Marion: Be Welcome!

For years, I have lived immerged in cultures different than my own. Copàn Ruinas, Rabouni, Goz Beida, Beirut…this immersion has always captivated, animated me.

Live according to the rhythms of another climate: enjoy the timely rain to fill-up water tanks after months of drought; stop everything in the blink of an eye to finally hand-wash your laundry, which was beginning to worryingly pile-up in a mess of dirty clothes; be stuck for one week in your tent waiting for the Sirocco wind to pass. This powerful red wind of the desert makes your hand disappear if you hold your hand out. Add an extra five hours to your daily commute because the Wadi river overflows during the rainy season in the Sahel. Ditch motorised transport in favour of walking to the healthcare centre and school where I worked.

Accept that the mission safety analysis –which is updated every four hours-, dictates all of your displacements.

Nothing better than sharing everyday life to understand the traditions and customs: opening a bank account, a phone line, renew your residence permit (sometimes in alphabets different than yours). All of these “tramites” how we say in Spanish…

Life-lessons of an incredible power. They have often made me ask myself what I could offer back. Cooking is always easy and always a success with a French passport. Nevertheless, how to share not just a little spire of your everyday “Western” life: the climate, in which I grew-up, my whereabouts, my family, my friends, my childhood…some photos did not make justice to all these precious things.

The sailboat Maewan, nomad base of our association, allows me (finally!) to be able to share this. With Erwan, we can invite people on board, in our office, in our home, in our garden. We can share with them our everyday life of coordinators of the associations and couple.

And this changes everything. I like this relation of equal to equal that naturally slips-when sharing and discovering our respective worlds. For me, it is the first necessary step for a healthy relation and carrying out meaningful actions.

Marion