An adventure in Cushing's and stroke

This post steps away from the usual programming a little. It is not about health systems, medical procedures and my messed up body, nor is it about fitness, exercise and training. Instead, I want to write about the trip I’ve just been on, but in order to do that, I feel that more context will be useful.

I can’t remember a time before I loved books and reading. When I was a kid (from the time I started school and learnt to read), my free time was usually spent in a library, in a bookshop or hidden somewhere, reading a book. Some of my favourite books as a child are still on my bookshelves today, and still read and loved – the Ramona series by Beverly Clearly, the books about Fudge, Peter and Sheila by Judy Blume, the books about Anastasia and Sam by Lois Lowry, the entire collection of the Baby-Sitters Club (all 213 of them!), Teen Power Inc, the Famous Five, the Magic Faraway Tree, Selby the talking dog… I cannot imagine my childhood without them.

As an adult, I still spend a lot of time in bookshops, libraries and hidden somewhere, reading a book. I feel extremely lucky to have had the education that I’ve had (and am still having), and the opportunities to borrow, buy, and read.

In 2008, I did my Honours research on the topic of independent bookshops in Sydney: has the growth of chain bookshops and online retailing killed off the indie? The answer was a resounding ‘no’, at least in Australia. That year, my love for good books and bookshops was reignited – a bit like a renewal of vows. In January this year, I started a PhD on the topic of public libraries. There is a bit of a theme in my research.

The trip that I went on last month was primarily to see a library. In 2009, I read a book called ‘Leaving Microsoft to Change the World‘ by John Wood. Wood was on a holiday in Nepal when he met a local who said that his library only had a few books. When Wood returned home, he sent out a call to his friends and contacts about his promise to send some books to this village in Nepal. That first call yielded about 3000 books, and in the past twelve years that call for books has turned into an international organisation called Room to Read.

Room to Read is an amazing organisation whose mission is to increase people’s access to education in developing countries around the world. They build libraries, schools, have programmes to help young girls go to/stay in school, have local language publishing programmes which support local writers, artists and publishers and help preserve language and culture, and work with governments to develop reading and writing materials and curriculum.

Apart from having a mission and vision I am completely behind and passionate about, I also love that Room to Read engages with the local community so much. My partner Andy earlier this year donated money to build a primary school library in Cambodia (I’ve donated money to Room to Read too, though nowhere near as much as Andy – there are more limits when you’re still a student). He donated the majority of the funding, but 15% was matched by the local community through money and goods and services provided in-kind. The library is staffed by locals, there is a library committee of locals, and everyone working in the Siem Reap office of Room to Read were Cambodians. This charity isn’t a case of rich Westerners importing their culture and people.

So yes – that’s where I went last month. We went on a two week trip to Vietnam and Cambodia with another friend, and Andy and I went to see the library that he helped build.

Andy and the library, built to a local architectural style. It opened at the start of October, 2012.

Books and shelves in the library. We went only two or three weeks after the library opened, and there were about 700 books inside. More will be added as time goes on. Room to Read will be supporting the library with training for staff and resources for three years, and then it will be entirely in the hands of the local school and community.

Some of the books in the library, including ones published by Room to Read as part of the local language publishing programme.

Drawing time in the library.

One of the best bits of seeing the library was later when we were meeting with the local committee and classes had ended. We could see students putting library books into the baskets of their bikes – using the library and reading at home! How exciting is that?!

A map of where Room to Read has programmes in Cambodia; in the Siem Reap office.

Pretty cool, isn’t it? Massive thank you to Room to Read for giving us the opportunity, and Mott who was our guide and translator on the day. Here’s to books, education and changing the world!

[More photos here.]

Arusha, Tanzania, 2010

Every Saturday, I would walk along dirt roads from my accommodation to the local grocery shops, Cash’n'Carry and Pick’n'Pay. I lived with three other volunteers, and we had a meal system worked out: Mondays to Thursdays, we each had a cooking night and a washing up night (there was no dishwasher). Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays we would fend for ourselves.

The other three were vegetarian, and one was coeliac as well as lactose-intolerant. It was here that I learnt to cook meals that were vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, colourful, full of protein, and delicious. I would buy what my non-fruit and non-vegetable groceries were at both Cash’n'Carry and Pick’n'Pay, depending on what the item was – some things were cheaper in one shop than the other, and when you are volunteering, every Tanzanian shilling counts. Fruits and vegetables were bought from Swai, a rasta who had a stall outside Cash’n'Carry, who called me ‘sister’ and tolerated my butchering of Kiswahili (I usually ended up reverting to English after a few fumbled attempts).

I would then either walk home with my bounty, or if I felt lazy, catch the dala dala. I tried to minimise the time spent on dala dalas, because it felt like every time I got on one I was gambling with my life.

Southampton, United Kingdom, 2011

The first month or two I lived in Southampton, I would do my grocery shopping every few days, at a Tesco Express on my way home from work. And then I had a brainwave: the prices at Tesco Express are actually pretty similar to Waitrose, so I might as well shop at Waitrose. Again, it was usually Saturdays that I would walk to the Waitrose in Portswood, and pick up what I needed for the week. I cooked pretty much every night, because I had a lovely kitchen, and because I was unimpressed with the eating out options in Southampton. I also had fewer friends with whom I could go out and eat.

I continued the habits of cooking vegetarian, and discovered Quorn, an excellent vegetarian meat substitute. My shopping bag when I left Waitrose was usually full of organic fruit and vegetables, vegetarian protein sources, eggs, yoghurt (I miss the apple and cinnamon yoghurt SO MUCH) and the weekend Guardian newspaper. I would occasionally look at the contents on my shopping bag and think, “Jen, you are such a middle-class twat” – living in England clearly had an effect on my vocabulary.

Sydney, Australia, 2012

My routine back home is a lot less, well, routine-like. In Sydney, I have a lot more friends I can go out to eat with, more restaurants to choose from, and the option of going back to my parents’ to mooch dinner off my mum. I did a grocery shop this morning at Coles, and I don’t even know which nights this week I will be at home, and which nights I will be cooking. But I think I will let the contents of my fridge and pantry dictate the menu for this week, as well as when I need to be at home and cook.

Being at home should mean that everything is more familiar. And in some ways, many things are. But this whole responsible grown-up thing where I do grocery shopping feels more familiar in British pounds than it does in Australian dollars. Every time I am in Coles, I am reminded of Waitrose and a little part of me wishes I was back in that other home, that other life.