Up Close … with Philippe Belle, multi-talented teacher who has been victorious over diabetes |31 January 2017
‘There is a difference between a vocation and a profession’
A teacher by vocation as he says, Philippe Belle currently works as a Senior Education Officer, responsible for the Technical Vocational and Educational Training (TVET) programme. When I caught up with him in his office at Mont Fleuri on a Friday afternoon, he had just come in from a workshop with vocational teachers. By his first words, you feel the passion he has for his work and the real vocation he has developed as a vocational teacher.
“As its name shows, TVET is a very special programme which keeps me very busy. We are now at the beginning of the year; so in the sensitisation stage where we seek parents’ consent for their children’s participation, meet students at their respective schools, organise visits of professional centres which will intern them before finally posting them, while also doing the necessary paperwork. This process takes the whole of the first term,” he explained.
Mr Belle was indeed so busy, as he had to temporarily quit our conversation for a meeting with his director general which went on until the office closed at 4pm.
“Now we won’t have time to talk as I have to go to the market to buy some groceries for my family,” he told me after the end of week briefing.
Finally, the only time he had was between 7 and 8 in the evening, for as he told me, “I do not listen to the news bulletin in Creole on radio, but I make sure I watch the evening news on TV”.
Origins and professional life
I had always admired Mr Belle from far. And though I had to ensure I end the interview by the time limit, the afternoon and evening had once again proved how a passionate and family man he is. Our encounter would also confirm his strong catholic faith, artistic talent, taste for volunteerism and as a diabetes patient, his victory over the disease.
He refuses to reveal his age though affirms to be “way past 60” and rather says that he will go on as long as God gives him the strength: sign of his everlasting youth. A modest Mr Belle also did not wish to have a photograph of him published.
He rather recounts his youth and rich professional career as if writing his autobiography. This goes from his first steps as a supply teacher when he was only 17 years old, to a degree in Education Management from the Quebec Trois Rivières University and heading a programme in the Ministry of Education. His studies in French have visibly left francophone marks as he reminds me that his first name is written the French way. And, “l’homme propose Dieu dispose” he comments when things do not go as planned.
“I attended primary and secondary school at Anse Boileau up to Form 3 at the time. Then I did two years pre-teaching before starting my career as a supply teacher at Anse Royale, where I remained for another two years. I then resumed my studies at the Teacher Training College (TTC) before returning to Anse Boileau as a teacher. From then on I have occupied various posts – from primary teacher for three years on Silhouette Island to studies coordinator at Anse Royale and La Misère – and I have climbed the education echelon up to my present post,” he recalls.
Best and worse souvenirs
Mr Belle stopped formal teaching and moved to administration in 2003 after he had spent six years as head teacher of the Anse Royale Primary School. This he explains was because he had developed an allergy to white chalk which was causing him breathing problems, while he could not keep away from the classroom.
Among the vast experience acquired during the more than forty years he has spent in education, he has kept two most vivid souvenirs. The first is when in 1981 he decided to join the then National Youth Service (NYS) as an animator:
“With the NYS, I wanted to shift from traditional teaching to a more practical way of learning for the students. This is why I decided to work there as an animator and I started with its opening, on March 1, 1981. But as the institution was only in its creation phase, I did not get the opportunity to teach as I would have liked to and things did not work out as I had planned. I went back to formal teaching after only six months. But the NYS in itself was a very good idea to develop youth potential, offer them an integral education and render them autonomous.”
The second is unfortunately a sad episode of his career, while he was working in a centre for children with special needs:
“When I left NYS, the late Danielle de St. Jorre who was then principal secretary for Education asked me to take responsibility of a Reorientation Centre which was opening at La Bastille. The aim was to – with the help of a psychologist, social worker and other teachers – bring value back to secondary students with special needs before they join the NYS. I remember there was one boy who was very calm in general, but who could turn very violent if annoyed by others. Because of his character, I wanted to keep him for one more year before sending him to NYS. However, I had to bend to pressure from his mother and ministry officials who felt otherwise. One week after the guy had gone to NYS, I learnt that he had fatally wounded a fellow student.”
Mr Belle says that the lesson to be learnt from the tragic incident is that when you give a responsibility to someone, you must show confidence and trust towards the person.
“You can give advice, but you cannot take over,” he goes on to insist.
“As long as God gives me the strength to go on”
In spite of the challenges and the fact that teaching has become a more demanding job, Mr Belle has promised that he will continue until retirement, as education is his vocation.
“There is a difference between a vocation and a profession: A profession is a job whereas a vocation is a career which you never quit,” he emphasises.
While he also stresses on the importance of investing in the youth, giving them good education, counselling them as well as their parents and inculcating good values in them, he realistically admits that it is a collective job which he cannot do on his own.
A family and religious man with a taste for volunteerism
Married for 35 years with three children and two grand children, Mr Belle is a family man who still finds time for his hobbies and what he calls “the moral aspect of his life”.
He insists on spending quality time with his grand children, like when he took a grandson to La Digue. The way he explains their short vacation shows how attentive he is to the needs of his grand children who call him “Daddy”.
“He saw images of La Digue on television and told me that he had never been there. By those words I knew that he wanted to go there. So I put aside a small budget for us to be able to discover La Digue. And as he likes riding bicycles, he really enjoyed the week-end,” he recounts.
But his committed family life does not prevent Mr Belle from occasionally going fishing on the reefs and being active in the small La Salette Parish at Anse Louis where he lives. This permits him to practice his favourite hobby – singing: A passion which has brought him up to the National Choir.
While due to time constraints and other commitments he is no longer part of the national ensemble, he still sings in both the La Salette and Anse Boileau choirs. Surprisingly though, he reveals that he does not like listening to music. But how does he learn the songs he sings then? He answers that he rather learns partitions.
“If you listen to the audio version, you do not get the notes right. This is what causes distortions resulting in many people singing on false notes,” he says.
When he is not singing in the choir or helping in church, Mr Belle is still assisting his community in other ways. One of the best expressions of his taste for volunteerism is that he has been an electoral officer in his home district of Anse Boileau for all elections held since 2001. He was presiding officer for the two rounds of the presidential election in 2015 and the legislative election held last year.
“Politics exists since the existence of human hierarchy. As I am not a politician myself, I have decided to contribute in this way to the electoral and democratic process,” he says.
Victory over diabetes
Diabetes is known to be incurable and even deadly. But Mr Belle’s strict discipline has made him victorious over the disease, through a radical change of life style. His experience can serve as a perfect example for diabetes patients.
“I knew nothing about diabetes. I went to see a doctor as I was feeling unwell. Consequent blood tests revealed that my sugar level was 18.5 compared to the acceptable level of 7. This is how I was declared diabetic. But I followed the doctor’s advice and apart from taking the prescribed metformin, I decided to considerably reduce my sugar intake. This means that I stopped consuming things like rice, bread, juice and alcohol with high sugar concentration. Instead, I replaced my traditional diet with brown rice, brown bread and more vegetables, especially green ones. But this does not prevent me from having a glass of red wine and a beer from time to time,” he reveals.
The result he says has been outstanding, with his sugar level dropping to 6.5 after only two weeks and even to as low as 3.4 at one point. But was it easy to adapt to the new life style?
“It is easy as you must decide what you like most: Your life or delicacies? If you want to see the sun rise and set, you have to adapt with the realities of life,” is Mr Belle’s advice.
If we follow his guidance, life will surely be much better for many of us.
By Michel Savy