Thursday 22 November 2007

Spot the difference

Hmmm, three days back in the Netherlands and what do we get? One organisation which requested childrens books for their Christmas party tells us around midnight on Monday that the party is on Saturday (24 November!) and will we deliver the books. I ask why they didn't tell me the date before now and explain that I cannot deliver - but that they can come to Leiden to pick up the books.
They reply that they will give the books at Christmas or New Year instead and will we deliver the books.
It is really hard for me to understand why people have to be so amazingly uncooperative: it is fine for me to drive 25 miles to deliver books but impossible for them to drive 25 miles to pick them up. I say I'll send them with a parcel delivery service.

Next, I am told that we are going to have to move our bookspace again by December 1 - which is ludicrous. We moved in in September on the understanding that we could take over the lease... It appears to be impossible to keep the space (bah humbug) but we will try to move the date because 10 days notice is simply not possible.
Of course I suspect foul play...
So we have to find another space. Perhaps, maybe, possibly we can move back to the original place we were going to work from on a temporary basis - up til February. We will try to sort that out this week.

I have to say I am reaching the point where I would prefer to shut down the Dutch operation all together; the amount of support we get is almost nil and after all these years we seem to have made so little progress... Of course we more or less 'lost' two years with the Utrecht fiasco - as well as a few thousand euros. The energy and time that has been wasted this year with moving and rebuilding and moving stock round and back and forth is just plain ridiculous. That time should have been spent moving books out to people!

A volunteer who came specially to help with preparation of deliveries for Groningen suddenly went AWOL. She pleads 'too many books'....
This is the second person who stopped after one session saying it's all too much, do it yourself.
Makes me wonder why they come in the first place.

Well, tomorrow off to Groningen with a car loaded down with around 1000 books. - If we could find a few more cities who would deal with that volume we could really get the show on the road.
We will see.

The one very bright spot in these three days has been the news that a family from Georgia, who have been waiting several years for their asylum applications to be approved have got their papers under the 'General Pardon'. This is really good to hear as it has been an awful period of uncertainty for them. And to top it off, they will have a new baby next month, so things are truly looking up for them. Several years ago we took a big selection of Russian books for them to choose from and have remained in contact ever since.

You see, it's not just about the books, it's about the people who enjoy the books. The books become a way in to see what other things people need or dream of and who knows, perhaps we can help in more ways than we thought.

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