I arrived in Quinson on 1st August 2007 in a beaten-up, dirty, white transit.  The van was heavily laden with as much as I could bring from my home city of Bristol in England.  Possessions ranging from children’s bikes to wooden tables, lava lamps to chainsaw oil, computer equipment to our beloved two cats, Lenny and Larry.  We arrived on the Wednesday, just after lunchtime and I had left English soil behind me on the Monday.  The journey had taken us two and half days to reach our destination in the South of France.  Why so long?  Well, the maximum speed limit at which we could travel down the French autoroute was fifty miles per hour.  This immense handicap was due to the amount of stuff crammed into my humble steed, otherwise known as the transit.

Quinson, where I have now lived for ten months, is situated just inside the department 04 (Alpes de Haute Provence).  Throw a stone as far as you can in a southerly direction and it will land in the department 83 (The Var).  The village is located at the end of a valley in a rocky, hilled basin.  The river Verdon exposes itself from the spectacular Gorge du Verdon for half a kilometre just in front of Quinson.  It is a striking blue-green, reminiscent of the Carribbean and provides water for Quinson’s many fountains.

Quinson is a regular Provencal village, but what sets it apart from other Provencal villages is its prehistoric museum, its prehistoric village and an international school.  The museum and prehistoric village draw on Quinson’s rich prehistoric past.  The prehistoric village on the banks of the Verdon was painstakingly recreated by a local volunteer organisation.  The prehistoric museum has a futuristic, Norman Foster designed building which houses fossils and prehistoric man artefacts, as well as a full size model of a woolly mammoth and a Yeti.

Now to the international school, known in full as the Olive Tree International School.  The school was set up by Sally Street in 2005 to cater for children who have specific learning needs, for example dyslexia or for children who simply do not perform well in mainstream schools.  This school is now where I work.  I teach photography, horticulture, biology and conservation.

The conservation project that the school is involved with is a global project linked up with over four hundred schools worldwide through an online project called ENO.  All the schools follow the same programmes, and students and teachers from the participating schools can communicate with each other through the web, comparing notes and ideas.  This project is how I came into contact with Rajiv Srivastava from the Indian Public School, a school not based far from Delhi which brings me to the story I wish to tell.  This is a story of how a little piece of India came to a remote part of Provence for a couple of days and the lives it affected.

It all started with an email, as most things do these days.  ’Can we come and visit you’ it said, ’We will be in Paris for a couple of days and would love to come and see what you do’.  How intriguing. I replied that The Olive Tree School would be honoured to spend some time with a school from another country.  Rajiv had found out about us from the ENO website and thought he would like to visit us in Provence.
 
We set  a date and a program and it was agreed that I would collect them from the train station at Aix-en-Provence. Rajiv and his three students, Ranak 15 years old, Priyant 13 and Sameed 12, were waiting for me at the station looking tired after their journey from Paris but pleased that I had arrived to collect them. We sped back to Quinson in the school's mini bus arriving back just before midnight.  Everyone quickly went to bed, tired and glad to be in bed.

The next morning dawned and what a sweet Thursday it was to be.  The plan was a light breakfast, make a picnic and head down to the river to meet up with our sports teacher, Delphine Philip.  Delphine had kindly arranged for us to go canoeing through the gorge.  After canoeing, there would be a bit of free time for everybody and then our big party.  I had arranged a party at the small community room to celebrate the two schools coming together and to create a chance for the local people in Quinson to meet our new friends.  I made posters and plastered them all around the village in the hope that the party would be well-supported.

Our canoeing trek up the Gorge du Verdon was amazing.  Although it was only April the weather was warm, slightly cloudy, but nice.  The Gorge was empty of tourists, so we had the place practically to ourselves, except for a couple of fishermen, who looked most put out when the students from both schools decided to take a swim and enjoy the natural surroundings, despite the cold water.  They gleefully leapt from the peripheral rocks, their joyful screams echoing around the gorge breaking the silence.  As a teacher, to watch these jubilant scenes was very satisfying.  It was hard to keep the smiles from our faces, a sweet moment on our sweet Thursday.

We picnicked and canoed home, slowly, but happily.  It was four in the afternoon and the evenings party began at seven thirty.  The students had their free time and the teachers began to prepare for the party.  Just before the preparation began I managed to have a chat with Sally Heany, the Head (and my boss) about the day and the coming party,  whilst she was getting ready with her three year old daughter, Isobel.

“About having the school from India here, I think it’s a fantastic experience, for their students and for our students, to meet people from other places in the world and also to find out that they have a great deal in common, even though they are from different cultures and different continents.  I am very happy because being a small school in a village we benefit, and I am happy because they will benefit from being in the village as well."

I asked Sally how it made her feel entertaining a school from India, visiting the school that she had created. “Humble” she says laughing, “nd happy”, she says, clearly looking happy. It must be very satisfying I added “Yes, it’s been a lovely day."  I asked her how she felt about the party that night.  “Excited and so looking forward to sharing with the villagers our friendship that is beginning to strike up today and again sharing with the village something of The Olive Tree School."  When I asked her about a future for the two schools working together again she simply replied "I certainly hope so."   I leave Sally to carry on with her own preparations and decide I had better start making mine.
   
