‘Ooh, il fait chaud, hein?’ – Watch as Sophie turns into La Petite Anglaise Fondue.

38⁰C. Most days. In the shade. We’re melting. Everything. Slows. Down.
   (Is that a good enough excuse for not having been to many lessons lately?)
   Although I’m badly missing the mountains and the beauty at the heart of the island, I’ve been up to a few mildly interesting activities over the last few weeks. In the stifling heat, I have adopted an island attitude of a slightly blazé ‘hmm, I’ll do it, eventually’, and I’m eating pineapple and picked-up-fresh-off-the-ground mango for breakfast.  Now that’s what I call cultural integration.

   As the island heats up, let me give you the lowdown of what’s been happening.

I Predict A Riot
    Temperatures soar and tensions rise; this has been a turbulent week on the island.  After days of protests from motorists about petrol prices, riots started kicking off on Mardi Gras last week in Le Chaudron, the area where the university is. In an apparent protest against high living costs and unemployment, the first night saw petrol bombs all over the area. Helicopters with search lights sprayed tear gas over entire streets.The main supermarket was trashed by mostly young men who were absolutely trolleyed. (Speculation is perfectly acceptable for necessary puns).
     In all seriousness, it was a frightening time. From campus, one could hear bombs exploding all over Le Chaudron; it was like a bonfire night that left a bitter taste in your mouth and made your heart sink as with every boom you knew that some part of this already deprived community had been destroyed. From my balcony I watched as men with scarf-covered faces climbed over the campus gates and proceeded to set alight a few dozen cars and generally be really cool awesome guys with a logical agenda. It was even better that they chose the targets of Le Centre Social and Le Case du Chaudron; two community projects which host local events and house sports equipment for kids’ activities, burnt into melted wrecks.  Wonderful, bravo, magnifique. If I could be any more sarcastic, I think I would explode myself.

      Life is expensive here. Unemployment is at a staggering 40%. The worst affected area is Le Chaudron. Young, bored, testosterone-fuelled men in a hot country with a general macho-gangster youth culture. What may have started as a misguided protest turned into a game. While the rioters spoke of ‘ La Révolution’ like they were heroes for blowing up a community centre, it seems hard to see past the mindless destruction. But this is an ignored generation. Without the decent jobs available, without the education and training required to obtain these jobs (which are so frequently taken by the Métropolitain French), it seems a hopeless situation. This small island needs the investment from France, its creator, to provide the dignified jobs that can give people the opportunity to earn more than the welfare benefits and to be able to contribute to the multiplier effect that can then increase public spending to improve areas like Le Chaudron. The benefits here are a lifeline; people would literally die without them, and it is essential that they are kept in place. But many of the rioters said themselves that they feel abandoned and hopeless without any provision of work.  Public services, renewable energy, small grassroots businesses ... anything but new huge French supermarkets or Coca-Cola would be a welcome employer on the island.

   

    The riots lasted several days and spread to many different towns across La Réunion. After some peaceful protests too, La Préfecture lowered the price of petrol by 8 cents (a compromise on the demanded 25 cents).  60 food products are also going to have their prices reduced in the coming weeks; an unusual response to a protest in that at least something is actually being done. Everyone hopes that the riots won’t spark up again, as the operation begins to clear up the charred remains of parts of an already challenged community.

Take a look at what was going down in Saint Denis town:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60a9HhXmY_s&feature=related

Et quoi d’autre ?

   I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t had the most successful weeks recently in terms of randonnées and adventures. But I’ve been setting up the semester for more tings-ta-do, such as working for the Abyss Association who have given me yet more translation work to do (I work, you give me dolphins, deal). We got the final editing done to the documentary, which was seen by the New York Times journalist who is going to help sending it to film festivals in the States and possibly South Africa too. I’ve been doing odd jobs for the university theatre. I got interviewed for a Réunion magazine about student life, so I’m going to be famous, again. I’ve been to Tai Chi. I’m going to be working in primary schools teaching English to kids. It’s all falling into place!

  Best wishes,

  Sophie

Retour à La Réunion – Let The Second Semester Commence

   After a wonderful few weeks back in Britain, I (hesitantly) made the long journey back to the island. In a way I’d become so used to the more liberal English youth culture that coming back was a bit of a shock again – a rediscovery, if you will.
   Though disappointed by the lack of lychees on my return, I’ve seen again the beauty of the Secret Island and have had various spontaneous explorations. Seems like an odd sentence? You can’t underestimate the importance of lychees here. This season wasn’t as good as usual, so by the time I got back there were none left, and I’ve had to stick with boring old mango, banana, coconut and passion fruit. BAH.
   

