CAPS

It's COLD in Botswana! I only semi believed there would be a winter here. It's amazing how chilly temperatures are magnified with no indoor heat anywhere. So I walked to work this morning, leaning against the brisk wind, in a fleece, hat, and gloves.

Tomorrow is the Day of the African Child. To celebrate them, Ashley and I gathered materials for a display of new Africa-related children's books, made a sign just for kids, and set everything aside to put up in the morning. We plan to buy some cookies (biscuits) and a coloring book and set of crayons and have a snack and coloring session with the kids tomorrow. We'll see how it turns out.

I came with an eye to providing computer training, and I'm definitely doing some. It turns out, though, that we must start with the staff! There are no public access computers, and the staff have very very little experience with computers, so I've been answering questions. For instance, I taught the admin woman that one can create a capital letter using shift instead of toggling CAPS on and off every time, and I showed another staff person how to do a sum in Excel. Baby steps.

One of the perks of my shelf read project is that I'm in a great position for impromptu reference help. Today I helped a fellow find some books on nutrition.

I also saw a disabled user for the first time. He used the back door, which doesn't have the narrow magnetic gate in the way. One of the staff is administering a survey about disabled services in smaller village reading rooms in the area--I look forward to seeing her data.