Spreading Positive Vibes in Library Management Workshop

As a part of the project on library establishment by Rainbow Reading Gardens, partnering with elementary schools in Manggarai Barat Regency, representatives from all the twelve partnering schools attended the library management workshop on November 21-23 at Labuan Bajo. In addition to discussing library management, the workshop becomes an arena for everyone in the project to share the vision and strengthen the partnership.

Head of Education, Youth and Sport Department of Manggarai Barat, Magol Marten, officially opened the workshop, it being the very first workshop we conduct in this particular program. The workshop was attended by principals, librarians, and one of the teachers from all partnering schools.

Based upon singular shared vision, which is to create a child-friendly library in order to develop a habit of reading, I witnessed extraordinary passion shared by the participants during the workshop. This gets clearer as participation is the underlined rule we agreed upon here.

It is beyond my expectation that they showed such fiery enthusiasms. I suspected, the shared mission might be the most essential factor to this even though this workshop includes a lot of materials which are quite new for them to swallow. Pretty exhausting, eh?

Being the facilitator on the first day, I personally thought this is a very tough job to do. I feel like holding the key to the whole workshop on that particular day, even on the upcoming days. My hands were shaking at first, but as the day passed, I didn’t get to face what I worried about earlier. We indeed had fun during the first day of the workshop.

What has caught my attention during the first day is when all the participants did the simulation for furniture arrangement in the library. Every group competed to show their best, they followed the instruction I gave with fantastic enthusiasm, even though that was the last session of that day. Seeing that, I felt exhausted no more. The exhaustion was gone with the wind.
And at that very moment, I came to an understanding that, It is indeed true that positive vibes may be a plauge. The positive one, of course.

The competition continued during the gallery walk, in which participants can have a look at the works of other groups and comment on them. Voices in Manggarai language roared through the room as they exhibit and share their consideration for such arrangements.

On the second day, their enthusiasm was not less afire than the previous day. I can say that we, facilitators, and participants created closer connection. The materials on the second day might be mostly new for the participants, yet the sessions on this day went pretty well. I assumed the positive vibes on the first day lasted longer than we predicted. Also, the closeness we created after being together for one full day did not make the materials an issue we should worry about, I said to myself.

So, there was no more doubt. We are just like a tree, as time goes by, more leaves grow, it is therefore shady and getting stronger againts the wind blowing. I could feel the togetherness on the third day. After learning all materials from Day 1, we reviewed the expectation written earlier, at the beginning of the workshop.

Fortunately, all the written expectations were achieved. With all the materials discussed during this three-day workshop together with Taman Bacaan Pelangi team, I personally hope our collective goal is achieved. Changing for a better one might not be easy, yet it is not impossible. Seeing their enthusiasm and passion during the workshop, I vision their willingness and desire for change!

See you on the next workshop! 

Mahrita