Day to Day and an Afternoon in the Archive

Until now, I’ve been working on the diary I posted about previously and taking care of the some more basic business. I finalized by bank account and took out insurance on the apartment and the things I have in it. I declined to take our “family insurance” which is a type of insurance that covers me in the event I break something on the street – a window or door – or harm someone else. When my landlord was explaining this to me it wasn’t computing and it still doesn’t. When I talked to my flat mate, AS, he was perplexed by it, too. “Back home, you break a window,” I said, “you just pay for it.” He nodded in agreement.

I also had a visit from the Brussels police. This was expected. See, all Belgians need to carry a national ID card at all times. This card contains a chip that has their info in it on where they live and the like. Foreigners who stay for more than three months – that is not tourists – need a national ID card as well.

Part of the process involves a police officer coming to your door, checking to see if your name is on the bell or mailbox, and then coming inside to inspect that you really do live there. “They do this for Belgians” is a refrain I keep hearing from anyone I talk to about this. Anyway, I happened to be home. This is good, because if not they would leave a note and then come back at an appointed time, thus delaying the process. As it is, I have to wait until 21 October to go back to Saint-Gilles town hall to put in the formal application. And, oh yea, pay 30 Euros on top of the 7.50 I already paid just to start the process.

Anyway, the cop was nice enough. We trucked up the 83 stairs and he asked me the basic questions: “do you live alone,” “how long have you lived here,” “who lives across the hall” and the like. After all that, he gave me the form and we headed out. “Do you have a lot of these to do,” I asked. In reply he opened the binder he had and flipped through at least 50 of the same looking forms that he just gave me.

I just don’t know if this is the best use of the police force. It’s a little like seeing CT police at construction sites, just sitting in their cars with their lights one. I guess home inspection is a reasonable activity for police (if, as an American, a little odd to have a police officer inspect my home), but I can’t help but think this poor guy has better things to do with his time (and gun strapped to his belt) thank check up on people.

This afternoon I spent it in the archive. Not the library like I did last week, but the archive itself. It’s a nice room, nicer than the Hoover Archive with a modern feel, though I think the chairs are form Ikea so they look nice, but aren’t necessarily the most comfortable.

I was determined to navigate the ordering of documents myself and did well. I figured out the computer system by trial and error and am now waiting for the documents to arrive….(I’m writing this post as I wait.)

I’m interested to see how they organize their material. According to their finding aid the material I ordered is “1 chemise” which means “shirt” in its literal translation. I’m assuming they mean folder, but I’m not sure. I only ordered two items – we can order up to five – so I may go through these quickly or not. I also don’t know if they are in English or in French. These are the records of the CRB, but in the Belgian archive. We’ll see soon enough.

So, the documents came and, sure enough, they are in one big folder. Well, it’s not really a folder, more of a big piece of paper folded over on itself to hold about 6 to 8 inches of material. I have the feeling that no one has really looked at this stuff in a long while. The finding aid was begun in 1927 and then finished in 2000.

It’s a mixture of French and English in this first folder – again these are CRB records. Some documents are not useful, but I did find an 18 page typed (with lots of handwritten notes) transcript of a July 1915 American delegate’s meeting in Brussels with Hoover present. This document has a lot of themes I want to discuss, power, national culture, conflict, sympathy, and the like. It discusses discussing changes to the delegates role
and a lot of good stuff on what kind of authority and power ("executive" or just plain "advisory") the Americans should have, complaints over why the Belgians won't listen or follow the rules (some say it's their "national character" some say it's because "the mayor wants to get re-elected" and they all have to live with each other during and after the war), and why one CRB's province is better run than an others. (I got the sense of some internal CRB pride.)

The language is free and frank and there is certainly a good deal of difference of opinion between the delegates based on their particular experiences in their province. I don’t know who took the minutes, but they are good in some places and incomplete in others. Some spots just have …….. in place of words. I will keep my eyes open for an other document like this, but I doubt I’ll find it. I never came across anything like this in the US. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’s no there, but I’m glad I found it here!