It is barely eight o’clock, I wake up and hear outside the drops hitting the street pavement. It has rained most of the night, it’s my birthday and I feel like crawling under the duvet. It’s warm and cozy. And yet, I think back to all the people I met yesterday during the marauding with the friendly Wanted team.

Like every Friday, volunteers went wild with love and passion in the kitchen. Hats off to these cooks that you will probably never see on your screens, neither in cooking contests nor in any « Top Chef » show. But they all deserve the title! Congratulations to all those who worked in the shadows to prepare the 1006 trays of homemade couscous, accompanied by bottles of water and delicious oriental bites cooked with mastery.

It’s 6:45 p.m., time for the appointment in front of 74 avenue Denfert Rochereau. We are at Les Grands -Voisins and about fifty volunteers are active in the Robin Court. It’s time to load the trunks of the cars.

As always, we are warmly welcomed and immediately told who our teammates will be for the evening. Here, there is no headache, everything is well organized: masks, gloves, hydro-alcoholic gel are made available and we don’t skimp on the well-being of the beneficiaries and volunteers!

Sabrina, Sachi, Marie… discreetly watch over the smooth running of the operations and ensure the regular departure of the vehicles.

It’s time for us to embark with Nadia and Sachi towards the Gare de Lyon.

A short passage in front of the Gare d’Austerlitz where another team provides a distribution of meals served with coffee. Beneficiaries come from all walks of life. They count on the reassuring presence of these volunteers who come to meet them week after week. There are beautiful human encounters there…

We are now heading towards the Gare de Lyon and before we start, we make one last point with the team in charge of the tunnels under the station. They will meet the men and women who have found a final refuge in these underground tunnels.

Our small team goes to meet the forgotten of the world who are installed on the upper forecourt of the station. We discover the logistics set up, as part of the Coronavirus prevention plan, to manage the taxi queues. Each one in its circle marked on the ground, each one in its bubble. The forecourt is practically deserted, which is surprising for a Friday evening. There are very few travellers. From here, we go towards people in great distress who sleep under a fence or hidden behind plant pots. Some of them seem to have definitively lost their bearings and the relationship is more delicate to establish. They have gone to another world that escapes us. Others, on the other hand, are eager for exchanges, especially in this time of pandemic where everyone is keeping their distance from each other.

This morning, while it is raining, I think particularly of this woman with whom we exchanged under the tunnel that goes towards the Bercy station. She is installed with dignity, on the steps going down to the underground car park. Her eyes are sparkling, she is taking care of her sunburn and seems so luminous in the middle of this sinister tunnel and the very gloomy atmosphere.

There are also all those who appear out of nowhere and come to meet us simply because they are hungry. This is striking for us who have worked in social bond teams. It’s terrifying to see that in these times, the priorities are not necessarily the same. Even more striking when you read an article this evening in which you learned that the 600 richest Americans have increased their fortunes by $436 billion in recent months.

Even more striking is this young man who comes gently tapping on the windows of the car while we are parked waiting for one of our teammates and asks us if we wouldn’t have something to eat because he is hungry. We have distributed everything so quickly that it is time to go back to the Great Neighbours. There are still so many people hidden away from view.

So, on this birthday, I would like to thank you for all these little gestures which, like little drops of water accumulated, will make great rivers! This is my hope for the day!

Par Nathalie

Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)