In other news, I spent last weekend with the jeannettes. Background: Sometime around September Alain was telling me that, as scout master of his troop, he was short one leader for the youngest group of girls. If he couldn’t find anyone the group would not be able to participate this year. They met only one Sunday each month. No big deal. My age and gender fit the criteria and at the time I had few to no friends to hang out with on the weekends so I volunteered. Not to mention the could-have-been terribly uncomfortable situation if I had said “No, sorry. I’d rather sit at the house every Sunday and surf the web. Zoe- no scouts for you and Alain- failure for your troop.” THAT is highly frowned upon in this family--- understandably so. Long story short, I am a chieftain name Ameriquette (because I’m from America, cute huh?) for the Jeannettes, girls ages 8-12.
Back to the story. As I had been told that it was simply one Sunday a month, I was a little perturbed to be spending my entire weekend there (I stayed in Friday out of fear that I would be too tired too communicate!). On top of that, it was the last weekend my friend Gillian would be in town before he moved to Bordeaux and I would have liked to go to that party S
aturday night. Alas, there have been and will be others. None-the-less that morning I woke up in a annoyed mood because of what I would be doing for th next 30 hours. What broke my brooding humor was what you see in the picture. Alain was showing Zoe his old duffel bag and said that it was large enough to fit here. And sure enough, he was right.All went well Saturday despite the fact that it was the only weekend in January that the temperatures dipped and lingered below freezing. Really, it wasn’t such a problem because we were inside but I was still ever so reluctant to take off my coat and, at times, gloves. (Can you guess who the foreigner is? Yep, the only one wearing all of her winter-wear INSIDE.) The girls were happy to be there and I was energetic enough to speak and understand French. Like normal, we went to mass. Side note: this is a catholic organization and I am not catholic. No big deal, I guess, because even if I was, I certainly wouldn’t know the words in French. But I am still totally lost in the rituals but I can stand, sit, and do the sign of the cross with everybody else. I’m pretty sure all the girls think I’m a little crazy when I do things like that. If you went to mass last week you’d know that topic was happiness and what makes us happy (answer: the love of Christ). Our girls were sitting front and center and so the pries chose to talk to them. He asked them “Why are you happy?” The answers were innocent and childish and therefore cute. My favorite response, however, came from Elisa, the youngest and smallest of the group. She said “parce que j’ai mangé” (because I ate). We had just eaten a deliciously sugar snack and apparently that’s all it takes to make her happy. Haha. Amen, sister.
The rest of the evening passed easily and the girls were in their sleeping bags by 9:30 and “asleep” by 10. Christy was in her sleeping bag by 11:30 but had a difficult time going to sleep. My sleeping bag was laid on a very thin pallet which was on a cold, hard floor. Not to mention Elisa work up crying 3 times that night. Ugh…
Sunday proved to be more difficult. About 3 girls woke up at 7am which distrubed everyone and was one and a half hours before we planned to wake up. So running on what I estimate to be 4.5 hours of sleep, I started the day. My French and patience were at critically low levels but Marine, the other leader with me, did all the talking until I regained some energy around lunch time. After that I was in charge of two activities conducted by just me. It was pretty difficult because I hadn’t prepared well enough in advance and simply didn’t know the words I needed like “let go”, “untangle”, “wrap”, and “tie a knot”. In the end, I managed but with frustration from both ends.
Finally, the end of the weekend had arrived!! But we did one more assembly to show the parents and to do “the promise” for two girls. The Promise is a higher level without the group and is fairly important. I watched all the girls faces and it reminded me of what it was like when I was little. What a HUGE deal it was and how it really impacted my life. It made me happy to be a part of that despite my frustrations.
Definitely rewarding but I’m glad to be free this weekend. My friends and I are doing a girls night Saturday and, to be perfectly honest, we’ve decided to dedicate this weekend to our mischievous friend, tequila. I will surely have some good stories for you next week. Until then, take care!!
The rest of the evening passed easily and the girls were in their sleeping bags by 9:30 and “asleep” by 10. Christy was in her sleeping bag by 11:30 but had a difficult time going to sleep. My sleeping bag was laid on a very thin pallet which was on a cold, hard floor. Not to mention Elisa work up crying 3 times that night. Ugh…
Sunday proved to be more difficult. About 3 girls woke up at 7am which distrubed everyone and was one and a half hours before we planned to wake up. So running on what I estimate to be 4.5 hours of sleep, I started the day. My French and patience were at critically low levels but Marine, the other leader with me, did all the talking until I regained some energy around lunch time. After that I was in charge of two activities conducted by just me. It was pretty difficult because I hadn’t prepared well enough in advance and simply didn’t know the words I needed like “let go”, “untangle”, “wrap”, and “tie a knot”. In the end, I managed but with frustration from both ends.
Finally, the end of the weekend had arrived!! But we did one more assembly to show the parents and to do “the promise” for two girls. The Promise is a higher level without the group and is fairly important. I watched all the girls faces and it reminded me of what it was like when I was little. What a HUGE deal it was and how it really impacted my life. It made me happy to be a part of that despite my frustrations.
Definitely rewarding but I’m glad to be free this weekend. My friends and I are doing a girls night Saturday and, to be perfectly honest, we’ve decided to dedicate this weekend to our mischievous friend, tequila. I will surely have some good stories for you next week. Until then, take care!!
This reminds me of my girl scout days - exhausting weekends in the cold with small amounts of sleep. BUT it was so fun - I would have loved to have a fun young foreign troop leader!
ReplyDeleteDon't get too crazy this weekend, but have fun! Miss you, deary!
Thanks for the update, always so fun to read about your france adventures! Those girls will almost surely remember you forever. It's so cool to have an impact like that.
ReplyDelete