Our Trip to Open La Casita de los Libros

Wow! What a great trip to Chichicastenango to open our library! We arrived in the capital late on Tuesday, September 2. We stayed our first night at Hotel Barceló in Guatemala City. It is a beautiful, older hotel with lots of Spanish style charm and hospitality. I will outline what we did each day below. But before I do that, I will backtrack a bit to say that Patti purchased two sets of bunkbeds for one of the bedrooms upstairs in the library to allow all of us to stay there during the preparation and opening of the library and for us to have a place to stay when we visit. So we arrived knowing that we would in fact have a place to sleep!

Day 1, September 3: Our driver, Elmar picked us up at our hotel and took us first to Office Depot in the city to pick up the items we had purchased earlier, a printer, extra ink, paper, bulletin board and white board and some random office supplies. We then stopped at Cemaco, which is a giant department store with everything anyone could possibly want. We picked out bookcases, a desk, two tables with four chairs each, two comfortable chairs for the foyer and a side table. We went from the furniture department to household items to purchase a water filter, a fan and a coffee maker. We then loaded everything into and on top of Elmar's van (poor Elmar) and we started our trip to Chichicastenago. We arrived in Chichi just before dinner. It was raining but we managed to unload everything from the van into the library. After everything was unloaded we were invited to dinner at a friend's house and after dinner, off to bed in our comfy bunkbeds.

Day 2, September 4: We were up early to eat breakfast, grab coffee and get busy assembling furniture. It took all day. Our friend's Jessica and Susan from the Bay Area where in Chichi that day and came by to check us out. After we had all taken cold showers (we couldn't figure out the hot water situation) we met up with Jess, Susan and a handful of other friends from Chichi to eat at Los Fratelli, an Italian restaurant with great pizza.

Day 3, September 5: We spent Friday, 9/5 scanning all of our books into the inventory spreadsheet while also preparing for the "inaugurácion" of the library, which I would call an open house. This too was a very busy day, leaving us exhausted!

Day 4, September 6: This was the big day! The party started at 10:00 am Chapin time. We had students from the School of Art come and provide live music. Zila greeted everyone and gave a speech. Then Patti, Regi and Mary Kay gave speeches to the people of Chichi. Following the short outside program, we did a ribbon cutting, set off firecrackers and went inside of the library where Eva a story teller or "cuentacuentos" told an interactive story to the kids after discussing how one should behave in a library, including that everyone should wash their hands before handling the books! After storytime, we had cupcakes, coffee and jamaica. Our party ended at 2pm but many people stayed behind to chat. Channel 4 in Chichi came by and interviewed us for the news, which was a pleasant surprise. Anything that helps spread the word about the opening is great! Speaking of library awareness, our librarian, Zila, started a FaceBook page for the library that already has over 300 followers and one of the videos we posted on the page has gotten almost 20,000 views! This was such an exciting surprise. The community is really excited about this project. This is the ONLY free, public library for children. It is the ONLY free computer lab in Chichi and we are very excited to say that we have Wifi with very good signal that is free for all patrons. The after party was at Cofrades Restaurant on the outskirts of Chichi necesitating transportation by tuk tuk. It was AMAZING! I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a cultured dining experience. It is now my favorite restaurant in Chichicastenango.

Day 5, September 7: Sunday...we tried to rest but....official opening is tomorrow and we needed to have everything ready to go! We cleaned up from the party and also got all of our computers set up and connected to our Wifi and to Google. We made sure all of the books were categorized according to genre. We did make a little time to hit the market in Chichi. Fun Fact: The market in Chichi is the largest market in Central America. People, tourists and Chapins alike come to Chichi to experience the market. The three of us bought items to bring back to sell as a fundraiser and a few things for friends and family. The vendors can be a bit aggressive, so after an hour and a half or so, we headed home to the casita. Later we met up with friends for dinner at Casa San Juan.

Day 6, September 8: This is our official opening day. Our library hours are from 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm Monday through Friday. So we had the morning to enjoy breakfast at Atrio Cafe in downtown. They serve the most delicious French toast. We enjoyed breakfast on the covered rooftop deck and there is a panoramic view of the entire city. We had our first visitor

at around 2:30, a little girl and her mother. Then a few more patrons wandered in. We had four visitors that first day. But I am confident that the numbers will rise with time. We ended the day with friends bringing Pollo Campero to the library and we all ate dinner and drank wine together like the family that we are. And I don't use the word "family" lightly.

Day 7, September 9: Our driver is picking us up at 12:00. Our departure is near. The good news is that we were able to figure out how to access the hot water, finally. We all took nice hot showers, washed the sheets and towels in the pila, hung them to dry and packed our belongings. At 12 sharp, Elmar arrived and picked us up for our final journey, back to the city. We arrived at our hotel, relaxed for a bit and then hit the town in Zone 10 for some food and drink. Sadly, what Mary Kay and Regi ate didn't agree with them and they were up sick in the middle of the night. Patti dodged that bullet.

Day 8, September 10: We said our good-byes to each other and to Guatemala and flew home to Wisconsin (Regi) and California (Patti and Mary Kay).

Final thoughts: This was a lovely, productive trip. We were able to provide a necessary service to the children of Chichicastenango. We made new friends, new contacts and we are all very excited for the next trip!