Resto du Coeur

Today was my first day with Resto du Coeur, a local food-shelf type program. It commenced at 6:30, when we knocked on the door and the woman asked us if we were there to get food. Fortunately I got the gist of what she was saying and said that no, we were there to help. From that point on, things improved considerably. My friend J and I unpacked several boxes of clothes onto tables and then I started bagging up bread. All this time people trickled in and I got to introduce myself to them, en français, bien sûr! (in French, of course!). I must be adapting well to the culture, because kissing random women the age of my mother doesn't phase me anymore. Well, it isn't exactly kissing, but for an American it's close enough!
Anyway... after the bread I spent some time bagging carrots. A new man came in and asked me what my name was. This is always quite tricky because no matter how I pronounce it the French have to repeat it two or three times before they have made up their minds how they are going to say it. I always introduce myself as "Jean," but they try to call me "John" and never quite get there with the "J" sound.
Anyway, as this new man tried his hand at pronouncing it, he said, "Comme John Travolta, ou Kennedy!" I shrugged. Sure, why not? If he thinks I'm like John Travolta, the more power to me! Later another man came in and I introduced myself as "John, like Johnny Halliday."
Who, you ask, is Johnny Halliday? Despite the fact that nobody outside France knows who he is, within France Johnny Halliday is widely compared to Elvis and has a following nearly as fanatical. I thought that perhaps it would be more useful to associate myself with a well-known French musician rather than an American one. How wrong I was. The man who had just compared me to Travolta emphatically declared, "Non. Tu n'es pas comme Johnny Halliday." (No. You are not like Johnny Halliday.) Haha!! Ah, the French.
After that the people started coming for food. I was person #2 on a 2 person team handing out fruit and desserts. It was fun! I even did it by myself a couple of times when my partner was gone. It involved a ton of counting in French because each person who came had been allotted a certain number of points based on how many people were in their family and they chose which food they wanted to "purchase" with their points. Some things were worth 2, some worth 4, some worth 6. I got to chat a little with the people who came through, and a lot more with the other people who were working. It took them a little while to realize that I don't speak fantastic French. Three guys tried to talk to me at once, asking me about my soccer playing habits, and I don't think any of them got their questions answered correctly. After that they talked to me more slowly, and one at a time :-).
At one point a very pregnant woman came through the line. It must be noted that some, though not all, French people feel more liberated to voice what goes on inside their heads than the average American. So the woman who was working with me commented to this woman about her very large belly. The woman just kind of smiled and nodded. Then, as the woman was leaving, my coworker turned to me and said, in French, "Near the end of my pregnancy I could rest my glass on my belly, and I thought that was good. But she could put two glasses and a plate on her belly!" Well, I'm just glad that, whether she is eating for two or three, that woman got some food today.