IAS 380R La Rochelle

Large Cultural Proof

      I was starting to regret lugging a giant pair of purple rain boots to this country, however this week they've been thoroughly put to use. Sylvie, my coordinator/ boss here in France sent out an email last week saying she was in desperate need of people to accompany a group of kids on a week long field trip to La Rochelle.  We (Krissy and me) were told we were going along because both of the teachers taking the 24 kids are men, and the mothers felt much more comfortable with female chaperones as well. For matters of propriety, we would be needed if a girl slipped in the shower and we needed to fish out her unconscious body. Otherwise, we would have free time during the day while the children attend their music workshops. "You will be able to explore La Rochelle and shop!" we were told.
      The reality of the situation doesn't quite line up with the sales pitch.
       So far I've made a million beds and added a million extra blankets to keep children losing extremities due to lack of heat, changed sheets on a bed where an "accident" most certainly took place, trying to be discreet so as not to further embarrass an 10 year old boy. But to my dismay all the kids caught me at the scene of the crime holding the evidence, and giggled hysterically. I've revived my early morning seminary trradition of waving a hair dryer around a room and in my bed to keep from getting hypothermia, and earned myself the nickname "Miss Marmot" for curling up under my blankets in any spare moment we have. I got stuck in the mud on the beach, guiltily trying to hide my boots from the kids who would less than 24 hours later get hard core yelled at for committing the very same felony. We also played in the snow, read a book in our jammies, and sang a song about lion soup. Have you ever had lion soup? Or tiger pie? Well, neither have I. We played some games, learned some words, ate some cake and hot chocolate. An uber cool Parisian group taught us how to make music using a computer program and how to make rhymes and write lyrics about the cold and the ocean. We collected sea shells, watched the sea gulls and sun set on the water. And it's only day two.

.....Later....
This week has been exhausting. And cold. The heaters never got fixed the whole time we were there. Between the changing sheets, various musical activities for the camp, and walking on the beach, there was mealtime. This was a ritual I most thoroughly enjoyed. We ate in a cafeteria-like add on to one of the older buildings and food was prepared by 2 or 3 women who worked there most of the year for school groups like us. The food was always exceptional. The children, aged CM2, 9, 10, and 11 year olds, sat at round tables and took turns getting bread or water and we (the two male teachers, Krissy, and I) dished up the salad, soup, shepherds' pie, lasagne, etc. Then the children were supposed to wipe off the tables and help clean everything, but that often didn't happen and they often got yelled at for it.
       There are three schools I normally work at, all of which are in nice neighborhoods and the kids come from families who are fairly well off. For most of these children, that's not the case. Their school is situated in one of the few more dangerous parts of Poitiers, and according to the Headmaster, who was one of the two teachers we accompanied on the trip, most of the children have at least one family member in prison. He often talked to us about how "they just don't get it," meaning that they have to really work and try to be good to break the cycle; otherwise they will end up pregnant or in prison like their older siblings and parents. He frequently yelled at them, which I have decided is just a typical French method for handling misbehavior, but we could also see that he cared greatly for the children. It was actually a few days into the trip that he told us about their families and such. And before that, seemed to me to be perfectly normal children. I didn't always think they merited being yelled at; often it was for some small offense that I think any excited child on a school trip could've done. However there were other times where I could see that most of them hadn't been brought up in a terribly refined culture.
       One of the last days we were at a museum of natural history, and the kids were running about and acting more wild than anyone ought to in a museum. A man who worked there approached me and told me that if they continued to run, they could easily knock over one of the pieces on the floor below because they were causing the ground to shake. He said they'd had a school group earlier that month that had done just that, and they had been extremely fortunate not to have broken it. I told the Headmaster, who immediately rounded up the children and gave them one of the most firm, stern lectures I'd ever heard him give. He told them about a girl who was at the primary school, L'école Andersen. She later went on to collège (middle school), and got pregnant in her first year of collège. Then the daughter got older, went to the same primary school, and also got pregnant in her first year of collège. Then, the granddaughter, she followed the same pattern. It seemed to me to be not quite the appropriate lecture to give when their crime was running through a museum. He probably tied it together somehow, and I just didn't catch that bit. However I am a firm believer that if you are always telling somebody they are one thing, they are much more likely to become that thing. If parents have a child and tell him he's dumb and can't be a doctor, then he is likely to eventually start believing them. So when you remind a group of children twice a day that they are underprivileged and from low income families that have lots of problems, and they need to work super hard not to have problems too, it's almost like telling them they're bound to have the same future. Unless they want to work super hard, which it's likely that these children aren't the type that excitedly anticipate the concept of work. Even if it's true that their futures are bleak, I think that constantly pointing out the bleakness is not going to help or motivate them to want better for themselves. It would be better to help them learn, little by little, the value of knowledge and teach them what their futures could be like, if they succeed. Anyway, I know Krissy and I were often frustrated by that. By how often they were yelled at. But of course the system is different here than in the US or Canada (Krissy is Canadian). Educators "educate" differently. I'll never know what happens to those kids. I'll never know if the great-granddaughter attending Ecole Andersen manages to escape the pattern set by her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. But I sure hope she does. And I sure hope some of the rest of those kids can learn to hope as well.

