CONTACT Weekly Bulletin of The Rotary Club of Essendon
President: Richard Lawrence ACN 0019046G Secretary: Tim Anderson Volume 73 Issue 48, 17th June Editor Cathy Nicou PO BOX 161 Essendon 3040
Date Event Venue
Tuesday, 17/6 No Lunch Meeting Saturday, 21/6 President’s Night Rupertswood Tuesday, 24/6 Lunch Meeting Pres. Richard Lawrence, the year in review Monday, 30/6 Change Over Board Meeting 7.30pm The Home of Pres. Richard & Jennifer Lawrence 15 Leslie Road NOT TO BE MISSED President’s Night ‘Black Tie & Diamonds’ Rupertswood, Sunbury FOR THOSE WHO LOVE THE PHILOSOPHY Saturday, 21 June, 2008 OF AMBIGUITY Pre Dinner Drinks at 7.00 Brumby’sBabes Relay for Life Fundraising Team pm Established 2001 Dinner at 7.30 pm The date is set. The wait Dress: Dinner Suits is over. $65 per head Mamma Mia! Join Brumby’s Babes for the premiere of Bus leaves Wings Away Travel, Rose Street, this fun packed movie Essendon at 6.30 pm, returns after the function. and help us in the fight against cancer $12 pp, bookings essential as only 48 can go by bus. Thursday July 10 at 7pm Michael Mahoney, 9335 1966 or 0407 502 825. Sun Theatre 8 Ballarat Street, Yarraville Cost: $25 per head includes movie and glass of sparkling wine Bookings Gaye Cariss 0409 120 919 Sue Condos 0402 071 766
It Was In and Out of Africa The flights were long and the drinks were even longer but our delegation of 11 delegates took to the skies and headed to Kenya with lots of expectation. Matt O'Brien was our "Leader of The Delegation" along with his able assistant David. Also travelling were Peter and Leigh Baker, Lisa and Alf Puglia, Pres King Richard and daughter Sarah, Michael Portelli, Glen Smith and friend Vera. Arriving in Nairobi it was a pleasant 20C and not a white face to be seen anywhere !
Tired and hungry Rotarians after a long flight to Nairobi.
The Kenyans are a friendly race and were happy to stop and talk about life and anything that happened to be on there mind. We all arrived on the Friday and were immediately into Rotary duties on the Saturday morning with the opening of the sanitation block at Embulbul Catholic School. We were told that the speeches could go on for 3-4 hours and we thought this was a bit of an tall story but true to form we started at 9-30am and the speeches FINALLY finished at 1-00 pm Pres King Richard having had a quiet snooze in the third hour of speeches with the Bishop (who only arrived for the last hour - smart thinking) blessing the new facility. Pres Richard, Pres Lucy, Matt, Geoff & Bros Laurie Opening of the Sanitation Block Embubul Secondary School.
The school is in its infancy but will be a great benefit to the poor community in the long term, afterwards we kicked a few footy's with the students and the AFL talent scouts have found a new recruiting region. We were then off to a Childrens' AIDS Center where the children receive a wonderful "live in" experience in a very positive environment. The children are mostly born with the disease and have never had a choice as to there health and wellbeing. The children performed a dance routine and showed us the horses, we played a bit of soccer and thru some boomerangs with them, looked thru there accommodation and we were all very impressed. - a great experience.
Sarah Lawrence with some of the AIDS children in Nairobi.
Sunday saw the shoppers head off to the local market for some hard bargaining and that evening we all enjoyed a cultural African dinner show which proved very meaty ! Leigh Baker enjoying some hard earned “Tusker” beer (or two) after a tough morning negotiating the Nairobi Markets.
Monday arrived and Matt and The Pres were requested to see the Minister for Internal Security at 8-30am so off they marched to Parliament House pursuing a land grab issue that had to be sorted out. The rest of the crew headed for Ruben a very large Slum area where their is no sewage, no water, and no roads and not much hope. The school in Ruben is a haven surrounded by a ghetto that is supposed to be where the local people live. The smell is enough to make you vomit and the area is full of diseases and unpleasantness, but for all of that the people are smiling and getting on with living as best they can.
We were escorted by plain clothed police men thru the slums of Ruben. Matt (in the hat) and Michael (with camera on the ready). Giving out lollies and biscuits to the school children was a great thrill and with 75 students per class with one teacher it was an amazing thing to see.
Lisa, Alf, Sarah and David O’Brien hand out lollies to children.
From Ruben we went to Kabirra another Slum area where one million people live under tin shacks in a valley that needs so much help, it is amazing to see that so much poverty exists in Africa and this is but one country ! That night we all attended the Rotary Club of Karen's weekly meeting where we were made very welcome with Pres Lucy from Karen R/C asking King Richard to be guest speaker for the night - on the night ! The next three days we all went on Safari at the Masai Mara National Reserve which was great fun and a fantastic experience seeing all the African animals up close especially from a hot air balloon ! Returning to Nairobi our 6 days were over and we headed for Dubai and Pres Richard and Sarah headed for Burma. We all came away richer for the experience and with much to think about for the future.
June 17th What does not kill me, makes me stronger. Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols, 1888 German philosopher (1844 - 1900)