My Work

You want to know what EXACTLY is my work? Well, you asked for it! I'll try to describe it:

At 8 AM I go downstairs from the building where I live, cross the school yard (which is filled with noisy students of all ages) and step into the "K'fet" which is in the building across (I can see it from my window). K'fet is a room with tables and chairs, a music centre and a bar. It is for the lyceeée students (age 16-18) and Perm (Permanence) is for college students (11-15). There is a door between two rooms, which is almost always open, but younger students are not allowed to go to the other side. The bar stretches all the way between two rooms.

So, I'm in. I put my stuff away, help others to lift the chairs from the tables and usually stay behind the bar for a while. "Read" the newspapers (that means pretend to read - see through the weather forecast and pictures), make myself some tea etc. The class starts and some students come in. Usually there are 15-30 students at the Perm, 40 on a bad day and 50 in my nightmares. Sometimes there are just a couple of them (we all wish it would always be that way). They come to the Perm because they don't have a class at the moment and they are not allowed to stay in the school yard, not mentioning leaving the place. Here they can do their homework, socialize and play different games. I have to stay around and keep an eye on them. If they want to take a game I make sure that they give their card and inscribe into a special notebook and that they put the game back properly afterwards. I have to make sure it's not too noisy and that noone leaves the Perm or does anything forbidden and when the class is over I must see to that they leave the place nice and tidy. At 10 AM, when the recess starts, two of the animators go out on the court and sell bread and croissants, the others sell chocolates and drinks inside. There are only certain hours when the students are allowed to buy something from the K'fet (for instance chocolate bars only at 10 AM and 4 PM).

So, every hour I stay in the K'fet/Perm (the older students don't need supervision because they don't have the strict rules) and watch the pupils talking, playing and so on. Mostly I ignore it if they make too much noise because I don't want to be the one screaming at them. But actually I am expected to socialize with the students and let them know I'm there "in order to gain respect from them" as Roland and other permanents put it. Blah. To make the time pass quicker I read my books or write, listen to music and learn my new French words. Or we play board games (like Uno; Jungle Speed; Rummy; Camelot etc) with the other animators or sometimes with the students. It helps to keep away the boredom for a while.

At noon there is a one-hour luncbreak. The students can either eat in the school diner, go out (home or wherever) or buy some junk food in the K'fet. The usual menu consists of sandwiches, hot dogs, pizzas, waffles and salad. At that time my job is to see that everyone cleans up after eating, some permanent animators help the "lunchlady" to prepare and sell the sandwiches. Sometimes I help someone to "do the gate", which means we stand at the door and check special exit cards (carte de sortie) of the students to make sure that only the ones who are authorized to get out will leave school.

At my one-hour break I usually crawl up to my room and try to relax from the neverending noise by listening to music or just sleeping.

If I work until 6 PM (Tuesdays and Thursdays) then I have to (or ask the students to) wipe the tables clean, lift the chairs again onto the tables, change the trash bins, turn off the music system. There are only a few people left by that time and it's quite quiet, but still nothing to do..

And that's how it goes day after day. Sometimes I accompany some boys when they want to play basketball or football to the sports court or some girls who are preparing their dance acts for PE class. That means I watch them play or dance. That's it. Just because they are not allowed to go anywhere on their own. Sometimes we also separate the students if there are too many at the Perm, by dividing them in two groups and taking the shoolwork-doing half upstairs to the 4th floor where they can work in peace (but also under a strict surveillance). And if someone is doing an atelier at a certain time of the week (for instance - Steffi is making little candle-lamps by painting glass jars) then they can ask if anyone is interested in that and then also go upstairs with them and do the atelier until the class ends. I don't feel I'm up for that at all because it seems so pointless and I couldn't interact with the students anyway nor answer their questions etc.

Every Sunday, one of the international volunteers must work in the K'fet for an hour, selling stuff to the poor students who have to drag themselves to school on weekend.

Wednesday is sort of a shorter day here, in order to make up going to school on Sundays. We only have to work at 10, selling sweets. But that doesn't mean it's a day off. Oh no! I still have to get up early because we have a team reunion from 8 to 10, where we just sit all together, the others drink lots of coffee and talk lots of pointless crap and everyone must say something about the passed week. It's basically all about discussing inexistent problems, like: "this boy is still behaving badly and has no respect [oh, they just love the "respect"-thing!] for the animators, what must we do?". That is also the time of asking questions and coming up with new ideas about the ateliers and so on. I did that a long time ago. Nothing changed... From 10 to 12 we either have a volunteers' reunion with our tutor Eric or we stay at the K'fet and do nothing, unless of course there's a credible reason why we can't stay. The only time of the week when I can actually sneak out of working.

Sounds like whole lot of fun, doesn't it!?! Maybe there's a volunteer among my dear readers who wants to come and take the thing over 'cause I'm starting to feel a bit sick and tired, fed up, unmotivated, unappreciated, degenerated, bored and all those other things I'm feeling...