L'Etincelle (the spark) - my home away from home

The foyer (household) is the heart of the lives of the people in the community. L'Arche de la Vallée is fortunate enough to have five wonderful foyers - L'Etincelle (the spark), La Braise (cinders), la Chaumire (heat), Moïta, et Maranatha. Each foyer has between 5 - 10 people with handicaps, and 3 - 5 assistants to help in everything from cooking, chores, events, medications, sanitation, and anything else to ensure the health of all the members of the foyer. But I believe that this makes up only a small portion of what life in a foyer is really about. There are many other institutions that can offer good health. But I see L'Arche as soméething much more than that.

What it's all about...
 

Brigitte with a chortle	Alain with a rabbit	Janick on the harmonica

Forming relationships and living together makes L'Arche a special place for me. I was fortunate enough to be able to interact with and eventually befriend some of the most wonderful personalities that I will probably meet in my life - an admittedly bold statement for a 22-year old student. But from Brigitte's exaggerated gestures in her comic monologues, to Alain's youthful joy in imitating household animals, I can barely expect to meet people in my daily life with even half the idiosyncrasies that these characters possess. Take Janick, for example. Just the other day she was in tears over supper, because someone politely told her to clean up the 20 or so plastic cups that were in her room. But do you know why she had these cups there? Because she was preparing for her birthday - which was seven months away!

An ordinary day...

I've been to many camps where they pitch the idea that 'an ordinary day' at 'such-and-such-an-institution' doesn't exist. In our foyer, the attitude is different. We live a simple life here, and getting into the rhythm is quite important. Breakfast at 8, chores/workshops/ break until lunch, lunch from 12-1, coffee from 1-2, chores/workshop/break until 5, coffee from 5-6, break from 6-7, dinner from 7-8h30, coffee from 9-9h30. After 10h, everyone is in bed, and us assistants do whatever we want. Coming from Silicon Valley, this was like driving a 4x4 down a highway and pulling the emergency break. This is not to say, by any means, that the work is easy- it's just that the pressure to have 3 projects completed by yesterday is absent. And whether or not I make it to meetings five minutes early makes no difference, and when I'm tired after lunch, I sleep. Yesterday, I went to an old roman town with 4 other friends. We walked around the city, we played frisbee in the park, we went for a long beer - it's a hard-knock life. Oh yeah, and I'm practicing violin on a regular basis again, in between basketball, promenades, coffees, guitar, reading, writing letters and learning to juggle. Yes, I have to say, life is good here.

Birthday Parties...

Chantal, Ludo, Janick and Monique get jiggy

At L'Arche, and probably only at L'Arche, someone's birthday party (and not necessarily the actual birthday) is the day that people wish you happy birthday. For example, in a few days, we will be celebrating an assistant's birthday a full 2 months after her actual birthday. Parties consist of a brief aperitif (drinks before dinner) with games and presentations, snacks, a nice dinner with a few of the birthday person's guests, and an after dinner coffee, oftentimes accompanied by musical performances. It is typically the highlight of the week because and requires preparation on the part of the assistants.

Soirées Musicale...

Monique plays the harmonica at La Chaumière

These Wednesday night venues were invented in my third or fourth week here. As it goes, two of the assistants took the initiative to start a night where the musical talents of the various foyers could get together and sing, perform, and enjoy the company of an inviting atmosphere.