Emmaus

Here we are, in Bougival (about 13kms from the center of Paris - so near and yet so far). We are planning to stay here until the end of July, but only planning still cause it's not like a vacation camp here.
We are staying with an organisation called Emmaus, which is for homeless people who live and work here and even earn some money by collecting old things that people donate, then sorting, repairing and selling them. We are working as volunteers in the camp along with few other young people (one Chinese and two Polish girls and a fat ugly coca-cola-boy from France, they all speak French better than we do so we don't really talk to them). The people who live here are men with questionable pasts, but as much as we've met them they're very nice and fun. I even have a few fans... :)
We live in a tent, which unfortunately does not seem to be too waterproof, but extreme conditions don't bother us (yet?)... Our schedule is quite strict: first breakfast at 6:30; work at 8:00; second breakfast - 8:45; lunch at 12-13:00; branch at 15:45; work ends at 17:00 and then we have dinner at 19:00. Yes! I'm sure you noticed that all we really do here is eat, eat, eat... And the food is great too! But we've decided to sleep longer and give up the first breakfast, besides - I'm getting really worried about my weight...
Our work for now is sorting clothes: throwing away the dirty and broken stuff and saving the good stuff for the store. Which basically gives us a chance to make the world a better place by getting rid of some of the most obscenely ugly clothes you could only dream of in your worst nightmares. It's not as simple as it may sound because all the stuff there is VERY dusty and dirty - we sneeze all the time and our noses water non stop.. But on the other hand we can keep whatever cool things we find (after two days of work I have two hats, pink tennis shoes, a watch, make-up, lots of chocolate and jewelry etc etc).
Friday is our first day-off and we're going to The City :) Reflections coming up...
Hugs to all!