Books for Fe y Alegría

Possibly my biggest challenge around here is the Communication class I'm helping with. I offered to help the class with literature discussion, and so once a week I take half of the group to discuss one book while the teacher stays and discusses another book with the other half. We do it this way because there are not enough books in the library for the entire class to read the same book at the same time. My efforts to start discussions have been frustrated at every turn, or so it seems, by the fact that the majority of the class does not read the assignment--and I don't know if it is simply because they think they can get away with not doing it, or if there are other problems in their lives interfering with their studying. I have tried putting my foot down with reading quizzes, which they dutifully take and mostly fail; and although there are always one or two who get 100%, invariably someone comes to me saying that there are no more books in the library, or that they tried to read but didn't understand.

This last I am inclined to believe, since the books that do exist in larger quantities in the library are awful little things that try to squish classic works of English literature (nothing Latin American!) into 80 pages, which they can only do by cutting out so much of the text that the action becomes hard to follow. Treasure Island is difficult to read this way, but we have had some success with it nonetheless, debating whether or not John Silver deserves to be hung for his treason and whether he is a good or a bad person. It's actually a pretty good book for discussion. The Last of the Mohicans, however, is simply unreadable like this--so much of it is cut out that the action doesn't follow smoothly from one paragraph to the next, let alone one chapter to the next. (I laughed and walked away when I saw Moby Dick in this form on the library shelf.) The teacher and I have talked and decided that we're going to have to go outside the school resources to the little paperback versions of classic fiction that the corner stores sell around here for one sol, which the kids can buy and which the teacher has used in the past, but I haven't yet read one so I don't know if they're any better. At least with those, however, we will be able to get enough for the whole class to be on the same page, and I will be able to insist that people do their reading.

Needless to say, it would be a huge help to these kids' education (not to mention my personal classes!) if the school could provide real books for them to work with. There are many things this school could use, but since literature is so important to me and this Communication class is my particular project for the year, I've decided to donate some of my own money for the purpose of buying books--real, unabridged classics of Latin American and world literature, the kind of thing that intelligent 16-year-olds like my students should be tackling. Sister Iris, who teaches the same level of Communication that I do and lends her personal books out to the students in order to give them something better to read, will be in charge of choosing the books we buy.

I would like to invite anyone who is interested to join me in making a donation to the Sisters of Notre Dame for the purpose of buying books for Fe y Alegría. If you would like to support these kids' education in this way, you can send a donation to:

Sr. Lorraine Connell SND
Congregational Mission Office
30 Jeffreys Neck Road
Ipswich, MA. 01938

Checks should be made out to "Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, Generalate," with "Kathleen Fritz--Fe y Alegría" in the memo line.

Any amount that you would like to donate will be greatly appreciated! In Peru, American dollars go much farther than they do at home, and so it is much cheaper for us to buy the books here than to have them donated in the United States and shipped. Even $5 can make an important difference for this school and these students. If even a few of my students this year get to read a really quality work of Latin American literature, something like Gabriel García Márquez or the Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, I will know I have made a difference in their education--and not only theirs, but also that of the students that will come after them.

If you do decide to make a donation, please let me know at ksfritz@gmail.com so we know how much money to expect.
Thanks in advance, and muchissimas gracias from the students who will soon be reading good literature!