This story is about the beginning of my Rotary Scholarship in France in the fall of 1987. It was an easy connection because the path had been created by Rotary International. There were people who were eager to go to France (like me) and people eager to welcome people to France. The visitor and the host were connected through Rotary International. Both were eager to meet the other, so introductions were pretty smooth.
When I was the visitor in this case, I had just graduated from college. I was eager but nervous. My French was really iffy, but I loved the language and was dying to practice it. I had arrived in Paris and then took the train to Montpellier. Most of the way, I went on the TGV the French "very fast train." Really impressive. And it was so different than anything I had seen in the States. Why didn't we have anything like that . . . ? Don't get me started.
Anyway, when I arrived there, I got to meet my Rotary "parent," as the French Rotarians liked to call those who were in charge of helping out newcomers like me. It was Jean Mateu, a French businessman in his 60s and one of the kindest people I have ever known.
More on Jean Mateu in the next post.
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