ABC, Easy as 1-2-3

After what seemed like a very long summer, I'm done with the summer campaigns and summer camps and back to work.
Classes officially start September 14th, but these past two weeks, we've been canvassing the neighborhood where we'll be starting our newest group of alphebetization classes. It's been quite an experience.
We're already working in two locations--La Courneuve and Asnieres. La Courneuve is a little (or rather, A LOT) like a walk into Algeria or Morocco. The women walking around tend to be decked out in head scarves and long skirts, if not burkas. The shops all have signs in French and Arabic. Most restaurants and grocery stores boast hallal meats.
But now, we're starting in Telegraphe too, which is right in the heart of Paris--the 20th arrondissement. It's nothing like La Courneuve or even the more Westernized Asnieres. It's plain and simply Paris. So, trying to drum up interest has been challenging.
By canvassing, what I mean is that we're walking through the markets and in the parks and handing out invitations to our classes. We hand them off and say something like, "There'll be a class starting on the 14th where you can learn to read and write in French." And in La Courneuve and Asnieres, that would work. In Telegraphe, it's trickier. Usually the goal is to try and find the North Africans, because often (especially among the older generation) they haven't been to school and they jump at the chance to learn to read and write. But targeting and only walking up to people in head scarves is a little weird too. So, I've adopted the "invite everyone" tactic. I walk up to anyone, hand out an invitation, and say, "I don't know if you know anyone who's in need of literary classes, but we're starting some classes on the 14th." Usually, I get a raised eyebrow and a, "You know, I'm fine" in response. Questioning someone's literacy seems to be an offensive thing.
But despite how difficult this has proven to be, we've still had several people who have been really interested and promised to come.
Yesterday, we ran into a Kabyle woman on a park bench who had moved here with her husband several years ago. A mother of 9, she said she spends nearly all of her days on that park bench. "There's nothing else to do, and I don't want to sit at home and listen to my husband complain all day." She said they barely speak anymore and whatever he does say comes in one ear and goes out the other. In fact, she's become so bored with him that she travels between her 6 living children, staying a few weeks with each of them. In any case, despite how sad I find this situation, she said she'd be really interested in coming to the classes. She speaks French really well, but doesn't yet know how to read or write French.
So less than a week now. I'm ready for fall, I think. As sad as I am to see the summer go, I'm ready to get back to work.