From the Pen of our President.....
Dear fellow Rotarians and friends,
It strikes me that there are times when people do good, make donations and spend time without getting appropriately thanked. Sometimes it may seem that your contribution is not appreciated, not acknowledged and you do not get direct thanks. Apologies and THANK YOU.
While on the subject – thank you to all those who sold blankets, bought blankets, donated towards blankets and had anything to do with the Club’s blanket drive – final figures pending!!
I heard today that the WHO has said that people who work long hours reduce their life expectancy by 20% - now that is scary!!
Worse than this though is a TED Talk I listened to about loneliness – not having meaningful relationships in your life and being lonely is seriously bad for your health. It is as bad as too much alcohol, too much smoking and being obese!! Take a listen Frientimacy: The 3 Requirements of All Healthy Friendships | Shasta Nelson | TEDxLaSierraUniversity - YouTube
So there’s a good reason to be a Rotarian, make new friends in Rotary and spend time having fun while being of service!!
It is getting colder – keep warm and stay healthy – nearly said ‘hug a friend’ but we are not encouraged to do that yet!!
Yours,
Ann
Last Friday.....
A short notice change in the Friday program put Sybille in the spotlight and she quickly had to put together her life story.
She has had a life that could probably fill a book, but for purposes of this newsletter let's keep it brief:
She and her twin sister Sabine were born in Windhoek, (then South West Africa now Namibia) to German speaking parents. Her sister Sonja was born a mere 13 months later. Sybille spent her first 7 years in Walvis Bay before moving to Cape Town where she attended the German School till matric.
She decided to spend a gap year in Germany, which eventually stretched out to nine years.
She did a few odd jobs and then decided to train as a nursing sister at the Bavarian Red Cross in Munich.
After her training she nursed for a further 3 years, but following a 6 month sabbatical on a kibbutz in Israel she made a life changing decision to return to South Africa and never nursed again.
Instead she used her knowledge of German to become a tour guide which took her to all parts of the country but her then husband (now ex-husband) was not happy that she spent so much time on the road, so she changed tack again and became a medical rep, which she hated and so was open to another change and joined Sanlam as an insurance agent, eventually going into brokering and qualifying as a Certified Financial Planner. She subsequently started her own financial services practice which she eventually sold in 2012, mainly because she wanted to realize her passion to travel the world.
On her 59th birthday in 2014 she boarded a plane to New Delhi and travelled solo for eight months through India, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Borneo and Nepal.
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| The Thar Desert in Rajastan, India and hiking to Laguna 69, 4600 m above sea level in the Andes, Peru |
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| The sun rising over the Annapurnas in Nepal and summiting Mount Kinabalu on Borneo |
No doubt Sybille has thousands of memorable pictures of her travel adventure, but these are the ones she felt she would like to share.
After spending a few months back in South Africa she headed for the continent to the left in 2015 and started her next travel adventure through Brazil, which took her on a 6 day trip on a rust bucket along the Amazon to Manaus, on to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and five months into her trip, just before she could make it to the bucket list Machu Picchu she broke her leg at the beginning of a 2 day hike into the Colca Canyon. And that, as she says, was that.
Home for surgery and a long arduous path to recovery, which took over 5 years and 7 surgeries. Today she is healed, she is able to walk 10 km on a Saturday morning and manages to push her own golf cart around the golf course.
She is a passionate Rotarian and her plan and dream is to travel to far flung places and connect with fellow Rotarians all over the World.
And maybe one day she might just write that book.
A Visit to the Humanitarian Centre.....
A few weeks ago President Ann and Sybille decided to take a drive to Bedfordview to visit the Humanitarian Centre.
It was a busy Thursday morning and a number of Germiston Rotary Anns were sorting linen and toiletry bottles they had received from Tsogo Sun, who donate all their old linen and hotel toiletries to the Centre.
You are able to collect linen items from the Centre for school sick bay rooms or homes in need. The request generally comes via a Rotary club and the recipient has to have a letter of introduction to be able to receive the goods.
For the past 13 years, the Rotary Clubs in Texas have been collecting educational and recreational books from schools, universities and many other sources and these are shipped to South Africa. Funds are raised by their Second Wind Foundation and the Humanitarian Distribution Centre of SA.This project allows people in Southern Africa access to free educational or recreational books. Free books are collected by school teachers, nursery school teachers, churches, prisons, government departments, orphanages and homes for the elderly and independent folks who just love reading!You are welcome to collect books from the centre. However, you need to have a letter from your local Rotary club inviting you to collect the books. We need to also have a letter from the organisation or school etc who the books will be for. The collectors will need to complete a form stating how many books were taken and who they are for. We will also need the ID number of the person collecting the books.
David Bradshaw had recently liaised with the Wonderland Christian School and had received this letter of thanks.
Good morning David.
Thank you for your support towards our Wonderland Christian School book drive. The Rotary's Humanitarian Division allowed us to select and get books. We managed to get over 430 reading books. On behalf of Wonderland Christian School, I would like to extend our gratitude to the Rotarians for according our growing school an opportunity to access the readers.
Stay Blessed.
The Community Services Committee is planning a further visit to explore to explore future library projects.
The Rosebank Club of Rosebank's good deeds do not go unnoticed.....
A young Caxtons journalist intern happened to come across a post on our Face Book page and contacted Sybille for an interview to elaborate on our involvement with the vegetable garden project for Charity Begins with Me.
Click into the link to read all about it.
This Friday....
Join us for our monthly Business Meeting
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