Avia Collinder, Outlook Writer

Marie-Rose Lafleur of the French Embassy in Kingston. - Photos by Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

Who would prefer living in the slow-moving Caribbean to knocking intellects with the best in a Parisian university and enjoying the fashion and flair of Paris?

Those who dream of visiting, and even living in the French capital, may wonder about Marie-Rose Lafleur's decision to leave Paris for her parents' home in the Eastern Caribbean. They might wonder, too, about her choice of Jamaica, where crime is so high but where she has lived for the last year and a half.

Developing french culture

Employed by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in France, 37-year-old Madame Lafleur is director of Alliance Francaise de la Jamaique (the French Alliance of Jamaica). The alliance is a worldwide community of academic centres dedicated to the development of the French language and culture across the globe). With her lissome dancer's body and a formidable intellect, Marie-Rose is not only an educator, but a skilled performing artiste, and also the writer of two books on Caribbean Creole languages. She could have chosen to make fame and fortune anywhere.

The young woman thinks the country is a beautiful one, with people who possess the trademark warmth of all Caribbean peoples. She also enjoys the opportunity to use her artistic contacts to enrich the Jamaican French connection. Indisputably, she enjoys her latest posting.

Utilising contacts

Marie-Rose Lafleur has written two books on Caribbean French Creole.

A linguistics graduate of the Sorbonne and previously employed by the French Ministry to the Cultural Centre in South Africa and then Guadeloupe, Lafleur has been able to utilise the contacts made here to Jamaica's benefit.

Most recently, she invited film specialist Jean Mark Cesaire, grandson of the renowned Martiniquean writer, Aime Cesaire, to fly in and conduct training programmes in basic film-making. The films produced, she said, will be shown at the annual film festival put on by the Alliance Francaise in Kingston.

French films

The Francophone Film Festival in November features not only film from France but from the French Caribbean and other French-speaking nations across the globe, as well as Belgium and Switzerland.

"The way I work is to build up, creating so that those after can continue," she explains.

Under her supervision, the Alliance Francaise's library in Kingston has been equipped with DVDs and computers for French students who want access to more than textbooks.

Lafleur also oversees the classes in French which are offered to Jamaicans of all age.

The alliance, she notes, is also an examination centre with preparation classes for CXC students and a diploma programme in French offered to Jamaican professionals who need it.

Here in Jamaica she loves her job and the country as well.

"I like beautiful vegetation and there are lots of peaceful places in the country to relax, which is very important when you are stressed. The people are warm," she said, adding that the thing she dislikes the most is the violence.

"I will never get used to hearing gunshots. Last week on my way to Red Hills, I saw the police and heard gunshots minutes after I passed them. I knew people were dead. It is really difficult for me to deal with.

"I speak to a neighbour who tells me not to think about it or I will feel bad. But how can I not think about the families being destroyed?"

Vacation in guadeloupe

Marie-Rose is determined to return to Guadeloupe where she spent two weeks' vacation in April.

"I found it so peaceful. Just the fact that I can feel safe. Yes, we do have violence in Guadeloupe, but it is much less random."

She will remain the Caribbean, she says, because, "After Paris, I really prefer the island style of life."

The islands also appear to be the best place to write.

"I want to write again. Since coming here, I stopped my writing and I don't feel good about it."

Marie-Rose attended a writers' exhibition in Guadeloupe in April, where attendees kept asking her where was her new book. "I say, 'soon come' but the truth is I don't have enough time," she says with regret.

The writing is on the wall for the Alliance Francaise, where she has one more year to complete her contract.

While the educator has enjoyed her time there, something innate is telling her that it's time for something else.

Different story to tell

Currently pursuing a PhD in socio-linguistics at University La Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris, she will soon have a different story to tell, and maybe will write it herself.

Marie-Rose also loves to dance, stating that the best of her artistic performances were done in South Africa, where she tussled with the decision between becoming an academic or a performing artiste.

Her six-year-old daughter, Meya, loves to dance too.

She decided to stay with academics, but her experiences in South Africa, for two years, have been her most memorable and prompted her to search for her family origins.

"As a black woman, you need to know who you are," Marie-Rose declares. Her journey to self- knowledge has been circuitous, but she has enjoyed it all the way.