Time spent volunteering at La Giraudiere is time well spent. A thank you.
Fresh from completing my first year as a university language student, with a significantly less than bronzed complexion and no real idea as to what my time spent volunteering at La Giraudiere would have in store for me, I arrived in Brossac just under three weeks ago. As today marks my final full day here at La Giraudiere – incidently, it’s raining outside for the first time in over a week.. pathetic fallacy some might say – I can say with wholehearted honesty that if I could rearrange my flights and summer plans and stay for a further three weeks, I would do so in an instant.
My time spent here has been rewarding in ways that I had simply not anticipated. For starts, I’ve discovered the world of blogging – completely unchartered territory for me previous to my stay, but something that I would love to be able to keep doing once I arrive back home; difficult though it may be to find many sparks of inspiration from my rural village on the outskirts of Bristol, having now experienced the Brossacian way of life! I’ve spent time working as Paul’s ‘PA’: responding to enquiries about the project, sorting through volunteer applications and booking tables at restaurants for the group, to name but just a few of the day to day tasks. I can proudly say that I now have the French for ‘a table for 13 please. Yes, 13.’ mastered almost to perfection.
On that note, although I had hoped that I’d get a chance to speak snippets of French in the market, ‘Intermarché’ or restaurants, I really never thought that I’d have the opportunity to indulge in such lengthy conversations with the locals, discussing all manner of topics until the early hours of the morning, as I have been able to do over the past few weeks. And for this I really can’t thank Paul enough for introducing us to all his friends here, and to those friends for being so welcoming and patient! There seems to be a real community ethos fueling the way of life here in Brossac, whereby no one is ever made to feel like an outsider; indeed, the locals are as keen to embrace all our different cultures and languages as we are theirs! Perhaps a book that us English-speakers could take a leaf or two out of… Food for thought, anyway.
So it is with a heavy heart, a slightly more golden skin tone, a few new colloquialisms to add to my French repertoire and a wonderful selection of memories of my time here at La Giraudiere to take home with me, that I write this final blog and hand the reigns over to the next volunteer. Thank you thank you thank you to Paul, all the team at La Giraudiere and to the Brossac community for making my stay here so enjoyable and worthwhile. Time spent volunteering at La Giraudiere really is time well spent.
