08 Villiers Le Bel

Ingrid from the St.Ouen congregation met me at the bus stop near Marisa's to show me the way to the building site at Villiers le Bel. After a short bus ride to the train station, we took the rapid transit to Villiers le Bel and got there about 6:30 a.m. to find brothers and sisters doing street preaching work at the train station. Ingrid had to leave for her secular job but the friends told me there may be another sister somewhere in the station that morning, and she probably would be taking take the bus to the building site. We looked around but not having located her, I decided to take the bus anyway so I wouldn't be late for morning worship. Finally got to my stop 'Esperance'...and there were only two people getting off the bus. We looked at each other and smiled, and I asked if she knew the way to the Kingdom Hall? She said she was going there herself!  

After registering, getting my shoes and hat, I was assigned to help put up drywall board.

Here David is putting up 'placo' to soundproof the foreign language group room. Groups are Hindi and English, then the French congregation share the hall with the Portuguese congregation.

That morning, it hadn't started snowing yet and there was concrete work to be done. So they removed the pile of snow from the day before and got a team going with jack hammers and shovels.

Later, it did start to snow but the sisters and brothers kept on working. The temp is about -4°C...that's a minus 4! Very cold, folks. 

The siding on two sides of the Hall had to be reinforced and the scaffolding arrived while it snowed, but that didn't discourage the friends from getting it done.

Lunch time with a short 10 minute encouraging talk, and food was served to us at the tables like a restaurant. A typical French meal consists of an appetizer, such as a cold salad, then the main hot meal, followed by a slice of regional cheese or yogurt, fruit and maybe a small dessert, then cafe. Many in this area are from the Antilles or Martinique and we'd have the most wonderful ethnic dishes, full of spices and aromas.

Then back to work; they put me with the painters. On this project, the drywall mud, taping and finishing, was directed by the paint department because it kept the sequence of jobs going smoother. This way, the drywall hangers could come days in advance and get it up and ready for the next trade. 

The brother with the green shirt is Daniel, a master painter. He really knew how to to patiently teach us what we needed to learn. Daniel is part of the CCR North. Sevrine, in the middle, is a local volunteer who kindly took me to the train station at the day's end.   

The Hall seats about 200 people including the space alloted for the language groups and second school. The congregation voted on the choice of decoration and colors. The French love wall paper and the textures were really nicely done.

The Welcome wagon

This is the train station at Villiers le Bel, direction Paris-St.Ouen. We arrive when it's dark and leave when it's dark. Eh...its winter!