Chiffonniers

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Chiffonniers

The radio is glowing in the dark; long gone memories, I feel sad for you who have never know the glow of the bulbs of the radio, the warm, the slight purr of the radio. It was a very precious radio, given to me by my French Grand Father at one of my birthdays. Like my fist bicycle also given by my Grand Father

It was like having a friend, so cosy.

I was a teenager; probably reading a book under the cover instead of preparing the lessons for tomorrow. There was really no reason to work on these dull school class subjects when I could read books;

The radio was on. In those days we had only long waves; such things as Frequency modulation had not yet been invented. Radio sounded like these films during the Second World War Sound would come and go, it was marvellous.

I was listening to a radio game, a game that has been going round the Globe, quit or double. The candidates would answer questions on a subject they had chosen, each time they gave the right answer they got their money, if they wanted more they would get twice as much or lose everything.

The candidate was an unknown young priest; His subject was international Organizations. He answered, answered, answered, soon he had a substantial amount of money. Then he hesitated and said he would stop at that point and take the money.

The Game leader Zappie Max, wondered if he could ask the following question, just for fun?.

He agreed

The next question was

<< What is the name of the International Organization dealing with Food and Agriculture>>

The priest answered

<<FAO>>

He knew the answer, had he gone on, he would have got twice more money.

The game was over

Then the priest, l'Abbé Pierre, asked whether he could speak and tell us what he was going to do with the money.

And l'Abbé Pierre spoke, how was I to know that at that moment, my life was changing. There was no big flash, no writing on the wall, no angel appearing, no trembling.

L'Abbé Pierre told us that the money he had won was enough to built one house. One house for people living in drains, holes in the ground, card box walls.

L'Abbé Pierre told us that they were living by scavenging the refusals of our society. They were “Les Chiffonniers d'Emmaüs”.

He spoke to us directly. This is what I won this evening; it is enough to built one house. How much are you going to give us to make decent living rooms for all the poor people dying in this freezing winter in the street of Paris?

Why was I listening this evening? Why did I hear him?

Why did my father bring me to a shanty town ten kilometres from the Centre of Paris, a shanty town such as we knew during the Algeria war days, a shanty town where they would be living in anything, if you can call that living? They were certainly dying.

Why did my mother go one evening to some kind of dinner, she said that money would be collected for “Les chiffoniers”, she asked whether I wanted to contribute and I gave five francs of my pocket money.

Why did it happen that as I entered the Catholic Church in Uppsala, I saw a priest saying mass, the priest turned round, said << ite missa est>> and for the first time in my life I saw eyes that saw you!!! that priest after mass went down to the cellar, a young girl was serving as guide, obviously this priest could not speak Swedish, it was l'Abbé Pierre. This young beautiful blond Swedish girl (Cavalli-Björkman) asked whether I had seen l'Abbé Pierre, there we were standing not knowing what to say to one another, then I do not know how it happened, we were walking in the streets of Uppsala, l'Abbé Pierre was walking next to me, he did not make small talk, when he spoke, it was straight questions, questions that went right through, into my heart, then we were sitting around a table having breakfast.

I was to take a different road, I went to work with the poor farmers of Africa, like him I spent my money on houses, medical treatments, and schooling.

His last question, the one which would have brought him double the amount of money he got that evening, the one calling for the answer “FAO”, ten years later I was working for FAO.

The radio was glowing in the dark, was it electricity or was it fate writing my life in the night?