Author: Allie Crain

I know we’ve had a long break, but I’m back at it. These last few weeks have been some of my favorite of the semester, in the program and out! We were lucky enough to visit one of the biggest nuclear power plants in France, Cattenom, and volunteered with some amazing people at Carrefour, the organization that works with youth immigrating to France.

At Cattenom, we were welcomed with a short video and presentation to help us understand the plant and the nature of nuclear energy in France. We had some precursors to the trip in our class, reading about and debating on nuclear power’s pros and cons, and they all came full circle when we actually got to the site. Nuclear centers like Cattenom were mostly constructed in the late 1980s or early 1990s in France, which really surprised me, and a majority of the electrical energy consumed in France is produced from its nuclear power centers (as opposed to other electrical energy sources like wind, solar, and coal). The energy is also relatively low cost compared to the other sources, in terms of money and the environment. Of course, if you ignore the potential health hazards and radioactive waste. There’s a lot of work done by the employees at Cattenom to ensure their safety and the community’s safety. They have regular screenings for radiation and strict protocol in operating at the site, whatever their particular job may be. When we arrived, we were given special shoes, hardhats and reflective vests, all as precautionary measures, and the safeguards don’t only extend to the people in and out of the site. For example, there’s a giant dome built over the reactor’s core to ward off natural disasters or a potential attack, as well as a heavily monitored exterior. Overall, the plant gave me a little more peace of mind as far as nuclear energy. I was conflicted, and still am a little, but overall, I believe that nuclear energy should be utilized over traditional methods, such as fossil fuels. There has been a lot of work to reduce the radioactive wastes produced from the plants, reusing as much as possible, as well as a lot of work put into how to ethically and effectively manage the wastes. However, I believe that we should use it in combination with other renewable forms of energy, not as a sole, main source of energy.

At Carrefour, some fellow SLS peeps volunteered with the young adults there, conducting a variety of classes, if you will. Two of my classmates, Lindsey Lovitt and Nachiketh Narreddy, went to give some beginners lessons in guitar, even helping one of the people there to tune their own guitar. I volunteer there by giving beginners lessons in drawing and, along with Morgan Gallimore, speaking English, funny enough. I’m thankful for my French speaking skills because this wasn’t a situation in which I could resort to speaking English in order to get my point across. I’m thankful for the experience as a whole, and I think the thing that made my time there so memorable was seeing the people smile after teaching them something, even the names of the months. I was fortunate to have met the people I did, young adults living in Carrefour’s lodgings and the employees themselves, and I look forward to talking to others and learning their stories as well. Talking with and listening to the struggles that people go through to secure a happy, healthy life is a heavy conversation, but I can see so much good. My compassion senses are tingling, and I think we could all do with a little bit of it.

Long time, no see! It’s that time of the semester: it’s starting to get a little colder, sleep deficits are increasing, and fall break is just around the corner. For the past three weeks, the other SLS students and I have been discussing social issues; for example, we’re discussing poverty, domestic and other types of violence, religious persecution, or racial/ethnic persecution as well.

Why? The class is supposed to be about sustainable development, no?

It is; it just so happens that social equality, a healthy society is the third pillar of sustainable development, according to the Agenda 21. We’ve met and volunteered with some ecologically focused projects/associations (like composting with JJ), and did the same with associations focused around mobility (like Metz à Vélo). For the third part of our semester, we’re visiting some organizations around Metz that help people in precarious situations.

The first organization that we met was the Club Unesco in Metz. They came to our class one day and led a workshop with us, teaching us the different types of discrimination, the prejudices that cause that discrimination and potential/existing solutions to combat said discrimination. They were passionate and knowledgeable, only hesitating to answer questions when they were trying to figure out how best to explain it to a bunch of non-native French speakers. They’re taking a trip around Europe over the fall break (Oct. 25 to Nov. 3) in order to teach others, children and other university students like us, about discrimination, as well; unfortunately, all of the members of the SLS program hade made plans for the fall break, so we won’t be joining them. We look forward to seeing the result of their workshops, though.

    
The second organization that we visited was called Carrefour (and no, I don’t mean the popular European grocery store). Carrefour is an organization dedicated to housing, educating, and nationalizing immigrants, young adults (around 18-25 years old), and women who come to France seeking asylum from some form of violence or persecution. They have three types of facilities: one is for young adults (along with a separate facility for young women), a majority of which are illiterate and only able to speak their native language or broken English, the second is for university students seeking affordable housing while getting their degree, and the third is a youth hostel that you can sleep in for free. They’re dedicated to improving the life of every person that comes to them for help, and they get all of it done with only about 100 volunteers. We’ll be going back to participate in a game of soccer and teach them a little about the history of the USA. They encourage all of the children that they house to further pursue their education or try to hook them up with a job at the age that they’re ready. They don’t just alleviate their problems in the present; they teach them to take control of their own lives, how to alleviate their own problems in the future. They encourage the artistic, mathematic, kinesthetic children alike, and try to foster a positive environment for them to regain their footing. I was excited by these people and they helped me to fully understand why society should be included as the third pillar to a sustainable society: people who have a passion for living and the skills to do it will take more care in what they do. Education is extremely important to our cause! Don’t forget it.

