From the Pen of the President....
There is much happening
nationally and internationally that may well be worrying us. That is why it is so important to look
for and recognise the good news and heart-warming aspects that are happening –
and there are plenty of those! It helps
all of us when these are recognised and shared verbally and on social media. Try it out when you feel that there is
nothing you can do about the situation that you feel is depressing. This will help to make others smile and make
both them and you feel better.
Costa Qually
President
Tailpiece
Talk happiness. The world is sad enough
without your
woes. No path is wholly rough;
look for places
that are smooth and clear,
and speak of
those, to rest the weary ear
of earth, so
hurt by one continuous strain
of human
discontent and grief and pain
(Excerpt from the poem “Optimism” by Ella
Wheeler)
Last Friday....
....was a Zoom meeting that saw better attendance figures with 20 members logging on and we welcomed two guests, David Craik from the Rotary Club of Seven Oaks in the UK, visiting in S.A., and a fellow club member Heather-Jane Ozanne, who joined us from the UK. She briefly introduced herself. She is the CEO of the charitable organization Spirit of Peace, and is very involved in various peace building programs, mainly in the Middle East having lived for a time in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. She enjoys local and global connections and was therefore keen to link up with our club.
It was then Sybille's turn to share some of her travel adventures with the club. She had taken two years out of her professional life in 2014/15 to travel solo and on a shoestring through India and South East Asia and then ventured to South America.
A trip up the Amazon was very much on her bucket list, and she really wanted to experience the essence of the Amazon and therefore decided to take the slow boat from the Atlantic coastal town of Belem all the way to the 2 million strong city of Manaus, 1500 km upstream.
The Rio Amazonas is the largest river by discharge volume of water in the world, is about 6 650 km in length and occupies 35% of the South American continent.
The trip to Manaus took 6 days, and it gave Sybille a lot of time to observe life along this mighty river which was at its fullest as it was towards the end of the rainy period.
After a few days in the bustling city of Manaus Sybille had the opportunity of going deep into the hot and humid Amazonian jungle with its abundance of "critters".
To leave the Amazon and with that Brazil Sybille braved a 36 hour trip on a river taxi which took her from Manaus to the border town of Tabatinga, where she walked across the border to Leticia in Colombia from where she then flew on to the capital Bogota.
Fundraising and Fellowship...
Our fundraising queen Sonja Hood, knowing how starved we all are for fellowship, and not to let a good opportunity for fundraising slip past, organized a fun evening of skittles at the Swiss Club in Vorna Valley. R120 bought you entrance to the function plus one raffle ticket to win either a booze hamper or a chocolate hamper. It goes without saying that many more raffle tickets were sold throughout the evening, and a healthy sum of money was raised.
Sybille was the lucky winner of the chocolate hamper.
Please keep our next BIG Fundraiser in mind, another exciting quiz evening taking place on the 25th of May at Parkview Golf Club.
This Friday....
...we welcome Helene Bramwell from Rotary Club New Dawn, who will expand on a project she is passionate about.
She will present to us in person at Wanderers, and if you cannot make it in person, there will also be a Zoom link.
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