Sunday, May 9th was a transition day for the group. We were leaving out hosts in Toulon and heading to Hyeres and Sollies. It was difficult to leave Alain and Danni. They showed me such hospitality and kindness; and Alain was sort of like a second father to me. Even though we did not speak the same language I felt that we were connected and I am incredibly impressed with his work at SAMU Sociale. We took it easy in the morning (i.e. we slept in), and headed off to Lotto. What is Lotto you say? Well it is BINGO of course! This specific Lotto was organized by Rotary to benefit SAMU.
Over 700 people attended the event and the club expected to take in approximately 10,000 euros for SAMU. Now, if you have ever played Bingo, you know that they draw a ball with a number on it and then read out the number to the players. This is fine and dandy except, that they were reading out the numbers in French so Dave gave us a crash course on numbers. For example, one = un, two = deux, three = trios, four = quatre, five = cinq, six = six, seven = sept, eight = huit, nine = neuf, and ten = dix. There is some repetition but go ahead and try to do that up to 90 on our Bingo cards. As you may have expected, there were a few problems for a team that had just learned to count to 90. In what I have begun to understand is true form for the French, a group of five or so women that had nothing to do with Rotary came to our aid. They were in the hall to play Lotto and had never met us but instead of leaving us to our own devices they separated and sat between each of us so they could make sure we caught all the numbers and played the game correctly. To top if off, one of the women won a gift basket (by the way, the top prize was a trip to morocco) and she gave it to us as a gift. I will never forget this wonderful experience of playing Lotto.
We bid farewell to Bertrand, our wonderful chauffeur for the week and everyone else and headed out for the next adventure. David and I were staying with Remi and Sylvie again for a few days and later that evening we were treated to a wonderful meal by Christian, the president of the Rotary club Sollies Vallee du Gapeau.
