View Content #2103
| Contentid | 2103 |
|---|---|
| Content Type | 1 |
| Title | Rich in books |
| Body | From the article at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/26/ CMGEU8FK9A1.DTL An American businessman seeks the meaning of life from a bearded wise man on a remote mountaintop. It's standard cartoon fare, but for John Wood, it's not far from the truth. After raking in $2 million as a Microsoft executive, he quit in 1998, trekked into the Himalayas and stumbled into his true calling: to become the Johnny Appleseed of school libraries in impoverished Asian villages. "It was the second day of an 18-day trek in the Annapurnas," Wood recalls, "when I met a headmaster who invited me to visit his school in Bahundanda. Once we made the two-hour walk, I found enthusiastic teachers, but a complete lack of resources. Eighty kids were crammed into classrooms meant for 20. They sat on long benches with no backs, balancing notebooks on their knees. The chalkboard was tiny and the absence of artificial lighting made it hard to see. But what struck me the most was the school library: an empty room with 20 books, backpacker castoffs like Danielle Steel novels that the kids would never read anyway. There were no children's books. When I asked how they got by with 20 adult novels for 450 kids, the headmaster replied, 'Perhaps, sir, you could help us to get more books.' Cooper, B. (2004). Rich in books. San Francisco Chronicle. http:// www.sfgate.com/ (26 Sep. 2004). |
| Source | SF Chronicle |
| Inputdate | 2004-09-29 18:39:00 |
| Lastmodifieddate | 2004-09-29 18:39:00 |
| Expdate | Not set |
| Publishdate | Not set |
| Displaydate | Not set |
| Active | 1 |
| Emailed | 1 |
| Isarchived | 1 |
