An important milestone for Friends of Yimbo. Ability to organize a follow up trip so soon after the first one is very gratifying. It was yet another big Yimbo welcome and expectations were high. The opening of the school library in 2009 was a tough act to follow. What we came to understand is that the village is not looking for a handout but a hand up. Simply knowing that there are individuals rooting for them and willing to provide some support was good enough for the village. They understood that continuous improvement would require the willingness to learn from each other and exchange ideas.
In 2009 when the library opened, there was barely one shelf of books. So the mission in 2010 was to install wall-to-wall shelving and fully stock it with the books requested by the teachers. Textbooks were purchased from the local bookstore in Kisumu while additional reading books were donated by a school district in southern California. This was the year to also deliver the manipulatives the teachers said would tremendously aid instruction in a rural school like Muguna Primary. The teachers participated in a professional development session that covered the use of math counting cubes, counting bears (k‐2), tangrams & puzzles (3+), pentominoes & puzzles (3+), geo boards, protractors (31), world beach globes (3), world map softballs (14), checkers, addition & subtraction flashcards, and Magic boards.
The volunteers also joined two hard working young men from the village in painting the library, classrooms, and staff room. For the first time the teachers had a room with furniture where they could meet rather than their traditional spot under a tree using student desks.
