Thank you, Librarians – Gratitude after a Free State trip

A woman sings a song, signalling the others to come in as it is way past the starting time (as is the African way). We are at the Capacity Building workshop in Bloemfontein and the hall slowly fills up with librarians from all four districts of the Free State. The theme is “Interacting in your Library” and there are two keynote speakers on this day. The one keynote address aims to motivate librarians to motivate their communities while the other seeks to help build interactive interpersonal relations in the library.

It takes two songs before the MC decides to start, as a few people are still finding their seats. I have been sitting for a long while, after having discovered that pacing around was making me sweat.

She welcomes the gathering and introduces the first speaker. She reads a little biography about the speaker and judging by the looks on the other participants’ faces, she is getting them revved up; some are even making notes.

This makes me nervous.

I assume myself to be the youngest one in the room and when they start looking around for the speaker and clapping, I realise that my name has been called. Ma Nomabhaso Ramugondo, from the Free State Department of Sports, Art, Culture and Recreation, sitting next to me, starts nudging me in excitement, she invited me here to motivate her librarians.

What could I possibly say to motivate this group of 200? What could they possibly not have tried already? Absolutely nothing, I think. I have a presentation prepared and I tell myself, if you stick to the slides then it won’t be all bad. Whether they like it or not you will be done in 45 minutes.

I see the look on these librarians’ faces and I’m scared. They are asking themselves the same thing I am: what can this pikinini (little girl) say about motivating our communities? Does she even know that our kids come to the library to do their homework and not to chat to us? Does she know that those who come to have some quiet time before facing their homes don’t even want to talk to us, they would rather sit in the corner with their books and their thoughts? Has she been to the libraries? Does she know that most of them don’t even have the right books to read? Heck, most of them don’t even like to read. So what can this little person tell us?

My hands are shaking: the mike is wobbling in my right hand, and the slide changer in my left. I look to Ma Ramu and she smiles. I know what I must do.

I get them up, get them to shake their boodies, wiggle-wiggle, then they wiggle downwards, hold it…and then we all jump up! Yay!

I again say my name, as it is the formal thing to do in these gatherings, and then I begin. I share with them my fears: I confess to them that I made the 200-and-odd adults in the room get up and wiggle, just because I was too nervous to start straight away! But they did it. They laugh and I start to relax.

My presentation is about how to encourage the library community to read. I had looked at some of the key things I had thought were vital. This all was done from the perspective of a 12 or 16 or 19-year-old… what I would have liked to see in the library when I was that age.

I start by reminding the audience of the reasons why we read, and the reasons why we want to encourage our communities to read for pleasure: because reading develops empathy and understanding, and it enhances critical and creative thinking. Reading changes lives!

Before I know it, and after a few laughs (I may have said I found Deon Meyer quite refreshing, with a rather broad smile on my face, when we did our launch of Taking chances) and hands being raised to ask questions, I realise that the slides are done and I am receiving very generous round of applause.

Whew, time sure flies when you’re having fun.

For the remainder of the day, with the assistance of Dr Annette Prins, using Carl Jung’s theory of normal personality type, we got to discover what kind of people we are.

It’s now evening and almost time for dinner. I am half-exhausted and half-talked out. Free State librarians are interesting, interactive, we exchange contact information, and they have cleaned out my stall of flyers, booklets and books. Despite the hour, they still have more to share with me – about their work and ways we can work together. I am finished and in need of a boost of energy.

And there it comes; in a form of a little 10-year-old girl who has brought me her first book. Omolemo More has hand-written and self-illustrated a 16-page book, complete with cover and foreword. The Two Princesses is her first book, and her mother tells me she is working on the next one, which is even longer.

“We are all reminded why we do what we do,” says a smiling Ma Ramu, handing me a tissue to wipe my tears of joy and excitement at being the first to be given this opportunity to showcase this young girl.

I return to the office the following Monday and show her book off. The whole office feels what I felt. And I am also motivated and reminded why we do what we do. And then it dawns on me: it takes four districts of librarians to raise a writer.