What a blessing France will be!  It’s only really been a week and a half that I’ve been here in Lille, but already it’s been an incredible experience.  These first two weeks I’ve been working with a group of VIDES France volunteers, in a very similar situation to what I went through in San Antonio.  What we’re doing is organized to where each mornings we pray, learn, and study about the Salesian values and methods of accompaniment(mentorship), and then in the afternoon’s we implement what we learn by putting on a sort of Vacation Bible School for the local community.  What’s uniquely challenging about this camp is that France has incredibly strict “separation of church and state” laws, so even though we’re organized through the Don Bosco Catholic School, we can’t talk or discuss any sort of religion.  So instead, our focus is on providing good examples and hoping that these kids, ages from 5-18, will realize the true spirit and meaning behind what we’re doing, or at least we pray they do…

All of us repainting the teenager's youth group room.  It was a constant battle to keep them painting the wall and not each other... 

The finished youth group room, it looks much better!

The sisters and volunteers were interested in having some great American desserts,
so we made bread pudding.  In Europe they measure  all their ingredient by weight, so
working through that was interesting, but it turned out alright!

They insisted I make real American pancakes, but they don't sell
Bisquick here!  luckily I was saved by the great taste of maple syrup!

Don Bosco and Mary Mazzarello stopped by!

We performed the Boot Scootin' Boogie for the end of camp show.

As for my experience in working and living in the French culture, it’s been great.  Everyone is very friendly and patient with me as I struggle to comprehend what’s going on.  A couple other volunteers speak broken English so I’m able to have a general idea of the daily plans, but participating in discussions is difficult.  The community is nice, much smaller than in San Antonio, with only three sisters and a priest living in the house, as compared to the 35ish that we lived with in TX.  They don’t wear any of the traditional uniforms for safety reasons, not sure if it’s a French Salesian or regional Catholic thing.  Unfortunately, we haven’t spent too much time outside the convent and local area, but last weekend we did go downtown to celebrate France’s Independence Day, Bastille Day, and saw a bunch of fireworks.  I’ll have some of those pictures up on Facebook soon.

That’s about it for now.. After camp I’ll be headed to Paris for a couple weeks, before going to my final destination of Nice.. Pretty dang rough!!  Oh and before school starts in September we’ll be going a summer camp in the French Alps..

Feel free to let me know what you think or if you have any recommendations.  I’d love to hear from you!  Here are a couple major differences I’ve noticed, and have had to get used to…

-  Breakfast isn't big here.  If you eat it’s usually a piece of toast with Nutella or jelly, and some coffee.  There’s always a variety of cheese (fromage) available and passed around at the end of the meal.   

-   There’s a lot more sun light!  The sun comes up around 6:30 and sets around 10:00.

-  No hugging!  To greet and a woman you kiss both cheeks, and a man with a handshake.  However when in southern France you apparently kiss men on both checks as well...  I’ll be maintaining my American customs instead.

À bientôt!

All the volunteers!