Les Petits Frères

Well, the internship is upon me, and so far it's fantastic! Granted, it has been a little nerve-wracking, and I really suck at French, but I'm loving these sweet old people!

From what I can tell so far this experience is going to be a lot like my mission. I mean, it's lacking in the fact that I can't use a scripture or prayer to calm down a sad elderly person in need, but the service aspect feels the same, and it's incredibly fun to have exchanges with people from all walks of life.

On Monday we had a training for how to transport elderly people in and out of wheelchairs. Literally the funniest thing of my life. Elizabeth, another one of the interns, and I were basically out of control and are pretty confident that we're not ready to help these people. I had to hold her in my arms like a wee babe and transport her from one chair to the next, and my goodness were we all awks about it.

The other interns seem really nice. There is a beautiful girl from Lithuania named Paula, a foxy Polish girl named Gosha, a Romanian woman named named Anca, a saucy German fellow named Simon, and a slew of crazy, hilarious Spaniards named Sergio, Jesus, and Katia.

So I am a disciple of Jesus, and his other disciple, Paul (a French kid just doing this for fun) and I just follow him through the streets of Paris from appointment to appointment. He basically talks and Paul and I listen. But no really, I am so grateful I have this bearded Spaniard to guide me through my internship. He's a saint, to say the least.

The first night we went to see Yvette, an elderly blind woman with a lot of spunk. This woman is hilarious, but my goodness can she TALK! She reminds me a lot of an investigator I had on my mission named Lucie, only in this case our four hour visit was straight French and nothing else. We took her to the pharmacie, walked her to the bakery, and then visited for hours on end. It was exhausting, but I felt like we were useful to her in some way. She said that her only visits are from les petits frères, and that broke my heart a little.

All of the people I have met so far have been incredibly nice. Their histories are so compelling, and it is definitely giving me a perspective of French culture that I didn't think I would ever get to experience.