Yes, I am
actually translating an Enrique Iglesias song from English into French. But
there is a logical explanation for everything, and I have a few words to say in
my defense.
With some
people I met recently and who work at the NGO Bel Avenir, I spend the holiday
at the Toliara beach (Which, contrary to popular belief, does exist, but it’s a
1-hour walk from the city center). Bel Avenir’s work focuses on education and
supporting children and teens from disadvantaged families. For the beach day,
they take about 40 teenage girls and 2 blind boys. The kids come from the poor
families of the saline area, where children are mainly born to help with work
and girls commonly have to prostitute themselves from the moment they grow breasts.
We play
soccer at the beach, and, in spite of my more than doubtful expertise in this
field, I am pretty impressed with the skills of some of the girls. They train 2
or 3 times a week, and I can’t help but think of the movie “Bend it like
Beckham”, evaluating the likeliness of a talent scout coming to their quarter
and turning one of them into a star. I wouldn’t bet on it.
As we head
home in the afternoon, I walk with 18-year old Malala, who brought a small stereo. She is ambitious and determined to learn English, so she makes me
translate one song after the other, pausing the music after every line. Before
we part, I promise to have a written translation of her favourite song ready by
Friday for her to pick it up at WWF. So here I am, honouring my commitment.
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