Scribe: Joan Peggs
Greeters: Members, visiting Rotarians and visitors
were warmly welcomed by Lynne Murray and Sandy Currie. President Jim has also playing 'greeter' for a short
time!!
Cashier George was eager to relieve you of
$21 – in exchange for a green ticket
If you gave Naida $1 or $2 she gave you the appropriate number
of 50/50 tickets in return – and you hoped one was the lucky one.
If you were fortunate, you remembered to
'sign in' to ensure Lynne would register your attendance.
Lots of conversation enlivened the David Foster Foundation Theatre until
President Jim – MC for the first time this year (he was actually quite
competent!!) called the meeting to order at 12:15 pm. Reminding us that it is
World Understanding month, he acknowledged the important work of the many members
involved in overseas projects. He reflected on the presentation of last week
(Esther from APU in Malawi now attending Pearson College on a full scholarship)
and how our Club's support for this project has made such a difference in her
life and how she mentioned she is the hope of her family, her community and her country.
Lynne said grace, members were reminder to
allow the visitors to be first in line at the buffet table – fall in
behind!!! Lots of friendly chatter as
everyone 'obeyed the procedure' . A good meal of fresh bread, green salad,
great medley of sauteed vegetables (yellow beets, asparagus tips, carrots,
parsnips, grape tomatoes), mashed potatoes, roast beef and a nice warming soup.
Desserts were particularly appealing –
lots of chocolate – perhaps a carryover from Valentine's Day (suited the
bulletin scribe just fine!!)
MC President Jim gently asked for our
attention at 12:35 pm such that the meeting could carry on
Sandy Currie introduced the visitors.
Visiting Rotarians:
Patricia Feasey – Belleville, ON – Retired
(bet she is glad to be here with flowers rather than many feet of snow.)
Allan Neale – Victoria Club on a mentorship
visit with
Youssef Bounchid – Victoria Club – a
relatively new member of this club
Hillary Brown – Sidney By The Sea - Commercial Banking
Kara Jenne – Smithers, BC
Marjorie Armason – Gimli, MB – bet she is
also glad to be in Victoria!!
Visitors:
Bobby Schafer – guest of Hillary Brown – he
might join the club this time round!!
Luis Merino – guest of Pablo Diemecke
Jamie Hammond – guest of the club, guest
speaker
They were all greeted with a warm round of
applause.
Announcements:
- Janette gave further details on how to donate some of your Aeroplan air miles for the Mardi Gras live auction 'travel package' on 9 May - click HERE to donate because the target is 50,000 Aeroplan miles!
- Joan P – reminding us of the 110th birthday of RI on Monday February 23rd. END POLIO NOW light up at The Fairmont Empress Hotel, 6 – 9 pm. Also a social event – Curry Buffet in the Palm Court area - no host bar at 6 pm and buffet at 6:30 pm. $45/person
- Joan also advised that to date in 2015, only 7 cases of polio have been reported; all in Pakistan. Obviously Nigeria and Afghanistan are doing their utmost to eradicate the crippling disease. Come and celebrate – this might be the year that polio is 'on the out'!!
- Mary Canty gave an update on the Guatemala projects of John Snively and Jacqueline Mealing.
John's Report: "The general outline of the service is
changing/evolving rapidly. For starters, I am now focused on the north shore of
the lake in the villages of Tzununa (my home town), Jaibalito to the east and
San Marcos to the west. We may extend this to Santa Cruz as well in the coming
years. There is no dentist on the north shore to cover at least 20,000 people.
By focusing on this smaller area we will be much more effective in education
programs around diet/nutrition and hygiene. I have already been approached by 2
pre school teachers to come and examine/treat their children who are riddled
with rampant caries to the point of lifelong chronically compromised immune
systems and inability to speak/pronounce spanish words due to loss of teeth.
It's tragic, and I am being called to render a solution. There is a new
"Centro De Salud" being completed this month in Tzununa, the likes of
which are not to be found anywhere on the lake. It is amazing!! I have
submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Health that we establish a home base
community dental clinic there and store the clinic until my return in the fall.
