Do you have a soul?

Marcus Tullius Cicero once said, "A room without books is like a body without a soul." As we all know, Cicero was a Roman philosopher. Well, you all probably knew that - I learned it because I know how to use Google. Truth be told, I needed a good book quote, and google came through with this gem from our friend Cicero.

So, if a room without books is like a body without a soul, we are working to bring souls to many a room in the DR, or something like that. I didn't know that's what we were doing - I thought taking books there was, well, taking books there. As it turns out, taking books there is giving souls to the people. That's not bad. I'd like to think that giving books to people is helpful in more ways than just providing them with a bundle of paper bound together and encased in a cover of some sort; that it not only helps them learn to read, but also helps enrich their lives in some way.

One of the things we've learned about the DR is that books are very scarce in some of the rural areas of the country. Many children show up for their first day of school never having learned the letters of the alphabet. The reason for this is that most families don't have any books to read - and they don't have a library or a school that has any books, so the parents are unable to read to the children due to a complete lack of books. That is sad to me - another thing I take for granted that is not a given for others.

I remember hearing nursery rhymes as a child, watching Sesame Street, learning to count and recite the alphabet. This was all before I was four years old. Not that I'm holding up Sesame Street as the beacon of literacy to the world - I just think I learned a pretty good foundation from Grover, The Count, and Ernie. Not only did I have all of that, but I can drive 10 minutes and go into one of 5 different libraries with tens of thousands of books (could be more, I haven't counted lately - it's time consuming, so I only do it during US Census years).

So, the question is, how do we get the books there? There are many options - UPS (what can Brown do for me?), Fedex (Reliability and convenience at no extra charge), the USPS (what if it's outside the U.S.??), and the ever popular carry-it-yourself.

What to do? Well, we'll take it in our luggage, of course! My wife called the other day to ask about my luggage. Each of us is allowed two checked bags weighing 50 pounds or less. That's six bags - 300 pounds for the mathematically challenged - less whatever we need to take in clothing. My wife wanted to know if i could fit all of my clothing and toiletries in a carry on so they could use all 100 pounds of my checked bags for books.

When the books arrived, we found something cool: each box weighs less than 50 pounds each. Meaning we can take the boxes as four of the six bags we'll have. That leaves two bags for the rest of our stuff - curling irons, makeup, three changes of clothing per day, and hair adornments of various kinds.

What this means is I'll be wearing short pants and a t-shirt every day for 10 days. Maybe I'll be wearing the same pair of short pants and alternate between three different t-shirts. I don't know for sure, I just know I will be packing light. Maybe I'll skip shaving while I'm gone (no shaver).

I wonder if Cicero packed light when he traveled? A few books, his soul, and a change of toga...