The term applies to my new position in the Scouts d’Europe. Before I tell you this story, you need to know that I am NOT into outdoors life AT ALL. As in, I have never lit a fire and I don’t do well in tents. Well, I am not only going to do that, BUT I am in charge of six 8-12 year old French girls for the year.
It all began the Sunday that I went with my host family to the ‘rentrée scout’, which basically means that vacations are over and scout outings begin again. My two host siblings are scouts; it is a family activity of generations. So as she introduced me to her friends one of them had the lovely idea that maybe I could help out since they were short on leaders, and I naturally said yes. Of course, ‘helping out’, and being cheftaine are two different things. As the day progressed, I took pictures of the ceremonies, especially of my host brother Paul because he was initiating a new stage of the whole scout hierarchy that I do not entirely understand yet. The day was just lovely, while the scouts did their thing, the parents (and I) walked in the woods and stopped in different points to pray for the children. Afterwards we sat in huge clearing for a picnic with tons of families sharing their food. The ceremony ended with a mass out in the clearing where all the scouts participated and sang. It was a really nice day. But I thought the offer was not serious, until a week went by.
A week later we are all having dinner and my host mom tells me she got an email from the female chief inviting me to the cheftaine dinner so that I could chat with them and decide if I wanted to join. Of course I was never pressured into it, I felt honored to be invited and naturally said yes. Then it stuck me: I was going to be cheftaine though I had never done anything remotely similar in my life, we don’t have girls scouts in my country!!! However I want to the dinner and it was so amazing that I could not say no. The girls are so united and nice, these are 18 and 19 years olds who give up their drunken weekends to be leaders among little girls. That means they cannot be seen in the streets with a cigarette and they probably pass on partying the night before a scout outing. I find it admirable. The pictures were hilarious and the videos were even funnier. What is the harm in trying right?
Of course I told them I had never done scouts, though I have had my share of kids in nature (notably my peace summer camp this summer). But scouts in France are different, there is a religious dimension to it, introduced to the children through Kipling’s Jungle Book, and while I am honored, I am scared that I will not be good enough. Not to mention the fact that I am not French. But I am doing it anyway.
Last week we had the parent meeting where they met us and we introduced ourselves. They were all just so grateful that I am sacrificing my time to help the cause, how can I not be happy? I think I will get more than I will give in the end, I’ll speak French, I’ll learn something that is a big part of French life, and I’ll meet very very French people. I do think I am the first foreigner to do this though, and it will definitely be an adventure. So wish me luck!