This new vision will necessitate that I
spend more time in Guatemala in order to coordinate/collaborate with other
NGO's and officials to stem the rising tide of not only rampant dental disease
(diabetes too) but to re-educate the people to the value of diet/nutrition in
not only dental but overall health.
I will undoubtedly become the village
dentist and eventually the "north shore dentist". It will take time
for all this to unfold but it is "the right thing to do" and embraces
in totality the mantra "Service Above Self". I feel blessed.
Please pass along my heartfelt gratitude to the membership for their continued
support and I look forward to attending my first luncheon in late May. Hoping you will have plenty of grape juice
around for our Friday 'whinings'."
Follow Jacqueline and David Sheppard re scarves, water project,
trees, coming of age party and more on their club's Facebook Page Jacqueline includes some good photos with
the write ups.
Celebrations Master – Lori McLeod.
As Membership Chair Lori called up
Tom Croft and Barrie Mutter to receive their special pin for introducing a new
member to the club in the past year.
50/50: Many fines were levied as well as
members fining themselves or someone
else!!
Cory gave a sad $ due to the end of his 3
year CRD contract which ended recently.
The guest speaker drew the 50/50 ticket. He
slowly read out the winning number,
holding all in suspense as he withheld the last digit– it was won by the
'quiet' bulletin scribe. Black marble was drawn. $10.50 for the RI Foundation.
Guest Speaker:
President Jim called on Steve Sharlow to
introduce the guest speaker – Jamie Hammond – Aide-de- Camp to the Lieutenant Governor of BC, the Honourable Judith
Guichon. He confided that he applied for this position in a tent
in Kabul!
Jamie thanked all Rotary clubs for
assisting with the library for First Nations peoples – a project started by
Rotarian Blackie of the mainland. The Teen Centre at Oak Bay High School will
soon become a library. We are Building Bridges (a RI theme of a few years ago)
Jamie's first posting in Afghanistan was in
2002, a year in duration. He visited numerous times after this, accepting a
second posting in 2010 – 2011. Young Canadians in Afghanistan were
versatile, friendly (connecting well with villagers and communities). They were
there to assist in solving problems.
He stressed the importance of dispelling many myths regarding
Afghanistan:
It is all about one religion – it
is not. There are many religions in Afghanistan including Christianity
Not an important country – it
is. Lapis lazuli is a semi precious stone found there (Tut's tomb was covered in lapis
from Afghanistan; precious stones in the crown of Queen Elizabeth are from
Afghanistan).
Never been conquered outside the Russian occupation – it has been. Alexander The Great and Ghengis Khan invaded Afghanistan.
He spoke of huge challenges in mobility –
the terrain is not mobility friendly!! It is extremely mountainous in some areas but with other areas of flat, fertile plains. Many homes are built into the hillsides. There are 11 different ethnic groups within the
country. For the most part, they live together peacefully. The northern areas
of the country are the most peaceful. Kandahar and Kabul are statistically areas of high
violence although this could be ethnic violence as well as domestic violence.
Due to 30 years of violence and turmoil,
there has been a lack of education and a lack of a matriarchal focus. Historically, the majority of the younger population, particularly females, were not educated. Many police are
illiterate. The police tend to focus on fighting the Taliban rather than
providing the community with support in a typical police role. Historically, there has been much political unrest, and only in 2004 was there the first democratically elected head of state in Afghanistan. The most recent election, in 2014, elected a President from 2 front runners and there are also two vice-Presidents, all working together to improve the country. Mr. Hammond observed that whilst there is much turmoil in the country, Afghans go about their daily activities avoiding the areas of conflict.
There has been a great improvement in the
health of the Afghan population and there has been a great improvement in the
education level of the young, due to a huge increase in the number of
youth attending the schools which have been built. (By 2013 there were 10.5 million students attending schools in a country with a population of around 27.5 million people)
Mr. Hammond was thanked by Wynn Taylor and
'presented' with our club Rotary mug – someone went to fetch it!!
Meeting closed by President Jim
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