We visited another organization the next week that also offers housing, but it’s a little different from Carrefour. Secour de Catholique operates as part of the catholic church in Metz and offers housing, meals, and help with nationalization (gaining citizenship in France) or, even, helping with work. This still seems pretty similar to the work that Carrefour does, but Secour de Catholic works with adults over the age of 25 years old (not young adults or children like Carrefour). On an average day, they open for breakfast around 8h30, which you can purchase for €0.50, then move on to one of the various types of workshops they have (art, studies, cooking, etc.), and then moving on to a dinner (also offered at a cheap price). The workshop room was filled with the art that’s been made by the people working with Secour; it was my favorite part of the visit. Some of the paintings were really beautiful and full of emotion. I’m really happy that a place like this exists, to help people still create something beautiful when they don’t have the resources.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to tell you about cool, French stuff next week because I’ll be on vacation (like I’m not already). I’m going to be traveling to Berlin, Vienna, and Budapest over the fall break, which lasts a little more than a week. Don’t miss me too much. Au revoir!

This past week went by really quickly; I had a lot to do and see, so my mind was occupied a lot of the time. It started to get cold in Metz, too, so I had to break out the warmest coat I have (which I fear won’t be up to par with the imminent weather of October). Despite all of this, too, I had an amazing week. We were able to teach some French children about pollution and good practices for a healthy earth while they filmed some short skits about the environment. At the end of the week, we visited a methanation plant and learned a little more about the different types of waste and how this plant has decided to effectively process them.

At a local French elementary school, we were invited to a small class to give a short general lesson with one of our fellow French students, Salimata Coulibaly, working with the European Institute of Ecology. We talked to the children about pollution of the Earth and of our air, deforestation, water pollution (as well), and some solutions to these problems (like recycling and composting). We asked them to propose solutions for these problems to us, and I was genuinely surprised by the amount of knowledge and awareness that the children had, as far as environmental causes are concerned. They advocated for recycling, of course, but specifically, for reducing waste by buying products without plastic packaging and by using reusable bags and water bottles. They thought big, too, explaining that we should hire people to go out on boats and clean the plastic out of the water with giant nets. I was inspired by their excitement in trying to answer our questions; they would talk over each other, yell, and get up out of their seats. I was really proud of them, honestly, that they were that excited about what they knew about living green and that they tried to teach me as well.

After our little lesson, we filmed some skits that they had prepared in groups each covering a different subject that we had just discussed: pollution of the ground, wastefulness, pollution of water, and pollution of air. For each skit, there was an antagonist “polluman” (for pollution) trying to get the other children to pollute or do bad things to the earth and a protagonist “SupErdre” (for the super hero) persuading the children to, instead, do good by the environment. They were assigned roles and memorized a script for each of their little screenplays. I had so much fun helping with the props and feeding the children lines when they forgot them. They must have practiced a lot, though, because I rarely had to help them.

Later in the week, as I said before, we traveled to a methanization plant called Sydeme (Household Waste Union of East Moselle) in Forbach, France where we received an informative presentation, detailing how the plant worked. This particular facility was very interesting to me because we have visited other waste treatment facilities and no other has a procedure quite like this one. They put the work of the sorting on the customer by asking them to sort their trash into “green” waste (compostable, biodegradable wastes) into a green bag, recycling (milk cartons, plastic bottles, cardboard, etc.) into an orange bag, and then everything else into a large blue bag. The bags aren’t too large, though, because they also limit the size of the bag (weight of waste it can hold) to a certain amount per bag in order to motivate people to reduce their waste. After, they’re sorted by color and each go to different locations: recycling goes to a recycling center, general waste (blue bags) go to an incinerator, and the green waste comes to the methanization plant, where we visited. Here, the waste is put into large digesters that stir and regulate the temperature of the mixture. After a series of passes through the process, the waste has been turned into quality fertilizer (liquid part of waste) or nutrient-rich topsoil (solid product of composting). The methane part of the process is in extracting the natural gas that’s released as a product of fermentation in the digesters. This methane is filtered and then stored to use as fuel (for their natural gas vehicles) and for public refueling, as well. They also use the methane as a source of fuel for energy to run the plant, a perfect example of a circular economy. They take people’s green waste and treat it, turning it into topsoil that can be used to grow more food (resulting in green waste), also utilizing the methane produced from that treatment to run the plant. Genius!

My favorite part of the tour was the greenhouse, where we got to see and even taste some of the fruits and veggies that they grow onsite with their composted soil. They’re proud of what they do, and their success shows. People pay a subscription to be a part of this, and all that they’re doing is processing their waste. The valorization of wastes needs to be a more commonplace thing back in the United States. I feel like the only places that do it are far off and unknown. Is there somewhere in Atlanta where I can be a part of good practices like this one? Guess I just found something new to explore on the internet. I’ll keep you all posted!