It’s rainy season in Flores, but the rain didn’t stop us to visit Kaca (kaca means mirror) Village that is located in Central Manggarai, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara.

The trip from Labuan Bajo to Kaca Village took around 5.5 hours by car, but we stayed in Iteng Village for a night as it was already dark when we get there. The next morning, we were rushing to Kaca Village as we couldn’t wait to open a new library there!

But… the trip wasn’t so easy! During rainy season, Kaca Village can’t be accessed by car! The dirt path gets slippery — so people can only go there by motorbikes (only for the expert bikers!) and foot. Oh dear… we should’ve came here during the dry season! 😀 But hey, let’s just enjoy the trip.. and look at the amazing scenery around!

We walked on the off beaten path for one hour. Some of our local volunteers who came with 2 motorbikes brought the boxes that were filled with 400 children books. One of the motorbikes was bogged down due to the heavy rain from the previous day and mud! It wasn’t an easy track, indeed!

Apart from the slippery track, we had to go down the hills on a rocky road… I kept on asking, “Are we there yet?”. Our local volunteer always said, “We’re almost there… almost there!”, as if the village was five minutes away, but it turned out to be another 45 minutes away!

We stopped at a local people’s house for a cup of coffee. People in Flores love coffee and they can drink cups over cups a day! I wonder how they can sleep at night after drinking at least five cups of coffee every day! Apart from coffee, they also offered us a glass of fermented coconut milk – called “Tuak”. It tasted really good, I must admit :).

After saying thank you to the owner of the house for their hospitality, we continued our journey, heading to the school to meet the teachers & the kids. The village’s elementary school is located down the hill with gorgeous scenery all around! We were greeted with big smiles from the kids and also the teachers. They were so happy to see the books that we brought!

sharing the good news about Taman Bacaan Pelangi

The location of the Rainbow Reading Gardens (Taman Bacaan Pelangi) is not at the school, but at Ibu Linda’s house in the village. Ibu Linda is one of the teachers at SD Kaca whose willing to manage the library :). All the teachers expressed their happiness about the presence of Taman Bacaan Pelangi in their village. They thought it was a good step to motivate their students to read, especially after seeing the books that we brought!

How about the students? As soon as we opened the boxes, they got very excited! The sparks in their eyes and the smiles tell everything.

Thank you, everyone for making it happens! On this post, we’d like to thank the “Drive Books, Not Cars” (DBNC) initiative for the support given to us. With the books that all of you donated through the DBNC initiative, we’re able to set up this library in Kaca Village.

Let’s set up more libraries and greet more kids who live in remote areas with books!