Last Tuesday we at PPL had one of those days that inspires,
energizes and reminds you why at a very, very basic level librarianship is a
noble and true profession. Maria and Esther, librarians from Busia County,
Kenya came to visit us for the day. They are on a mission to create a community
library that will become the cultural center for their community and to
positively impact every aspect of community life. The day was jam packed and as
these things often go we learned much more from them than I suspect they
learned from us. The day was initiated by Eva Kaplan, a Portland native now
working in support of Maria’s Libraries. We face similar challenges
differing only somewhat in scale. The qualities needed to meet the challenges
were the same: enthusiasm, intelligence, sense of purpose and humor.
But Eva and the crew can recount their trip much better than
I, but we were honored to have hosted their visit and privileged to learn from
them. http://mariaslibraries.org/2012/10/23/maria-and-esther-visit-portland-public-library/