Learning to write song lyrics. Subject: food and the ocean!

on their way to the beach

office building. cafeteria on the left.

cafeteria

Krissy in our lovely room

everyone at the museum

With a shrunken head!
She wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up <3

IAS 380R SFR: Une Vrai Expérience Culturelle

Small Cultural Proof

Notre histoire commence avec SFR. Quand mon frère et moi sommes arrivés en France, nous avons eu les problèmes vraiment terribles avec le procès pour obtenir l'internet. Je suis allée à la boutique de SFR et j'ai signé le contrat. Le représentant des ventes a dit que dans trois ou quatre jours, il serait obligatoire d'aller au petit magasin pour obtenir notre Neufbox. Il y avait quelqu'un qui nous appellerait à dire que notre Neufbox est prêt et nous irions y aller de l'obtenir.

Alors, nous avons attendu. Et attendu. Nous avons fait beaucoup de visites à la boutique de SFR pour demander à l’emplacement du Neufbox. Après deux semaines, mon frère est allé à la boutique et ils ont dit que le Neufbox était prêt. Il a obtenu notre Neufbox et nous étions trop contents. Cependant, quand nous avons essayé d'installer le Neufbox, il n'a marché pas. Quand nous avons demandé au sujet du problème ils ont dit que nous avons devons appeler quelqu'un qui peut installer le Neufbox parce que nous étions les premières gens qui avaient un Neufbox dans cet appartement. Donc, nous avons appelé encore et prévu un rendez-vous. Cependant, il n'y avait personne qui est venue pour le premier rendez-vous. Pour le deuxième, l'homme a dit qu'il ne peut rien faire et c'était en fait obligatoire d'avoir un autre homme qui peut nous aider. Finalement, après deux mois sans internet dont SFR m'a chargé, j'ai fixé un rendez-vous avec l'homme correct qui a travaillé pendant cinq minutes d'installer notre Neufbox. C'était un miracle !

Je vois qu'il y a une mentalité commune en France que si un système ne marche pas, ce n'est pas grave parce qu'on ne peut rien faire de corriger les problèmes. C'était toujours comme ça, donc, c'est bien sûr le moyen le plus pratique.

 Je n'ai pas trouvé une solution à ce problème. J'ai l'internet, mais chaque mois, je vais à la boutique de SFR d'obtenir un reimbursement pour les deux mois où ils m'ont chargé avant que j'aie reçu l'internet. Ils ont dit que je peux avoir un mois, mais je dois écrire une lettre à SFR pour demander l'argent pour le deuxième mois. Je trouve que c'est absolument ridicule. Ils sont une grande société et le seul moyen qu'ils peuvent fonctionner est de retirer mon argent. La bataille continue !