In the middle of preparing the small hall I spoke to Delpine Philip, The Olive Tree sports teacher and co-founder of the school about her feelings on the two schools coming together.  She told me that she thought it was “Very good, because in the program for ENO, it is a good way to open your mind and explain to children to see other countries and how they live, think and it’s important for them to meet other people the same age”  Delphine hangs another poster that one of the Olive Tree students has produced and continues.  “It is good for The Olive Tree School too, because we are in Quinson, in the middle of Provence and it is hard to meet people”.  I ask Delphine the same question that I posed to Sally, concerning how it makes her feel to be a co founder of the school and entertain another school from India, she replies  “It is very good progress” with a huge smile “ A lot of satisfaction, it is an opening for us because now many schools can come and visit us.  It is also important for us to visit other schools”.

It is a sunny warm evening and slowly people from the village start to turn up.  There is local wine to drink, traditional French food, including snails, which I avoided, and local olives, of which I probably ate too many.  There was a good feeling starting to spread to the evening: was it the wine or was it that the village had decided to support the event?  The latter mixed with the former.

As the sun was setting, I spoke to Rajiv on his feelings concerning the union of the two schools.  With a glass of rosé in his hand, villagers talking and laughing all around him and the students playing and talking around us he replies happily ”I have always believed that the more people meet, the more they get to know each other. Our two cultures are very, very different.  India has very old traditions, but I believe if we meet together, you will see that on the ground the reality is similar for all of us.  We have the same needs, we have the same feelings for our surroundings and the same interests.  My students are really happy to be here, it is a great experience in their life.  They will treasure these moments forever, more than anything else they have seen."   The swifts and house martins begin to chatter and swoop over our heads, and we watch them for a moment.  I ask Rajiv what his impressions are of The Olive Tree School.

“Oh it’s fantastic!” he begins enthusiastically.  “It’s a new experience for me.  I have always seen school as in our own system: lots of students and a falling curriculum  But your school is very different with a small number of kids with different needs.  It’s more like a family, where they are learning the ropes of life.  So, it’s very, very different and a revealing experience for us.” 
   
What about the French  wine I ask him?  “Ah, it’s lovely," he says holding up his glass to look at the wine more closely.  “I've always wanted to taste French wine, and now I’m here tasting it,” he says laughing uncontrollably.  “It is fabulous,” he concludes looking deep into his glass.  Rajiv finishes off by advising me that “I am taking some home to India for my friends and family to share all together. We shall drink it slowly, not gulp it down, just small sips at a time.  It’s lovely.”  Rajiv wanders back into the party.  He is offered some snails from our Drama teacher, Giselle.  Surprisingly he takes one, nods his head and starts to chat.

Time to approach some of the students to find out what they think.  I find Yerun, an Olive Tree student who is from Mexico.  I ask him how he feels about the schools coming together. “Very good !“ he exclaims.  He has a strong Mexican accent but speaks English well.  “They are very good people, good at canoeing.“ I hope more people come,” interrupts Denzyll, a strapping student of the Olive Tree who is stood behind Yerun. “Yeah, but more girls," complains Yerun, and then a chant begins amongst the students for more girls.  Normal teenage lads then.

I corner Denzyll, a student who was born in France but has English parents who work in the boating industry on the Cote d’Azur.  What does he feel about it.  “Yeah it has been really good and now I want to go to more places please." Some more students from both schools begin to gather around me, the ’More Girls’, chant obviously gathered interest. Ranak, from the Indian Public School speaks up in between giggles and declares that he is  “Loving it."  I ask him his impression of the Olive Tree School.  He starts to reply but some teasing begins from the other students and a friendly tug of war ensues.  Watching the interplay between the students you would not believe that the students had only met the previous day.  I smile to myself as this gives me hope for the future, in a world where we focus on differences.  Eventually Ranak is left alone to finish what he was trying to say.  “I think The Olive Tree is doing a good job, and should continue to do it.”

I decide to talk to some of the villagers who had turned up.  For this I need my wife Anna to translate.  Incidentally she is The Olive Tree School’s French teacher.  We approach our lovely neighbours, Abel and Christian, and ask them what effect the Indian visit has on Quinson.  Abel ponders and replies, “It is a surprise to have the Indian students to visit.  We didn’t expect it and we did not expect people to visit from so far away.  We are delighted."  I speak to another villager, Elizabeth, who says “It is brilliant for Quinson.  We need to know that other things exist outside of Quinson.  It is better if people meet face-to-face rather than politicians all the time.” 

The villagers start to  talk about other things and  my questions get left by the wayside.  People begin to pack tables away and clear up.  The evening is ending and people start to leave.  A thoroughly educating day.  I guess that's how it should be, especially where schools are concerned.