From Words to Wings

A few weeks back, I joined Diego and Inga on a visit to a rural school on a mountainside near Sigsig, about 90 minutes from Cuenca. Inga and Diego have created a not-for-profit called “From Words to Wings” whose purpose is to provide books to primary schools in Ecuador and thereby enhance the love of reading.

 

As I witnessed in our own kids’ relatively upper class school, books are not widely available. As Inga explained to me, reading books simply isn’t ingrained in the Ecuadorian culture the way it is in developed countries. We are quite accustomed to books for children – certainly, one of the most common gifts given at baby showers or the first several birthdays of a child are those classic childhood books. What American isn’t familiar with the wonders of Dr. Seuss or Beatrix Potter or Shel Silverstein? Perhaps we don’t know all of them, but nearly all of us has memories of reading these books as children. We take many things for granted, but children’s books are something I never once considered in that respect.

So why doesn't Ecuador have the culture of reading? There are surely plenty of reasons, but a lack of access to books is a big part of it. Books can be costly here. Back home in the U.S., there are discount book sellers, yard sales, second-hand bookstores and libraries galore, but that system never developed here. Consequently, to build a library with the limited funds of many schools over the years, children never had the same opportunities to explore the beauty of reading.

A first grader enjoying a book

The charity is in its earliest stages – they are still setting it up properly under the US not-for-profit corporation code, but it seemingly has great prospects. It is definitely a cause I can support, and will work to help them from the US, especially after they have their proper designations completed (making it easier to secure donations).

In any case, it is small, and the books available are quite limited, gifted from their friends. Their American friends back home were to quick to provide several, but of course, most of them in were in English. As most of the support goes to rural schools where English is not in the core curriculum, they need Spanish books…so monetary donations in the future will help get those Spanish books.

This is the school we visited

As it stands now, they have a small library, and they provide a set of books to schools to use for a month, and each month the books change schools. With each initial visit, Inga reads a book or two to the class. On the day I visited, the kids were enthralled with her reading, and the teachers were grateful for the help. The school had around 100 students between kindergarten and 9^th grade, which of course meant for shared grades. We first read books to the younger kids’ classroom – kindergarten & 1^st grade. After reading the books, Inga talks about the importance of reading, and provides the basics on how to take care of the books so that others can use them in the future.

After that reading, it was time for recess. All of the kids came out at once while we chatted with the staff of 6 teachers. At the end of recess, the kids lined up according to their classes, and the head teacher introduced the three of us to the school in a touching and grateful manner.

Finally, we went to the 2^nd/3^rd grade class, where the 4^th grade joined us. After Inga read her books, we passed the books out amongst the students. I got to walk around and watch the excitement as they turned the pages. They couldn’t get enough. As soon as they finished one book, they were eager for more. It was really neat to see.

In Roald Dahl's classic, "Charlie & the Chocolate Factory", the Oompa-Loompas sing about the danger of television and the joy of books:

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray
Go throw your TV set away,
And in its place you can install
A lovely bookshelf on the wall.
Then fill the shelves with lots of books,
Ignoring all the dirty looks,
The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,
And children hitting you with sticks-
Fear not, because we promise you
That, in about a week or two
Of having nothing else to do,
They'll now begin to feel the need
Of having something good to read.
And once they start--oh boy, oh boy!
You watch the slowly growing joy
That fills their hearts. They'll grow so keen
They'll wonder what they'd ever seen
In that ridiculous machine,
That nauseating, foul, unclean
Repulsive television screen!
And later, each and every kid
Will love you more for what you did.

Just imagine, Roald Dahl implored his readers to get their kids back on reading, for abandoning what we should treasure. In rural Ecuador, Diego and Inga want to merely give these kids the opportunity. I'm grateful I got to witness the rapidly growing joy on the faces of these kids and they read these books.

If anyone reading this blog is visiting Cuenca and would like to bring some books to donate, or perhaps help in any other way, please let us know and we can provide their contact information. A website, www.fromwordstowings.org, is currently under development.