Rain, collapse, poverty, grief and anger :

november, 5th, 2018

10:20

I'm in class, it's a rainy morning in Marseille. Message from mom : "a building has collapsed rue d aubagne but we're fine avoid the rue d aubagne it's blocked". My first reflex is to laugh, because of the absurdity of this message. Going back to class, I put my phone away and start thinking about something else.

18:12

I'm going home, and I start realising what is going on. In front of my doorstep, a huge light has been put to lighten up the remnants of the 65 and 67 rue d'Aubagne. A policeman looks at me suspiciously. "I live here" I say, and he lets me pass.

My street, all lights off.

The night of the 5th of November was very weird. Everyone was shocked, my neighbours kept coming to our house to talk about what happened and it lasted for almost a week, journalists coming to talk with my mother and my neighbour, our family watching the news every moment to learn more about what happened, seeing pictures of a street you take everyday destroyed, crashed. But in this tragedy, the fear and doubt were omnipresent. We were worried to hear the police ringing, telling us "You have one hour to take your stuff and leave", because no one gave us any informations of what was going on.

Wenesday 7th November 

19:01

I'm going to a ceremony for the victims of the Rue d'Aubagne. There are childrens writing on pieces of paper "This is not the rain". Afterwards, we're going to the meeting about this matter, the rain is still pouring on us, and we are obliged to go into a small room to talk about it. At some point, someone yells "It's going to fall down here too!" and I start panicking, but someone reassures me :"it's just a joke". Lot's of people are talking, anger, sadness, are heard into their voices.

Since this event, small details have entered my life. Waking up at 6:30am every morning to go to school and see debris and remains of furnitures; going back home at night sometimes and arresting at 3am to light up some candles; following every new piece of the investigation, from the insurances deciding to remove from their contracts the protection againts building collapsing, to the authorities not telling the population that a huge part of my neighbourhood is flowed under the buildings and everything is still moving.

The marches and the anger raised by this event has provoked tensions and conflicts between the police and the protesters

I went to the "Marche de la colère" and took some pictures :

If you want to know more about this important matter, here is an article in English about it https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/world/europe/france-marseille-building-collapse.html