26 Adjaratou

Adjaratou. 17 years old. Ivorian. | “I had never seen a man who cooks and cleans!” exclaims Adjaratou. The young girl has discovered the daily life of a French family: for the past six months, Adja has been living alternately with Chenda and Gregory and with another family as part of the Accueillons (welcome) scheme developed by Doctors Without Borders and the organization Utopia 56 in order to provide host families to young foreigners who have not been recognized as minors by the French administration. Paloma, 4 years old, left Adjaratou her room. Her older sister, Lola, 12, helps Adja with her French lessons, while the young Ivorian girl teaches the two girls her mother tongue, dioula. Chenda remembers sharing her room too. That was forty years ago, with her aunt Risey. Bunath, Chenda’s father, welcomed Risey who was fleeing Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge regime. “I was 6 years old,” recalls Chenda. “I was learning to read and Risey, who was 20, was learning French with a small manual. I still remember the pictures we looked at together.” Chenda now sees the same close relationship between her daughters and the young Adjaratou. Bunath is now 76 years old. In the house, everyone calls him “grandpa.” | Saint-Denis, France. 2019.