Une Belle Journée

I think that when I was mentally preparing to come to Marseille I forgot that I wasn't going to India again. I love India and I loved my time there but it wasn't always easy or fun being unable to blend in with the people around me or speak their language. The people in the city where I lived didn't treat me badly, they just treated me differently because I was white. It kept us isolated and it made me feel like I would never really be at home there. So I've been pleasantly surprised by the way I can walk places here without being looked at like a foreigner. I can speak to someone without them knowing I'm not French. There are sooo many different accents in this city so they don't seem to really think mine is way out there. 

Besides that, I absolutely love my work. Basically I leave around 8h30 or 9h00 in the morning, take the metro, take the bus and either go to Le Manier or I go visit someone in their home or retirement home. Le Manier is where the northern team ("equipe") works. It's a beautiful little villa with a rather large chunk of land (big enough to have lots of gardens). Les Petits Frères (the organization I work for) brings the elderly people they follow here as a treat sometimes. They pick them up, they make them lunch, they let them socialize. So tomorrow I will helping with one of the lunches at Le Manier. 

Today though I was doing home visits. This morning Kevin (one of the other BYU interns) and I went to visit an wonderful, volubile (good word right? I learned it today), and energetic elderly lady in her home. This was my first visit without a season volunteer but it went well and I got along really well with the lady. 

Then in the afternoon, I met up with volunteers who regularly go to St. Jean du Coeur, a retirement home. The volunteers are usually always retired too, but in very good health, so they choose to stay active by paying visits and developing relations with some of the people Les Petits Frères follows. 

This is one of the ladies I met today at the retirement home. She makes little poodles ("caniches") out of yarn and gives them to her friends and family! They were so cute, I had to take a picture and when she wanted to be in the picture I was even more thrilled. I really liked her. 

And I felt today that this is a really good thing that Les Petits Frères is doing. It makes me sad and it surprises me that so many elderly people have such little means, no one taking care of them, and no one showing them love. I wonder what the public programs are like in Canada for the elderly poor? Or the United States? 

I'm trying to figure out what kind of public administration or social work I want to do, and I'm still not sure, but this is starting to feel like something I might really want to be a part of. 

Love, 

Stéfanie