Books, Books, Books

I've always loved to read. When I was a kid, I read constantly. Every summer I participated in the Reading Program at the T-burg library, keeping a list of all the books that I read. Dad was always sarcastically scolding me, "Libby, get your nose out of that book! I told you to quit reading!" Yet as life started getting busier, I had less and less time to read. By the time I was in college I probably only read a handful of books a year, during school vacations. Perhaps that's why I've enjoyed reading so much during my Peace Corps service-I've had more free time to read than I have had in years. Sure, I work a lot. But then I come home, and there's not too much to do, no TV to watch. I never leave my house after dark, not only because it would be "culturally unacceptable", but because there's nowhere to go. And it's usually so cold that the only place I want to be is in bed! But since I can't go to sleep at 8pm every night, bed is a good place to read too. I also spend ridiculous amounts of time on public transportation, waiting for people to show up, waiting for appointments, etc. I might just have gone crazy on many occasions if I hadn't had a book to keep me occupied. Now where am I getting all these books, you might ask? No, I didn't bring an entire suitcase of books with me from home! At our office we have an amazing library of books brought to Guatemala by volunteers since PC has been here- 48 years! So every time I go to the office, I switch out the books I've read and bring a couple new books back to site.

The thing that strikes me as strange about all this reading is the fact that NOBODY else reads in Guatemala. Well, I'm exaggerating, of course. But not buy much. The literacy rate is only 69% in Guatemala, and lower for women. I think only about half of the women that I work with can read. Asking them copy a recipe or read a short paragraph often turns out to be much more difficult than I'd planned. Each letter is written with painstaking slowness, each word sounded out syllable by syllable. But what can I expect? Many women didn't attend school at all, those that did were lucky to reach sixth grade. And I don't have a whole lot of faith in the Guatemalan education system either, so reaching sixth grade might be more like third or fourth grade in the US.

Sometimes I wonder what Guatemalans must think of me, what with all the reading I do. I mean, I've literally NEVER seen a Guatemalan reading a novel. Never. A couple of times I've gotten excited when I've seen a person on a bus reading a book. But it always turns out to be the Bible or some kind of religious literature. So I wonder, do they assume that I'm reading the Bible as well?

Just for kicks, I've been keeping a list of the books I've read in Guatemala. I posted it on the sidebar of my blog so that you can see what I've been reading. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to make it to 100, like I used to try to do every summer. But back then, all I read were Nancy Drew and The Babysitter's Club. Though I'll admit that not everything I've read in my time here has been quality literature, *cough*Twilight*cough, at least they've all been over 100 pages!