Unexpected encounters in Wazemmes

My older sister has very beautiful curly hair, what some may call a Jew-fro. When my mother was visiting, my sister sent me out on a mission : find some haircare products specifically for curly hair in my heavily north african neighborhood.

I walked around my neighborhood and finally walked into a store on rue Jules Guesde whose sign outside read: Cheveux africains, maghrebins et européens. When I walked in, there was a really friendly man behind the counter and a second equally friendly second man standing next to the counter talking to the shop owner.

I looked around, feeling a bit dumb and very white, and explained that my sister had very curly hair and did they have any special products for her. The owner looked at me like I was nuts and told me he didn't have anything that you can't find in the US. In fact, his entire stock of "African" haircare products is imported from the US. Indeed as I looked around, I saw logos and names that I recognized from my days as a cashier at my local CVS.

Now, let's go back 16 years to my semester abroad in Aix-en-Provence. Around Passover time, after living with my host family for 3 months, I began preping my host mom for my upcoming week of non-baguettes. She said to me, "why didn't you tell me you were Jewish? In France, we aren't against Jews, we're against Arabs". I'm pretty sure at the time, she meant "we" as a general "we" and not her specifically, but at the time I didn't pick up on the non-verbal cues and was fairly shocked. 

So when the owner's friend said to me, "donc votre soeur a des cheveux juifs, quoi?" I sort of looked down sheepishly and said, "well, um, yeah". So the well dressed, very black man says to me, "Ca ne se voit pas mais (it doesn't show but...) but my grandfather was an Italian Jew."

I stayed in the store for over an hour as they talked to me about the political situation in their native Guinea Bissau. We also talked about the economy, US and French politics and being a foreigner in France. The most interesting part of the discussion - if you can call it that because I kept quiet most of the time since I didn't even know who they were talking about (it happened to be the ex-president of their home country) - were all the stories the men had about the grandiose parties hosted by the representation in Brussels and the family connections they both had with him.

I think the first lesson that day was don't judge a book by its cover. And the second lesson was, don't walk into a small African shop when you only have a couple minutes to spare (it's a good thing I didn't have ice cream in my shopping bags).  

story time: the rebirth

Story time is finally coming to life! I didn't realize the beginning would be so rough...or that the rough period would last so long. We are celebrating a whole year.

Since the new director arrived at the library, everything's been looking up! My counterpart librarian and I have a rhythm and a solid and fun repertoire now so the readings are smooth. Last Saturday, there were 2 new families; last Wednesday, there were 2 returning families (plus my friends who have been endlessly supportive of this endeavor!).

The head librarian has been answering emails that were left untouched for months, among them a request for Saturday "camp" to come to the readings (20 kids!). We also have dates booked through June, including a reading at the Gare St. Sauveur during the Braderie des Livres. The Gare St. Sauveur is an unused freight train station transformed into an amazing cultural space in Lille.

People have been coming to me saying they have seen the posters up around town, including Story time with Rebecca (et l'équipe jeunesse de la bibliothèque). It's all very exciting. 

But the best part ? It's the kids...My kids really appreciate the language play, where we intermingle French and English in the same story. It reinforces their own bilingualism. As for the monolingual kids, it's showing them that language is fun and accessible. They really enjoy the stories and the new words! An, of course, discovering new books like, The Thing/ Le Machin, is always good.

I'll continue to post future dates here. Come one, come all!

Story time: January 2011

The next story time is Wednesday, January 11th at 3:30 pm.

I'm hoping the new year will bring new luck to my little project. I can't begin to explain how much more pleasure and satisfaction I get from reading to kids for 30 minutes than I do from a full day of work (unless that day includes a German Black Forest cake baked by my German co-worker or some hard alcohol from my Latvian co-worker).

The new director has finally arrived at the Wazemmes branch library and seems really keen on story time. The last session right before holidays was English only because the librarian was sick. But we still had a nice crew of 7 kids. SEVEN which apparently is a really good number. I would have thought a dozen but ok, seven. She said that we should send emails out to the schools to attract more kids and groups. Yay!

So please come and enjoy some stories in French and English, in a bilingual setting. It's free and it's fun!

It's la Grande Citrouille Charlie Brun.

The Year Halloween Came to Wazemmes.

It all started with the Great Pumpkin. Last spring, while visiting the farm with my 2 year old son, I thought it would be funny to plant pumpkins in my micro-garden (my courtyard garden). So I went to the outdoor market and spent all of 3€ on 6 pumpkin plants which I promptly stuck in the ground. I figured at worst, my cats would kill the plants and at best, I’d get at least one jack-o-lantern for Halloween and that maybe the vines would keep my cats from using my micro-garden as a litter box. What can I say? All my wishes came true.

When we returned from vacation at the beginning of August, the vines had not only spread across the deck (about 10 feet) but they’d also climbed the walls. Baby pumpkins were sprouting left and right. At one point, I counted a dozen pumpkins growing, but most of them die before reaching maturity.

When I cut down the first pumpkin - a 7 kilo’er  (14 pounder) which had been growing 4 feet off the ground - it got me into the Halloween spirit. That’s when I got a hold of It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and watched the trick or treating scene over and over and over, at the request of my 5 year old.

