A pleasure to visit this library

So, you are all feeling a little glum, it seems. Between the Zimbabwe elections turning into a farce, our president denying that he said there wasn’t a crisis, the Scorpions being sent packing with their collective tails between their legs, food and fuel prices going up, the interest rate going up, and the general lack of stellar performances by one of our national teams in a major sporting fixture, the national mood is bleak. The fact that we have to deal with all of this intermittently in the dark adds insult to injury.

Even I, perpetual optimist that I am, had pause when a friend emailed me from overseas, to say that she was praying for me. Where I come from, that’s usually pretty much a sign that all hope is lost.

So what on earth am I banging on about the Claremont Library for? I suppose it is something about seeing local government working, and working well. It’s a new building. I don’t know anything about architecture, but it seems very pleasing to me, with one wall made up of glass, facing towards some trees. It is cleverly aligned so that the sun doesn’t shine directly into the windows, but it is also very light and airy. There are two levels, and more than enough books for both. Seventy thousand books don’t take up as much space as you might think.

A new CD section has been added, and some extra reading tables. Some learners (why do I have to call them that?) are usually there, chewing their pens as they wrestle with algebra and the other hideousness that is required at school.

There is a computer terminal, which mostly seems to be used by men, anxiously looking at online news from Zimbabwe. Many of the books are new, not necessarily because of the book budget, but because of the Friends of Claremont Library. They donate books and run a small bookshop (I mean small — it fits in a cupboard). The proceeds go to buying new books.

The librarians are as they always are — quite stern, but occasionally suddenly becoming animated about something they see being returned or taken out.

It is a pleasure to use the library. The clientele are very mixed, for Claremont (which isn’t very mixed.) Older people, children, working people, richer people and those who don’t have the price of a newspaper. Even the car guards seem to have improved. The previous library had a number of transvestite sex workers who moonlighted as car guards. They were just too chatty for my average library visit, which I like to conduct in silence. The new ones don’t speak much, and wear those ubiquitous yellow bibs.

It isn’t much, you might say. Country going to the dogs, and she is happy because she can read a novel with her tea, you might say. Well, Claremont Library isn’t going to the dogs. Drop in, if you have some time. Like me, it might cheer you up.