Eating, Working, and Climbing Trees

Last post I spoke about Compiegne. Here is a picture that I wanted to put in the post but it would not load for some reason. It is a picture of the middle of town about two blocks from my home.

Daily Routine Mon-Fri:
Wake up at 6:30 or 7:00 depending on the day. Go for a run along the Oise, a beautiful river that runs through Compiegne. Here is a picture that I took off the internet. I will take my own pictures of the river and post them soon though.

After I get back from my run, the team of assistants meets at 8:00 to have coffee or tea and usually fresh bread. We speak about the day and who is doing what duties. At 8:30, we wake up all the people with disabilities. They all trail into the dining room and eat their own breakfast. At 9:30, most of them go off downstairs to work at Le Moulin, “the mill” that I spoke of in the last post. This is where they work five days a week. Three of the people in our home are too old to work in the Moulin and so they stay upstairs. After the others leave, it is cleaning time for the assistants. We have a chart of daily cleaning duties in order that the household is always relatively neat and clean. It is good because this fosters a desire and willingness to help in each of us.  When you see your fellow assistants cleaning, you naturally want to help. It is very productive and we get a lot done with this system. Our duties usually take until noon. From 12:00-5:00, the assistants have free time. We are allowed to do whatever we want during that time. For example, today, I went for a walk around town, meandered down to the river, and then went to Mass at a church that is 900 years old. St. Joan of Arc hid in this church the day she was captured. Yes, she was captured here in Compiegne.

At 5:00 in the afternoon, all the people come back from the Moulin at which time we meet in the dining room for afternoon tea or coffee. The French put a lot of emphasis on socializing and being together as a family during meal times. Meals are extremely important and so there is no rush during or after. You slowly enjoy the meal or coffee while your focus is on those around you. After the coffee and tea, the kitchen crew (one of us assistants  aided by one of the people with disabilities) begins to make dinner. We eatdinner around 7:30. Note: the French always have dessert after lunch and dinner. However, 9 out of 10 times it is not very sweet. They love to eatfromageblanc (white cheese) with fruit. 

Back to the routine: after dinner, dishes takes about 7 minutes because everyone has a specific assigned duty after dinner every night. For example, someone wipes of the table and sweeps the floor. Two people load the dishwasher. One person puts away the food. One person dries the dishes that were hand washed another person. You get the idea. Then, once dishes are over, we all gather into the living room for coffee or tea, whichever you prefer. This ends at 9:30 at which point we send everyone off to bed. Then it’s free time again for the assistants. Usually we just go straight to bed since the morning comes quickly.

On the weekends, we do whatever we like. One weekend, we went to see a movie at the cinema. We saw Epic. It was in French so I did not understand it as well, but it was a fun experience. Another weekend, we went to a garden in the country were you can pick anything you want and then you pay for it afterwards. We picked a ton of strawberries and rhubarb to make jam. This week we will go to pick cherries.

I love the consistency and the structure. It certainly adds peace to the home and it is especially good for the people with disabilities to have a consistent daily schedule that they can rely on.

On Tuesdays or Wednesdays, in the morning, two of us go to the grocery store. I love this! It is surprisingly fun to calculate how much we will need and to try to keep the cost as little as possible. I never thought I would like math, but this I enjoy.  Here is a picture  ofthe second refrigerator which we use only for fresh produce. This will give you an idea of how much 13 people can eat in a week.

Team Day!!!

Last week on Wednesday, we had our team day. This is the day that happens only once a year, where the team takes the day off and goes somewhere to do something fun in order to be more of a team in the home. It is also nice to take a day together where we are not working. So, as I said in my last post, I have a particularly good team. Consider it now a proven fact. We decided to go to a forest near Paris where there is a type of theme park in the forest. It is called “Sherwood Park”. This place is amazing! If you like rock climbing, tree climbing, or just a pure challenge, you would love this park! Here is a picture of part of our team strapping on the climbing gear before we started.

Words cannot describe how fun it was! You strap yourself to a thick steel cord that goes from tree to tree. You cannot get off until the end of the line. You have tons of options. Some areeasy and low to the ground and others are extremely difficult and very high in the trees. Three of us assistants wanted the challenge and so we started with a difficult one. It was absolutely a blast! It was the second most difficult run and so, at times, we would be way out into the heart of the forest at the top of a tree that was swaying in the wind. One thing that I really appreciated was that the park staff was very hands off. They mostly hung around the easy runs sincethe kids generally needed more help with their gear. But, if you wanted, you could go off on your own just like the three of us did, to the high difficult runs. They allow you to have a ton of independence. The system was very safe yet it still created a challenge.

Here are some pictures of the day. Enjoy!

My Team!

A total blast!!!

Until next time :)