And then it came to me. I could bring real American Halloween to my neighborhood, trick-or-treat and all.  All it would take is a little organization (which I have), a couple of willing participants (my daughter’s best friend down the street) and a little pride swallowing since I would have to canvas the neighborhood.

I am slightly ashamed to say that most of my Halloween flyers were placed in my neighbors’ mail boxes late at night when everyone was asleep. My flyer had a brief explanation of American style Halloween etiquette and a pumpkin clip-art to paste on their window  or front doorto show they would accept trick or treaters. I did hand deliver some to the people I know. One elderly couple told me they would do Halloween if it didn’t involve kids ringing their doorbells and asking for candy. Um, yeah. I also gave the flyer to some families in the neighboring street by harassing them at school. And, to my great delight, everyone is really excited to do Halloween!  

The real test will be on Halloween eve.. In past years, we‘ve gotten 3 trick -or -treaters who aren’t even in costumes. I’m even embarrassed to say that I actually forget to get candy most years and have to run up to the kitchen to grab lollypops out of the kids’ candy jar. The general request is, “vous avez des bonbons?”  (do you have any candy?). No please, no thank you, no Happy Halloween! And my daughter may be the only kid in France who knows “trick or treat smell my feet” in it’s entirety all the way to the last line. My goal this year is to turn Halloween into what it’s should be : a few hours of fun for the kids when they can dress up and eat too much sugar. To be continued...

How do you celebrate Halloween and what are you doing this year to bring Halloween into your home?
And there’s always the fallback plan if the jack-o-lantern doesn’t work out : pumpkin pie.

Storytime : October, November, December

The fate of storytime is in your hands...
Actually, it's in the hands of the city government. The Wazemmes library has lost 3 staff members since the beginning of storytime last spring. But Marie, my storytime partner, is standing behind it. We met this morning to set dates until the end of the year. And although the library is understaffed, she is firmly standing by storytime and all of the other animations planned by the library.

Storytime is a victim of its own success in many ways. The word is out and it's a little too loud! Marie informed me this morning that a group of ten 6-8 year old will be attending next Wednesday as part of the public day camp's activity. She also handed me an email from another Saturday morning program organized by the city. The email basically says we heard the library has a bilingual program and we'd like to work that into our Saturday morning language initiation program that's part of the city's PEG (plan d'education global ie the city's education plan which includes more access to foreign language education).

So, although I'm flattered to be the library's "bilingual program", I need to think long and hard about how I can 1) accomodate the demands and 2) make this into something real, profitable and with a future. Because, who would I be kidding if I said that I'd much rather play with european money than read to little kids all day long. But I digress...

Storytime dates are as follows :
October 12th and 15th
November 12th and 23rd (in time for Thanksgiving!)
December 10th and 21st

Wednesday is at 3:30pm. Saturday is at 10:30am.

If you need more information, you can contact me through this blog or get in touch with the Mediatheque de Wazemmes at 03 20 12 84 68
From January onwards, storytime will take place Wednesday OR Saturday depending on the popularity of the test dates we've had in the fall.

Storytime : the cursed

When I showed up for storytime a couple of weeks ago, I was mad at myself for not washing my hair or putting my "contaclenson" (as Suzanne says) because there was a journalist waiting for us. The Voix du Nord was interested in doing a little article on storytime so had contacted the library that morning. Luckily, Marie was able to get in touch with the main library to get permission.

So, we did storytime with a full house (8 kids including some I don't know!) and a journalist taking pictures. Afterwards, she interviewed me and a couple of the participants (my friends). You can find the article here. (By the way, I did not say what I am quoted as saying...). It's a good thing Suzanne was sitting on my lap in the picture.

In September and October, we are testing the Saturday morning time slot to see if we attract a larger audience. Wednesday is always a tough time in France because it's the day that kids are off of school so they often have activities like dance or circus or music or fencing...

So last Saturday was the first test. Friday, I got an email from the librarian - not the usual one since Marie had already told me should couldn't be there- saying she couldn't read with me and could I do it alone. Once again, I swore up and down because stortytime seemed to be cursed. I was mostly worried that because of the press coverage, there would be more people. And based on the experience of the first storytime which I did alone because my partner had appruptly left the library, I was scared : most of the people who attended the first storytime which was in English only have never come back. So, I reassured the librarian, told her I'd come in early to prepare and we'd do an easy and foolproof version.

In the end, it worked out perfectly. Fatiha, who was Saturday's French reader, did a great job. We chose a simple selection which included : Brown Bear Brown Bear, the Very Hungry Caterpillar, Tout le Monde Dit Hello, What Faust Saw (my favorite book of the moment which is unfortunately out of print), and Little Blue Little Yellow (which I read on my own). The crowd, which included 2 newbies and 1 second-timer along with my kids and some friends' kids, was entusiastic. Fatiha even said that it was a good turnout for a Saturday morning.

October dates are Wednesday, 12th and Saturday,15th. Come one, come all!

PS Pictures to come soon.