One for the books

Concord Academy teacher branches out to create libraries in Nicaragua

At Concord Academy, George Larivee teaches an advanced statistics class. Larivee spends his summers starting libraries in Nicaragua. (Globe Staff Photo / Yoon S. Byun)

It started with an idea in the shower.

Then one summer, George Larivee found himself building a library in a small Nicaraguan village

For this Concord Academy math teacher, who spends his school year among prep school students who aspire to attend top colleges around the United States, helping rural Nicaraguan communities start libraries on his summer breaks is a "natural balance."

After all, the Rhode Island-born educator typically is surrounded by wealth, "the haves," and intricate math equations - an environment Larivee says he enjoys, but is only a small piece of him.

The other piece is helping out "the have-nots" in impoverished places in Africa, Haiti, and Central America.

Larivee just didn't think he would be erecting libraries in Nicaragua so fast and getting so much support for his simple idea.

Since 2005, the 45-year-old teacher has spearheaded the creation of three libraries near Granada and Condega - areas where there aren't any bookstores and where people live in some of the poorest conditions in the Western Hemisphere.

But despite those conditions, the former Peace Corps volunteer said, the residents and their children have a hunger for learning. "It's not that most people in Nicaragua can't read," Larivee said in his office in Concord. "It's just that there's nothing to read."

So far, his efforts - funded with his money and the help of private donors - have provided hundreds of children's and adult books to three villages. And he is to start a fourth this summer.

His library-building journey began a few years ago when an idea hit him as he showered: What if he could help out rural areas in Central America by building libraries? He could be a kind of modern Johnny Appleseed, but with books instead of apple trees.

While he was studying Spanish in Costa Rica during the 2004 summer break, some American tourists encouraged him to take more Spanish classes, but in Nicaragua. The following spring break, Larivee took the advice and enrolled in Spanish classes in the colonial town of Granada. While there, he took a horseback riding trip a half an hour from Granada to a small farming community.

There, Larivee found a people "just eking out a living" and a school where children were learning to read what was written on a chalkboard or copied on paper. The village had almost no books.

"I fell in love with the place," Larivee said. "I told myself I'm coming back in the summer."

Back in Concord, Larivee began reading up on Nicaragua, then contacted Donna Tabor, the project director of Building New Hope, a nongovernmental organization in Nicaragua. Tabor invited Larivee back to Nicaragua and offered him a place to stay.

While researching bookstores in the country, Larivee soon discovered his greatest obstacle. The country had few bookstores or libraries. He could locate only one - a university bookstore outside the capital city of Managua.

Getting books flown in from Mexico City or Buenos Aires also posed a problem. Not only would it be expensive, he would have trouble getting the books through the bureaucracy of customs. The books would have to be bought in person at the Managua bookstore.

At the tail end of the 2005 summer, Larivee took a group of residents and children to the bookstore to pick out books. At first, workers at the bookstore tried to persuade him to buy books such as the writings of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.

"That was a little too much," said Larivee. "I wanted to get them books they would read."

Instead, he bought nonfiction books about the environment, history, dinosaurs, and animals. He also got fiction and children's books. He was even persuaded by a young girl to get a book about makeup, a book he would later learn would be the most popular in the new library.

With help from Concord Academy, Larivee ended up buying about 300 books. When he brought them to the village, he saw the townspeople come together to help run the newly formed library. Workers built shelves and provided reading tables. Children began spending time there scouring book after book, while teenagers helped out as librarians. "It was amazing to see," Larivee said.

He wanted to see it again.

The following summer and the summer after that, Larivee returned to help start similar libraries outside of Condega, a town near the Honduran border. In a typical arrangement, the library goes into an existing building and begins with about 300 books. He estimates the startup costs at about $2,000 per library.

Larivee's project, no doubt, will have a lasting effect on those communities, Tabor said via e-mail. "Here there are few bookstores because they would have so few customers," said Tabor. "Those who do have a thirst for reading have no access to books since there are so few libraries. Most school don't have libraries, and in fact, they don't have textbooks."

By bringing books to those rural communities, she said, Larivee was introducing something that the communities didn't have.

Hanka Ray, a math teacher at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, said after she heard Larivee speak passionately about his experiences in Nicaragua, she donated "a small sum" to help him buy more books. "He's doing something totally out of the limelight and in a low-key way," said Ray, who is one of several donors. "We all talk about doing stuff like this, but he's doing it."

Tabor said Larivee's volunteer spirit goes beyond bringing books to the area. She said he also volunteered with her group as a math tutor and helped several at-risk boys "ace" higher math classes. Tabor said she was particularly impressed with how Larivee made a connection with a troubled 19-year-old named Oscar.

"Oscar had just returned to high school after a hiatus of living on the streets and doing drugs with a gang," Tabor said. "George opened up a whole new world to Oscar, who has since entered a private bilingual academy where he receives high honors for his academic studies."

Larivee said his Nicaragua effort is an extension of a desire to do his part in the world. He plans to continue his library efforts "for many years to come," or until he can no longer physically do it.

"I'm just aware that a lot of people need a lot of help," he said. "In terms of making the world a more peaceful place, sharing is the way to do it."

Russell Contreras can be reached at rcontreras@globe.com.