One Bookshopful, from Columbus to Bwiru
 
Frank Mitchell


[A call from a friend and the demise of a bookshop were the surprising ingredients of the one major success in Frank's extensive quest for books for Bwiru Boys HS.]

The Motherlode

Most of the 1400 pounds were from an old established bookshop near the Ohio State University that was changing hands to Barnes and Noble, leaving a whole floor full of college textbooks, some new, some used that we were invited to cart away with no restictions. So one snowy January day, four of us with two pickup trucks hauled away literally a ton of text and reference books.

What Bwiru and probably other schools need is basic texts in most academic subjects, but not American history, Spanish, or business outside the mainstream. As I went about sorting, boxing and mailing them, I threw out several hundreds pounds of books because they were too specific to a particular Ohio State course or beyond for Form V and VI, which who are just getting underway at Bwiru. (If they seemed unsuitable for these reasons, I would include just one or two copies.)

We had finally struck the motherlode, and I was very grateful and profoundly touched by in-kind help from my friends. They even gave me some cash to help pay for shipping. One company gave me mailing tape; I thanked them and used it all.

Other Sources

I also got several boxes from a local school but had little luck with other institutions of various types. Here's how it went. Local public libraries have periodic booksales. If contacted about the project, they would usually say "come during the fianl afternoon of the sale and we will give you all the books you want," but they were not good sources of textbooks which most of them did not even accept from donors. I contacted three public school districts with little success although one is still out there. The suburban one did not respond to my two emails and snail mail letter. The large urban district said they turn used texts into pulp. Among schools, a private one said no, but but the local semi-suburban said yes and collected 5 boxes of HS math books. One book publisher, reached indirectly, would not give to an individul, but purportedly would deal with a charitable organization. This has not worked out.

Shipping

For shipping I used post office "M" bags. I had contacted the UPS's and the DHL's and FEDEX's to see if they would do it for free. UPS referred me to organizations. The main one said no to me. And their prices for sending books at their regular prices were many times more that USPS "M" bags. I contacted shipping companies, and found that a couple couldn't even get them inland to Mwanza. One that could seemed rather too complex for me in terms of forms and procedures, and their price was no great savings over the USPS "M" bags.

So, I set about sending the books little by little (well, not really so little) from October 05 through March 06 in 8 shipments, each with 3 to 5 boxes of about 55 lbs each box at $1 per pound until late January when the postal rates went up, but not by much. It is a little over one dollar a pound from my location to PO box 217 Mwanza, Tanzania. There were about 511 books in all, over one per Bwiru student. The first couple of shipments back in October have arrived almost exactly 3 months after mailing. I was happy to hear about that from my main Bwiru contact.

Closing Thoughts

All in all it was a good experience, and there are still a few loose ends to clear up: 1.) like hearing about those books still in transit; 2) like hearing how useful they are to whom (I did include as many teachers' editions of texts as I could find.), and 3) like hearing from a couple of local contacts here, esp the High School that supposedly has 5 boxes of HS math textbooks, about what they might do.

I don't personally feel I am going to actively seek out more textbooks myself as I must concentrate my limited resources on my other main project, the computers and Internet service on Bwiru. It would be a thrill however, to see those textbooks we sent being used at Bwiru. They promised pictures.