books in Costa Rica are in large cities, and the books cost anywhere from $12 to $30 – which is a lot for Ticos in this community, who make about $3 to $6 a day. A book would be worth a week’s salary!
What other things can you do? You can start a book drive with your school; raid the discount sections of bookstores that sell Spanish language books. Even if each of you just send one book, we’ll have 20+ books that we didn’t have before. Also, feel free to forward this email to any of your friends and family members that might be interested. Will this work? Absolutely! A Peace Corps friend of mine received 200 books from an American class, after the class heard the town didn’t have any books, and now the library’s a success. I will start a Facebook group to post photos of children reading the books, too. Why should I do this? This type of work is considered community service, especially if you’re involved in the organization of the book drive, so you can put this on your resume when you apply to university or to a job.
Thank you,
Clarisa Ramirez, clarisa.lucia (at) gmail.com
Peace Corps Volunteer
Costa Rica, 2008-2010
1 comment:
Thanks for posting this. I just stumbled across it. My town now has a public library with more than a thousand books.
Clarisa
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