A Visit to the Parish Youth Centre

Fr. Michel asked me to go over to the parish youth centre, where he was going to set up a pool table. The previous day he’d set up a ping-pong table, which, like the pool table had been sitting in a box, for some time. He got some of the young men to carry the table over to the area where it was to be set up and unboxed it. It had not gone unused during its time in the box: It served admirably as a rat’s nest (whose desiccated remains were present), as a lair for lizards, and a shelter for spiders.
After finding the right-sized spanners, they realized there was a slope — hard to play pool with such a slope. I’d noted that the bottoms of the legs were adjustable and started on my way to show them how to do this, having done the same recently with a rocking table at a restaurant. Michel, however, realized already that the screw that effected the adjustment was close to its end and cautioned me to stop. “We will take care of it in the African way.” He said this very matter-of-factly. It was however probably the most important thing I’ve learned so far, and on the way back home I told him so.
I will have answers, I will have proposals and suggestions during my time here, but these will have to be offered with some humility. Bricolage is a French term made famous by Lévi-Strauss; it is the artistic adeptness of inventing new use of material for something other than for what it was designed. I mentioned this to Michel, and he agreed that this is exactly the “African way,” making do with what is at hand.
On the way home I thanked him. He was afraid that he had offended me when I brought it up, but quite the opposite, quite the opposite.