Groundings day 2

Photo from Sherlina Nageer

The man who sold dog food came and offered a bag to lay the books on for people to pick up and read. This was the second Groundings - Lina came with Rumi, Audre Lorde and bell hooks.. I came with the same bell hooks to swap. The books were laid out in a tight corner because the police outpost had moved and the barricades seemed to be close to the edge of the passage for the minibuses and cars.

Two men came up , one had not heard about Audre Lorde. Many others passed. We had the free books sign. One man passed.. and then turned back and came and picked up the book of short stories. A girl took the colourful diary with the quotations after reading one or two of them aloud.

The Sun was Hot. Another man picked up another book and one of the leaflets about 'Coming Out'.

We had intentions to have people talk about what we were reading but that was a busy corner where people do not stop to talk.. in fact as we realised, there are few places in Guyana where people stop to talk except in rum shops and beer gardens and history is yet to show me (I am an anti-alcohol snob) whether revolution has been fermented and whether reasoning is possible with rum..

Another lady with her children passed, and then came back. A child said she would like a book.. her school has a computer lab but she is not sure about the library and borrowing books.

But.. people picked up books, put them down again, and then took them. 

All the books went. A girl came who had met in a church thing and took my number because she is planning a library for her church though she is concerned that the people might not want to read but she will not give up.

The man who was selling dog food told us that we were doing a good thing.. he collected a dictionary for his nephew. He had finished selling around the same time the books went.

I like how we could stand up and talk to random people about reading and sharing out books and so.