April 15, 2009 - Posted by Amanda- 0 Comments
Helena, a wonderful volunteer/intern from the Czech Republic, just left for home after four months at A Rocha France. Her bright smile and contagious laughter lit up every room. She’s a great storyteller… most of her stories were descriptions of her country’s insane traditions, and all the Czech’s traditions require a fascinating sense of humor.
We were all particularly captivated by the Tale of Easter Monday. Men run around hitting girls with home-made whips. Girls give the men a hard-boiled egg or alcohol in ‘thanks’ for the whipping. If a girl was whipped many times on Easter Monday, that young lady would remain “young and beautiful” and have a year of good luck. Helena said she’d go to bed with pillows wrapped around her back so the switching wouldn’t hurt so badly when her little nephews woke her up Easter weekend… “It’s for fun, and it’s tradition” she said. The bruises fade after a while…
She also explained why carps (yes, the fish) are so important to the Czech people. Each family buys several large carp at Christmas, and put the fish in their bathtubs until the night of Christmas dinner. Then the son of the family dispatches the fish and mom of the family turns the fish into the traditional Christmas dinner. Guaranteed fresh…!
The final straw in the Czech humor competition is Mr. Cimrman. My coworker, Sarah, lived and taught in the Czech Republic for two years, and introduced us to Jára Cimrman:
“Presented as one of the greatest Czech playwrights, poets, composers, teachers, travellers, philosophers, inventors, detectives and sportsmen of the 19th and early 20th century.
“The huge popularity of the Jára Cimrman character has resulted in the compilation of a fairly detailed fictional biography by his admirers. The precise dates of his birth and death have not been agreed upon. According to his biographers, Jára Cimrman made extensive contributions to mankind, in all areas. He proposed the Panama Canal to the U.S. government, including a libretto for an opera of the same name. The Swiss company Omega to offer him a job to improve the balance wheel for their Piccolo line of ladies’ watches. While in Switzerland, he introduced (and practised for some time) the profession of obstetrician, under the difficult Alpine conditions. He conducted investigations about the life of Arctic tribes who eat their fellows; and once, while running away from a furious tribe, he missed the North Pole by a mere seven meters.
“In Paraguay he supposedly created the first puppet-show. In Vienna he established a school of criminology, music and ballet. He invented yoghurt. He reworked the electrical contact on Edison’s first lightbulb, and he found an underlease for Mr. Eiffel. Because of his enthusiasm for natural sciences, he discovered the monopole (as opposed to the then well known dipole), but this discovery fell into oblivion until it was confusedly revived by 20th century economists.” (thank you Wikipedia)
A remarkable man. Every Czech you meet will know of him, and all I have heard of will not reveal weather or not Jara was a real person. A national inside joke? Incredible.
Someday, Helena, I’ll visit. Just not at Easter or Christmas.
April 1, 2009 - Posted by Amanda- 0 Comments
This might be blog cheating… but some of my coworkers wrote this awesome summary of what A Rocha France (my homebase for the past 6 months!) is up to! Though I could add a stream of positive remarks and side-notes, I’ll let my coworker’s excellent writing shine through and bottle my comments until later.
A Rocha France was formally established in 2000 and, thanks to the generosity of a remarkable donor, was able to purchase Les Tourades as a field study centre the following year. Steven Dixon became the National Director in 2008, allowing the former Director, Paul Jéanson, to serve as the Director of the newly acquired Courmettes estate.
Community life at Les Tourades is shaped by Centre Managers Jean-Pierre and Martine Charlemagne. Their role in welcoming the constant stream of guests, settling accounts, organizing weekly logistics and generally keeping things running is essential. Several other staff, volunteers and interns complete the centre’s team.
An important event in the team’s week is the Friday morning garden work-party – known as ‘Le Chantier’– where the whole team joins in with weeding, pruning, mowing, turning compost and anything else that needs to be done. The nature garden, Entre Ciel et Terre (Between Heaven and Earth), is a practical link between the Tourades centre and the local environment, serving the needs of the centre’s inhabitants whilst considering aesthetics, wildlife habitats, local biodiversity and the minimization of ecological footprints.
From 5 - 7 June, A Rocha France will open its garden doors for the second year as part of a national ‘ Rendez-vous au Jardin’ event as an introduction to our ecological initiatives. If you are interested in attending, exhibiting artwork or arranging a group visit, please contact Les Tourades.
Alongside centre life, A Rocha France is working on a number of scientific projects. One of these is a consultation to generate a shared vision for what used to be local wetlands, now largely used for agriculture. Landowners are encouraged to develop an understanding of their local environment and consider the shared interests involved in development projects. This work has led to a number of complementary studies, including the collection of topographical data on properties in the local area. Led by Timothée Schwartz, the whole team has been involved in a month’s fieldwork, striding, wading and even boating through marshland to collect over 2800 topographical measurements. These have helped generate an accurate map of the terrain on these sites, which will guide the development of appropriate water management strategies in the future.
New faces at Les Tourades
Steven Dixon, the new National Director, divides his time between his home in Paris and the two A Rocha centres in the south, Les Tourades (Arles) and Les Courmettes (near Nice). Steven brings many years of management experience in contexts as diverse as community development, human relations and the publishing sector. He learned about A Rocha when his publishing house printed the French version of Peter Harris’s first book, Foi d’Ecolo (Under the Bright Wings).
As the son of Americans in France, Steven’s bi-cultural experience stands him in good stead with the variety of languages and cultures that A Rocha France often enjoys.
Timothée Schwartz, a recent graduate of the Paris Institute of Technology for Life, Food and Environmental Sciences took up the reins of Scientific Director in October. Originally from Orléans, he is passionate about nature, languages and music.
During his university studies, he spent five months in Ghana with A Rocha International’s Climate Stewards programme, as well as time in Germany, Guyana and Gabon.
Muriel Gervais grew up an hour away and so can add local knowledge to her considerable experience and studies in biodiversity management. Muriel is responsible for the Roller study and is the point person for the Earthwatch programme, bringing international volunteers to Les Tourades for two-week fieldwork projects.
Muriel and Timothée drop whatever they’re doing when a bird of prey flies overhead or a bird call catches their ear… their enthusiasm is contagious!
So THESE are some of the awesome people I live and work with! 
