New Friends, New Plans

NVPL has the good fortune to be the site of internship of University of MT grad student, Amber Lynch, as she prepares for her K-12 certification. Amber will be working to help promote our SLO program to more organizations and businesses. She will help us create marketing materials for NVPL Hispanic Heritage Month in September. This year we are planning to translate the story of Cinderella into a Spanish screen play with members of the NVPL Reunion en Espanol (Spanish Conversation Group) performing at the Stevensville Playhouse community theater. Guatemalan native, Oscar Macz, is not only translating but also changing the story to a screen play. Other ideas for 2010 Hispanic Heritage Month include our community fiesta on First Friday, Main Street, Sept. 3rd, travelogues of Puerto Rico & Peru and a class on Cuban cuisine. We are hoping our outreach efforts will encourage Hispanic natives to visit our library, visit our Spanish conversation group and participate in our events. If anyone has any suggestions, for our ongoing outreach or for our month long celebration of Hispanic Heritage, please share them with us.

Stevensville & Missoula SLO groups get together

Hello, Spanish Language Outreach followers! This month the Missoula group joined us in Stevensville to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. There were over 20 of us at Fiesta en Jalisco. Great food, great conversation in Spanish, including with the restaurant staff. The managers bring young Mexican immigrants to the US all the way up to MT to work in their restaurant. While here, they practice learning English and familiarize themselves with our American culture. The Missoula group meets twice a week; once during the day at the public library, once at night at a local brew pub. Another gathering of those interested in Hispanic cultures is the bi-monthly "Salsa Dance" at the Elks club in Missoula. Last week several of our group (Ana, Marina, Joseph, Erika) attended the dance. We are in the beginning stages of planning our annual Hispanic Heritage month events to be held throughout Sept. We will submit a grant application the the Missoula Community Foundation and hope for the best. Alfonso, husband of our dear friend, Erika Schumann, is currently working on a landscape architecture project in China for 3 months. Erika was just informed by their landlord that they need to find a new place to live. She will be re-locating to Missoula soon. We will miss her warm personality, especially me, to whom she has helped in so many ways, particularly breaking the barrier to speaking in Spanish, even if it isn't perfect. We remain good friends for life. Here are a few photos of our Cinco de Mayo dinner.

What's Happenin' in Stevensville w/ Reunion en Espanol?

Hola, Amigos! Our SLO conversation group is one of my favorites because it is so informal, relaxed and FUN! People drop in whenever they want, no expectations of regular attendance, no formal agenda. We continue to draw in newcomers from time to time and each one brings with them a new and interesting story of their life, how they came to live in Stevensville, their background with Spanish language, details of their families, etc. This week we got to know Noemi Bassler who is "una enfermera" (nurse) who follows the migrants who harvest the fruit in Northwestern Montana. We will meet sometime soon to brainstorm about what her Hispanic patients or clients may need that our library can provide. On a personal note, my daughter, Caitlin, just renewed her contract with the American Nicaraguan School in Managua, Nicaragua where she teaches 7th grade Latin American History. Over the next two years, she will be taking her Masters program in Managua focusing on International Education. Next week our SLO group "Reunion en Espanol" will celebrate Cinco de Mayo at our neighboring restaurant "Fiesta en Jalisco" which won an award for Best New Business from the Bitterroot Chamber of Commerce. Congratulations, Amber & Antonio!

WJ

This announcement was just posted by WebJunction.

Spanish Language Outreach Course Revamped and Relaunched
WebJunction's Spanish Language Outreach course has returned to the WebJunction catalog after an extensive makeover. This self-paced course contains a wealth of information, techniques and tools you can use to jump start your library's outreach efforts to your local Spanish-speaking community. In celebration of the relaunch, we are offering both of our WebJunction courses for half price through the end of April. And for those of you who do volume purchases for your staff—the discount applies to your staff, too.

Earthquake in Chile on our minds

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Earthquake in Chile on our minds

Shortly after our last blog, Chile experienced the most devastating earthquakes ("terremoto") in its history. Two of our North Valley Public Library (NVPL) SLO group, Erika and Alfonso Schumann, are Chilean natives. The family of Alfonso (his nephew or "sobrino") was affected in so many horrible ways, that their lives will never be the same. As they fled their home during the first tremors, the walls crumbled around them, crushing the nephew, his wife and 10 year old son. The nephew somehow managed to carry his wife outside; we don't know how the son escaped. The young wife was killed by the collapse of the house. The nephew and his son had broken bones, including compound fractures, and were impaled by debris. The nephew had to leave his wife while he desperately sought emergency transportation for his son to go to a hospital. Imagine the trauma to this boy who watched his mother crushed by the falling house, screaming in pain, then dying. By some herculean effort, the nephew managed to secure a ride in the back of a crowded truck bed, carrying his son, having several broken bones in his feet himself. When they finally arrived at the location of the hospital, they found the building had also collapsed. Imagine the pain and anxiety of having broken bones, a huge piece of wood sticking out of your son from his back through his shoulder exiting his chest AND the boy having a compound fracture of his leg, broken bone exposed, through open wound. Alfonso and Erika and their two daughters wired money from Montana to Chile to pay for an ambulance for transportation to the closest working hospital. The nephew was relentless in his pursuit of a coffin for his wife and was successful in bringing her to a final resting place on family land. I am writing this very early in the morning, waking up with these images on my mind, after hearing the details last night at our SLO conversation group. The horror of this situation for this family and so many others haunts me. I just can't stop thinking of the emotional and physical trauma to that young boy and his father. Our discussion last night led to brainstorming of ideas to help these people. Our hearts are heavy with sadness but we are determined to express our care to somehow help in some way.

It suddenly occurs to me that I don't even know their names, but, then... does it really matter?

I will report further details as I learn more. Amy

North Valley group "Reunion en Espanol" updates

Catalina Gerner displays new food from Mexico. Susie Brown enjoys Spanish language word game she created.

Reunion de Espanol Discovers New Hispanic Foods

Last week Catalina Gerner brought "Bolsitas de Pulpa de Tamarindo" for group members to taste. They were small bags of pulp of the tamarind fruit from Mexico. The taste and consistency reminds you of a fig but with a hint of chile pepper. These are eaten as a sweet or "dulce." Very interesting! Also, we played a game similar to Bingo to learn more vocabulary. The group welcomed back, Arlette, a teenager from Mexico, who returned to live in our area.

This week Wa Correia brought a Enchilada Casserole also of Mexican origin. It was delicious, made with elk meat, cheese and tortillas. Luisa Richardson brought Juego de Jamaica, a red fruit juice, also from Mexico. We discussed the ingredients of the food and how members first tasted the food.

Here is a photo of the container of Pulpa de Tamarindo plus one of Suzi Brown, one of our regular members, playing a game she invented similar to Concentration.

Enjoy while learning is our group motto!

Hasta pronto!

Amy