On thursday february third 2012, I had an appointement with the children from the paeditrics unit of the Valence (France) Hospital, according to my partnership with enfant@hopital.
This meeting with children and tennagers from Valence, (nine of them, aged 10 to 17), made me very happy.
I believe they were all pretty intrigued by my project, and some seemed honestly interested. I had a bit of trouble juggling the various views and perceptions of the world, due to the age gap. I prayed them to ask all the questions that came through their mind, and if necessary, to interrupt me.
I started by introducing my itinerary, tempting to illustrate each country by something that would be familiar to each one of them: (steppe/horses, elephant/tigers, Everest....), then I showed them my bag and it's contents. I had brought my bran new rucksack and a sample of what it was to contain during my trip (the strict minimum, minus the health-care products). The exchange ended up being quite rich and the questions sharp (I think I've answered to all by now, but if not, don't hesitate to ask by email). We had a three hour discussion. I even had a freindly proposition for a horse back riding course (unhappily, I'm not sure that Chronos will leave me enough time, we'll see...) I also won a link to a Harry Potter fan site, if you want to know all about magic formulas, clic here.
To see the photos, it's in "media" in the main menu, or you can clic here.
The following day, I went to the Colibri school in Amanins. After having discovered this incredible place by 40° celsius, i came back to it under a -20°celsius (felt temperature because of the wind)...........
I had a (very nice) meal with the Amanin staff before going into class for the after-noon at teh Colibri elementary school. The children, aged 6 to 11, first gave us a show of theatre scenes tha they are rehearsing. Then, Isabelle, their teacher, introduced me and asked me to talk about my trip around the world. I began expaining my project to capt the childrens attention: " I would like you, if you wish, to do me drawings for the children I'll meet at the next school I visit. In exchange, you will recieve the drawings of the last one I visit, when my trip is over. " They liked the idea, and immediately asked me where I was going and for how long. Since I'll be gone two and a half years, the older one's will have to come back from their high school to their elementary school in order to see the drawings made by the young south-americans, and the circle will be full!
As I was showing my itinerary on a big planisphere, the children were following it on their geography book. As the day before, I tried to match each country with something familiar. Then I introduced my bagand it's contents.....and they gave it a name :" Colibri" (if only it could be as light as that)
They had a very keen interest and asked many questions: where will you sleep? how will you get there?.
Some were funny : Will you go up to see the kilimandjaro snow?
I was surprised by some of their questions: How will you manage for money? And for your health?
And I was not able to answer some of them on the spot: How many countries? How many kilometers?
I searched for the answer when I got home: I'll be crossing 41 countries until I get to the USA border, but I only have a budget to make it to Colombia. So so far, I'll be crossing 36 countries. depending on Google and a huge approximation, it's roughly 60.000 Km.
IAt last, we got to the drawings.
Isabelle reminded the context: they will be brougtht and offered to Turkish children, they certainly want to know more about France and the french. I believe the really showed empathy and they derw with their hearts. That's at least what I feel in these drawings. They are superb
The two teachers also joined in. The school drawing relay has began!
To see all the photos, it's in "média" in the main menu or clic here for the Amanins and here to see all the drawings.