Les Sorties - Making it up as we go along
   As mentioned, I’ve been to a few waterfalls, including Cascade Maniquet, where I braved the freezing cold plunge pool (probably just for the bravado), coming out rather blue/purple. An exploration on the overgrown forest path nearby proved just a bit too wild for my accompanying adventurers and I, and as soon as we heard a loud droning BZZZZZZZZZ bumbling around our heads, we scrambled back to the safety of the remote mountain road on the volcanic island surrounded by shark-infested waters.

  Volca-yes! Spontaneous Second Time Lucky. 
   About an hour before leaving, I decided to latch on to a group of teaching assistants who had hired a car and were off exploring for the weekend.  First camping on the moon/mars-scape of Plaine des Sables, waking up at dawn to go to Piton de la Fournaise – and lo and behold, this time it didn’t rain! I saw the crater in all its glory, and we were lucky to also see some smoky wisps swirling up from the base and the craggy slopes. 
  After that we went to Manapany, a southern seaside village with a lido where one can swim as in the real sea but guaranteed shark-free. Since there were three shark attacks and many more sightings over the holidays when I was away, I’m not too keen on the whole surfing lark and taking that risk. There are other ways to look cool on a tropical island, surely.
   Then there was a beach party on the west coast where a young French woman got up mid-conversation and started ranting about how she couldn’t talk to us because she can’t communicate with non-francophones when their French is so awful, no matter how hard they try. Alors cassez-vous, madame!
   The final day of the weekend saw a swoosh around the Sud Sauvage (The Wild South), sliding down mountain-surrounded mini-waterfalls into refreshing plunge pools, driving through the lava fields which run off into the south coast ... yada yada yada.

Coming soon – Boobz
    For those more observant facebook stalkers (if I have any), you may have noticed that my two jokes of the moment are 1) Newt Gingrich, and 2) The Réunionese rapper called Boobz who’s coming to showcase delights from his new album, ‘Born to Fck’, at the university theatre. One of the songs I’ve heard includes the lyrics ‘then all the women eat all the lychees’. I can’t wait.
  Invited by the people who run the theatre, I participated in what is apparently the favourite Réunion sport – picnicking. A joyous pique-nique in the park led me to trying the French’s equivalent to black pudding, bidouin. Congealed pigs’ blood never tasted better.
  I also went to the first concert of the term, consisting of a very skilled Chinese Erhu player, and a Réunionese smooth jazz band. The former, by himself, played a stunning piece, however when the two were put together ... well let’s just say it made for an interesting mélange. No minor chords and very repetitive never-ending songs ensured a near torture-like experience, except that it was too hilarious to feel bad.

‘Racistes Dehors!’ - Let’s Get Political
     As the French general elections approach, the presidential candidates have been throwing their manifestos and mandates all over the place. Nicolas Sarkozy (did you know he has a net worth of €2 million, and his first move in office was to give himself a pay-rise?) and François Hollande (leader of the French Socialist Party, some interesting ideas on environmental issues) will both be coming to visit in the next few weeks. But this week it was the turn of the rather terrifying Marine Le Pen, leader of the French Nationalist Party (Le Front National). And boy does she have some controversial (and awful, disgusting and racist) ideas. So coming here, to a generally lefty-island, she wasn’t warmly welcomed on her arrival.
    I got to the airport just a few minutes before she arrived, seeing several police vehicles and hearing the enthusiastically furious chants of around sixty protesters.  The various anti-fascist banners and placards blocked the rather pathetic little clan of French-flag bearing FN supporters. The crowd stormed towards Madame Le Pen and her entourage as they shuffled through the sliding doors, passionate anger echoing through the marble-floored entrance to Réunion. The rather unattractive gendarmerie (police) were shoving everyone around, fairly unprovoked, fairly unsurprisingly. But she certainly got the message that she wasn’t welcome here. I only wish I’d gotten there earlier, as there had been a Maloya group playing and everyone was discussing views and ideas. Though comparatively a small congregation, I know there were some larger protests organised for her visit, and it restored my faith in what I’d thought had been a relatively politically-uninterested island.
  

  So bring on whatever lies ahead for this semester ... it’s really just the beginning. (Cheesey).