Tracy Nagy is helping Emma Eck create libraries in Africa.

Nagy lives in Pequea Township.

Eck, from Lancaster, has been teaching science in the small town of  Musanze, Rwanda, for the past eight months.

She blogged about the book shortage  there in February.

"It is the craziest thing," she wrote, "but books are worth their weight in gold here. They are nearly impossible to find, well-loved to the point of being unreadable, and extremely expensive."

Eck, who is in her early 30s, and Nagy, 44, have never met. But both have connections to HACC, Central Pennsylvania's Community College. And both have similar motivations.

Nagy said she served with her husband, Mike, as a missionary in Kenya in 1991. She knew about Rwandan poverty. She'd attended the Holocaust Conference at Millersville University, and she'd seen documentaries about genocide victims and their children, some of whom Eck is teaching.

"You learn about all this stuff, and you [think], 'What can I do?' "

Then she found out about Eck's southern African service project, which is being coordinated by the nonprofit WorldTeach organization at Harvard University.

Nagy works as a licensed practical nurse for Central Penn Nursing Care. A mother of two and an aspiring operating room registered nurse, she's studying at HACC Lancaster.

Now, she has an additional goal: "To try to get as many books [overseas] as possible."

It takes about a month –– most of that time spent in overland travel –– for the volumes to reach their destination, Nagy said. "Everything's slow in Africa. It's like going back in time 50 years."

The seeds of reading
In June, Nagy said, she sent nearly a quarter-ton of donated books to "her" kids. At $57 a box, she added, "The shipping cost is astronomical."

Nagy said she and HACC associate professor of sociology Jennifer St. Pierre, working under the aegis of the Phi Theta Kappa international honor society for two-year colleges, raised $800 from an Earth Day plant sale; the college's student government association pitched in to help meet the rest of the mailing charges.

The books were air-freighted to Africa via 24 boxes of Priority Mail.

Now, they reside in a small room in the Catholic boarding school for 760 students that employs Eck, L'ecole des Sciences de Musanze.

As Eck wrote last week in an e-mail, "The students were extremely excited to receive the texts and novels that Tracy sent us.

"It makes an enormous difference in the quality of their education and is instrumental in improving their English as well!"

Eck said a friend and former teacher of hers connected her and Nagy.

"I'm so fortunate to have linked up with her," said Eck, who is also working with others to raise money and obtain books. "She is very passionate about the cause of education in Africa."

The two will continue to collaborate on establishing a system of community and school libraries and laboratories through Eck's newly formed African Learning Foundation.

"Tracy has agreed to host ALF's first fundraiser in October," Eck said. "We will be selling a variety of African jewelry, textile goods such as African-print pillows and clothing, Christmas ornaments, note cards and other small gift items."

The debut project is a $60,000 library on school property that will include a reading room and computer room for Internet research.

"This library may be the first publicly accessible library in Rwanda," noted Eck, who said a similar project in the capital city of Kigali has been stalled by financial problems.

"In addition to building the library," Eck added, "ALF will also be creating a scholarship fund for top students in Rwanda."

Eck originally had planned to spend one year in Musanze but now expects to stay through the end of 2011.

Meanwhile, Nagy is gathering more books.

"Classics are great," said Nagy, who scrounged three copies of "The Grapes of Wrath" the first time around, at Eck's request. That initial shipment also included 32 pocket dictionaries.

But, added, Nagy, "We'll take anything," including textbooks. Her garage shelves are lined with assorted titles like "Lassie, the Painted Hills," "Charlotte's Web" and "Bible Stories of Jesus."

Nagy said the items mailed in June were donated through HACC campuses in Lancaster, Harrisburg, Lebanon, York and Gettysburg.

She keeps detailed lists of incoming reading matter. Materials not directed to Musanze are given to a for-profit organization, Better World Books, which channels them to other African communities.

According to Nagy, Eck's charges, who range in age from 12 or 13 through their late 20s, are "still working on forgiveness" of atrocities committed during the 1994 Hutu/Tutsi tribal war.

She said she's received about 18 letters from Musanze students, including a heartbreaking missive from a young girl whose mother's hands were nailed to a table.

Horrors and education challenges aside, Nagy said, the Rwandan kids are like kids anywhere –– they love to play sports. They've made footballs out of rags, said Nagy, who is also looking for basketballs to send overseas.

In June, she said, she shipped two soccer balls. "I just deflate them and send them along in the box for filler."

To donate books, contact Nagy at mntnagy@verizon.net (please specify "books" in the e-mail subject line). For blogs, photos and information about the school project, visit emmateachrwanda.blogspot.com. To learn more about WorldTeach or contribute to Eck's project, visit worldteach.org.