I had my doubts in the beginning, but it was an excellent experience. We were not just participants or group leaders, we all were in a way also the organizers and modelers of the exchange. As it was by a volunteer organization, we had a lot of freedom, and I really believe in the end the work we did, matters.
The youth-exchange "European identity as means of social inclusion". I'm the leader of the Estonian group. Also, people from Austria, Greece, France and Portugal are participating. We are working on a theatre project with professionals and have had some meaningful discussions with the locals.
We are living in a suburb of Tours, Saint Pierre des Corps, in a poor, ghetto-ish neighbourhood. Most of the population of the suburb consists of immigrants, on the streets you mainly see young men aged around 18-25 and children, also mainly boys. It is sad to see that the main activities of these guys are driving old cars as fast as possible around the district, chilling on parking lots with gangs drinking beer and as they probably don't see many women every day, we all are considered a tourist attraction , every time we step outside the comments and weird pick up lines come from every direction. The small town mentality of not being anybody, so not becoming anybody as well, that sadly is very common here. It is harder for them but I do not think it is impossible to get out, seeing how talented some of the youth are here, it is just lack of motivation and ambition. They need role models and inspiration. Seeing the differences between backgrounds is interesting but tragic at the same time. An aim of this project is to include local youth in some kind of activities and improve their English.
We live in two apartments which are unfurnished so we can be creative, a youth centre and school near by are out main spots for activities, as we are 17 people, we cook food together in turns and are like a big family, the chores are divided and the system is working pretty well! There is a language barrier between French and English but it gets easier day by day, I think I'll be able to hold small slow conversations in French soon enough!
We have been sightseeing as well, visited the botanic gardens of Tours, an art museum, the cathedral and a modern day living in a cave near the city, it was beautiful! Apartments in caves which are rented out for the tourists. Also as the organization is holding another exchange in a town close to us at the same time, we met up with them one evening a couple of days ago and had a barbecue in guinguette, next to river Loire. The guinguettes in France are outdoor cafe-festival areas, with live music and people jus enjoying themselves. There is at least one in every small town or area in summer.
Me and another girl from Estonia, Maria, are both fond of couchsurfing, so we wrote in the official group of Tours and met up with some people yesterday night, had a beer in a small bar in the city and headed to one guys place in the city centre, a rooftop apartment through 3 floors.. But really narrow and cosy, not bad eh? Quentin played guitar and we sang some Estonian songs. Introduced them "Jaan Tätte" and "Ewert and the Two Dragons".
CHECK, on driving a van! My first time ever to drive a van, and it was a really old one! And I had a bunch of innocent people on it! Yesterday, we went to a recording studio for a second time. It is a small home-studio, in true ghetto. The atmosphere is total French small-town-ish! The inside decor is African as the roots of the two guys who own it go back there. The equipment is very professional, which considering the surroundings of the place came very surprising. We created a rap song. 16 people, 6 languages, 5 minutes of song in total. The beat is from the dj, but lyrics are all our own. I think it is one of the coolest experiences I have had and the creating process was just so much fun and also adrenaline (when the singing part came)! They are releasing a record soon and want to put our song on it as well! I think it came out unique. The energy is up and our frenchies and portuguese were especially talented in that field!
Do you know a movie "Untouchables" ? If not, you should check that out NOW. A French movie about a young man from a poor neighborhood, with a rough past and no ambition in life. By a chance he starts working for a millionaire who is parallized from neck down. The plot is so simple, honest and touching. How people can touch each others lives without even noticing. How you have to cope and learn to make the best of what you have. It gives you the laughs and makes you cry. I can't wait to watch it again. I do not have anything bad to say, and that is rare!
On saturday, 14th of July, it was French national holiday, Bastille Day aka National Day, which we later called new years eve, as the nature of events was so similar. Early in the morning we headed to a city about 30 km from us. (Driving a van again, yay!) The weather was warm but terribly windy. We went on a kayak-trip. It was 13 km, but thanks to the wind it was such a work-out, after 1km we all were dead, but we did it still! The river wasn't that calm as well, we were paddling upstream and near the end there were rapids! Almost all made it, except Eleftheria, Alina and Benjama. Later we had time to chill in the area, had lunch, a complementary class of wine! Played a little volleyball and acquainted the owners little angelic daughter, who actually wasn't that angelic.. Looks can be deceiving, inside she was a little devil, tried to bite us and hit us.. thank god she was so small, it was just funny.
There are people from Spain, South-Korea, Turkey, Thailand and Germany in another Mettray youth exchange. We had an intercultural night altogether and also met them later for a night out in the Guinguyette on the coast of river Loire. At night the fireworks started, half an hour full of powerful and beautiful non-stop fireworks, and crowds admiring it, everybody was happy, had wine-bottles with them.. that's why it resembled to the new years eve so much! Later there was live salsa music and we were dancing and enjoying the night in Guinguyette and later in Tours!
Next day was a rest-day. Slept in, had a nice brunch and went to Amboise. A picturesque little town not far from Tours. We spent the first half in the manor-house-museum of Leonardo Da Vinci and discovered his inventions and the second half in town, with adorable little streets, outdoor cafes and italian ice cream. At night went back to Tours, because of the music festival that was in town. Ended the night in Guinguyette again.
From there on we were productive. Some more workshops, theatre practices, painting, preparing for the final day, setting up a photo exhibition, cleaning and cooking.. We also got a final version of our rap song. I think our original version was better, but the official track is great as well.
We celebrated Alinas birthday with home-baked Rasberry-brownie and Tiramisu. And presented estonian history and culture with a movie "Singing Revolution". It is made by americans and maybe a little over-dramatized, but still such a powerful movie. Always great to watch it again! The foreigners said they understand now why we, Estonians sing all the time.
The final day was awesome. So much preparing and running around from the early morning. Quite a lot of locals and even the heads of European Union Youth Organization from Paris came to see the improvisation theatre performances. I believe we did a good job and at least the local children loved us, they did not let us go, we were playing games and talking to them hours after the event. It gave such a warm feeling, motivation and positivity!
As the two weeks we were on low-budget on the last night we went to a nice restaurant altogether, had a good dinner, later some shisha and a fun last night in town. Didn't go to sleep, 5 a clock was departure, we almost missed the train. It was chaos, we all made it in the end, but the Greeks in the second car almost missed it. They could see the train when they arrived to the parking lot, we were jumping on the platform, screaming "run, run". And they ran with all their bags and jumped into a train seconds before it closed the doors.
Feels weird back in Tallinn, but I have exactly 3 days and off to Camp of Hip-Hop at beautiful seaside of Käsmu. A bit of irony, I was basically without internet and any social media (did not miss it, we had a computer room in a school near by, but the computers were from middle-ages and decided themselves when or how fast they would work. The whole process of getting them to work was so funny, that when we eventually could've logged in we didn't even want these couple of minutes in facebook any more) and when I made it home, I discovered my internet-router is broken.
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