7.7.12

Books for Burundi

Eric and I have been in Baltimore the past few weeks while he has been attending a tropical medicine course.  I was looking around for things to do with the kids while he was in school, and came across the most amazing place:  The Book Thing of Baltimore.  From their website: "Our mission is to put unwanted books into the hands of those who want them."  Basically, it's a three room "store" FULL of FREE BOOKS for the taking.  Over 200,000, apparently.  "What?!?!" we said.  "Free books?!?!?  Seriously?"  This would always be exciting news for us, but especially now that we are in the throes of packing our container for Burundi.  This is really our only chance to bring a significant library along with us.  Eric and I spent a large portion of our childhoods in the library, and we'd like a nice selection of books for our kids to read as  they grow up.

Also, I'm pretty sure there is nothing like a library in Burundi.  How great would it be to not only have books for our kids, and ourselves, but books to share with our community at Kibuye?  Not just medical books, but quality fiction and non-fiction as well?  So to that end, we went to Baltimore's Book Thing and picked up over 100 books.  Eric's on his way back there as I type this, actually.  It feels like we're getting away with something when we just walk out the door with boxes full of free books!  Totally awesome.

And it also got me wondering if any of our readers out there have books they'd like to contribute as well.  If any of you have young adult fiction or adult fiction/non-fiction that you've enjoyed and are now done with, contact us with the titles.  If it's not something we already have, and you can get it to Ann Arbor or Nashville (or maybe Philadelphia), we'll take it with us!  And if you're in Baltimore, lucky you.  Go check this place out!

5 comments:

hankwillisdds said...

Do you have ample room in the shipping container?

hankwillisdds said...

Oh, and for those who might send books "media mail" is the least expensive form of shipping.

Jason and Heather Fader said...

Space...sure. Weight capacity is another issue. We are allowed a gross of 40,000 lbs. It is hard to get an estimate on that sort of thing!

CI said...

We have 3 boxes of books that we culled this weekend. Some of them you won't interested (youth ministry stuff). But we'll keep them until we see you next.

Jamie Paauw said...

How about classics like Robins Pathology or other wonderful texts? Too outdated/heavy to take along or would they be useful as a medical library?