Chris Powell, group program manager for Services IT, went to
Guatemala to brush up on his Spanish and to provide his son with an
experience in diversity, but he returned with much more.
He came back enthusiastically supporting Viva la Selva, the first
and only lending library in San Andrés, the village in which he
stayed. He has since donated Microsoft software to help the library
provide more services to the community.
Dan Irwin, who founded the first library in the village of San Andrés,
Guatemala, poses with children who frequent the library, which serves
as a community center. In addition to lending books, the library hosts
classes in traditional dance and music and provides computers
where children can play educational games.
Powell discovered the library by coincidence. He and his son Zack
went to San Andrés, in rural Guatemala, to attend a
Spanish-immersion school and live with a local family. While there,
they met Dan Irwin, the library’s founder and a NASA program
manager, while shooting pool one evening at a small hall, also owned
by Irwin. Irwin, who is married to a San Andrés woman, has started a
number of small businesses to provide employment alternatives to the
traditional slash-and-burn farming prevalent in the area.
The next day, Irwin gave Powell and his son a tour of the library
and talked about how he had come to build it. Before the library,
the only books in the entire village were the Bible and school
texts.
Powell was so impressed with Irwin’s vision and the mission of the
library that he donated a Spanish translation of Harry Potter and
the Sorcerer’s Stone on the spot and promised to provide software,
as well. When Powell returned to work in Redmond, he set about
obtaining the software. When he found that Spanish-language titles
weren’t available in Redmond, he contacted colleagues in Spain and
Mexico to help him with his quest.
Chris Powell, group program manger for Services IT,
recently went to Guatemala to brush up on his Spanish and to
provide his son with an experience in diversity. He came back
supporting Viva la Selva, the only library in San Andrés, where he
stayed. He has since donated Microsoft software to help the library
and the people of the village.
Eventually, he was able to obtain copies of Encarta and Zoo Tycoon
and sent them to Irwin for the library.
“I’m glad I found these titles, because I think they will help the
library teach the connectedness of animals to their environment,”
Powell said. “Beyond that, I thought that it would be a good way to
introduce the children of San Andrés to the world outside their
small village.”
More than just a library, Viva la Selva is more like a community
center. In addition to lending books, the library hosts classes in
traditional dance and music and provides computers where children
can play educational games. The library also provides school texts
for use by those who can’t afford to purchase their own and has
taught parents to read to their children, a practice previously
unknown in the area. The library has become so popular that it is
the hub of youth activity for miles around during after-school
hours.
“Part of the challenge of building and sustaining a library in a
rural village such as San Andrés is to simultaneously develop a
culture of reading,” Irwin said. “Therefore, we had to develop
reading campaigns for the students and the parents. So that was a
big challenge. The Microsoft software is a truly critical part of
meeting this challenge, as it helps to engage the children and makes
learning more enjoyable. Kids are naturally drawn to computers and
cool software, and it helped us get them in the door! They end up
learning while not even knowing that they are doing it.”
Powell said he will continue his involvement with the library and
with other environmental organizations in the area, such as the Eco-Esquela
de Español (the Eco-School of Spanish), a school he attended while
there.
“What I’d really like to do is to find more Spanish-language
educational titles,” Powell said. “I’d really like to give them the
full range of possibilities for learning about the world in their
language. When we’ve done that, then we’ll really see how they can
contribute to the world. That’s what our technology is really all
about.”
