Week 2, Part 1

 Monday evening, our stagiaires got all dressed up and met their host families in front of the doors to city hall for our official welcome to the city of Brest. We were greeted in the Salon Richelieu by deputy mayors Hubert Bruzac and Yohann Nédélec. Monsieur Bruzac gave a short welcome speech.

Corentin also spoke, explaining the links of IHPFL with the city of Brest. And then Tasline Diab gave the “discours.” She was quite eloquent, speaking of the warm welcome we have received, thanking the host families and the city of Brest for taking them the students into their hearts, and expressing how much they have already learned.

Afterwards, there was a reception. The deputy mayors spoke with the students and the families. And, we took pictures.

I thought that the families in the US might like to see the faces of the people their students were living with. So, look below for those photos.

And we got our picture in one of the local newspapers, Le Télégramme.

Tuesday, we weren’t sure of the weather (it called for rain, but ended up sunny), so we went to a gym for sports. Our regular gym won’t be available until next week, so we went to a different one farther (like 35 minutes farther) from the center city. But it was totally worth it. The facility was amazing. There was a person there to lower the baskets and open the bathrooms (things lacking at our old facility in the past). The lighting was wonderful (the photographer speaking).

Kids never cease to amaze me. We had a bag of balls (basket, soccer, hand and volley) and two basketball goals. And they created so many games! Of course, we played basketball. We had no nets, but the volleyball lovers made a game of keep the ball off the ground.

We were told not to play soccer (football here), but there were goals set up. How could we resist? Corentin introduced the students to handball, which is very different from the handball I played in college. It features a goal (like soccer) with a defender. The thrower can take three steps outside an arc and throw the ball in an attempt to get the ball into the goal past the defender. Corentin is a beast at this game, but it turns out that Dominic is also crazy good at it.

Emily and Beck showed off some crazy hand-walking skills. Aiko wowed me with her spinning skills. Shenena schooled Corentin in basketball. And a group of the girls proved that all it takes is a bunch of kids to be together to create a game. I’ m not sure what they did, but it was pretty cool.

This bunch of young people amazes me every day.


Messers. Hubert Bruzac and Yohann Nédélec

With Jean-Paul, one of our onside coordinators.





















Harmon's host family had to work 
late, so Corentin substituted.










Maybe the best sports photo I ever shot.





















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