A shelf adventure

I am at Reymontowka a week before the actual May teaching program begins for a very special reason. Last year we decided we were running out of shelf room for the teaching resources that are brought and left behind by volunteers. I said I would donate a bit of money if new shelves could be built.

A bit of  background. The older part of the manor house is slightly more than 200 years old. When I first volunteered here in 2004 a room with library cupboards was used for the teaching resources (volunteers had been coming to Reymontowka since 1990). The difficult part of this was that every time an event such as a wedding reception (wesele) or first Communion Party was held, all the materials had to be moved out of the room, stored elsewhere and then moved back.

By 2006 when I returned, a new teaching resource room had been constructed in the attic of the house. University students studying interior design constructed shelves out of cardboard. (I even had a cardboard bookcase in the flat when I lived in Hungary, so apparently this is not unusual.) The cardboard shelves have served well. The only problem was that more and more teaching materials had arrived and there wasn't room to shelve them. I said I could donate some money toward new shelves.  Also there was a huge need for someone to really sort through everything -- do the puzzles have all their pieces? do the alphabet flash cards have the whole alphabet?

So I started on that task a bit on Sunday when I arrived. I can tell you now I can sort a Uno deck is less than 4 minutes to ascertain if all the cards are there!

Above is a section of the old shelving.

Below is a section of the new shelving.

With jet lag and then a lot of noise during last night that disturbed sleep, -- my progress has seemed slow.

I was enjoying supper tonight

When to my surprise Dorota and her husband came into the dining room. They went to the work room and put the last shelves into place, rearranged things a bit so I have more room to work.

The hallway was lined with old shelves and trash bags when they left. I think now I really can get this whole job done in the next couple of days. Now there are places to put stuff!