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Spent a week in Belize, South America, and here is what it is all about.  Our Rotary District 5370 (60 Rotary Clubs) has a project to assist with schooling here.  The whole program is described here but in a nut shell the District and individual clubs want to improve schooling.

These children to the left were in a small school of 80 students in a village 2 hours off the pavement near the Guatemala border.   The Rotary Club of Camrose adopted them.   When this happens the principal needs to fill out a needs assessment and the club then tries to fill those needs.  This time the club included a few members in our trip so they brought some books and equipment and other items the principal asked for. The kids were very pleasant and of course grateful.

We visited around 6 schools or so…  and they varied greatly in needs and where they were presently at.  Some had power, some didn’t.  Some had internet, some didn’t.

The program also meets with the principals of schools – around 16 this time.  They were given refurbished netbooks to get some online training going for staff of the schools and students.  Local Rotarians assisted as well.

Two people I met that were quite inspirational were Sheree and Aki Fukai.  They are Americans, retired, and now living in the area.    Briefly, they wanted to devote their time to improving the community where they can.  So they work

with Rotary and other organizations for the betterment of the area.   They said they first came to Belize on a cruise ship and fell in love with the area.  They now have a home here and are full-time working on community programs.   very cool,  very interesting people.

Of course trips like  this can’t be all work (?) and no play.  We spent the last few days in Caye Caulker, a small island.  Did some snorkeling and relaxing before we head back.

We traveled with the Chair (Jackie Hobal) and a team from Edmonton,  Athabasca and Camrose who also mixed in a bit of down time as well.     Most of the team were either educators and or Rotarians.    Like any project its good to visit the area you are working with to ensure all is on track.

Belize is a country of 300,000 people,  the largest city is Belize – at 50,000.  While there are a few languages the signage is all English and it is very, very common.   The country is a member of the commonwealth so we share that.  Like any Central American country they have their challenges for sure.   But their children smile and their way of life is what they are comfortable with.   It may be different from ours – but it sure doesn’t mean it’s necessarily worse – just different. It has been fun to meet the school administrations and see how we can assist.

Sunset at Caye Caulker

Jan and I went to Jasper for the weekend.   Every year we go and take Becky and Hayden –  Becky works with me at Wave Media.  We stayed at the Jasper Inn.  Shawnee is the General Manager and President Elect of her Rotary Club.  We had a great time brain storming with Shawnee and President Sue – and Gerry Lavasseur.  Gerry owns the Inn, and is the Charter President Rotary Club of Spruce Grove.   It was fun hearing Gerry’s ideas and marrying them with the enthusiasm of Sue and Shawnee’s.

Kevin and Anna at Grande Cache on the way to Jasper

We also brought along Anna.  Anna is a English Second Language student from Osaka,  Japan. She is here for 3 months at our local College.   Karly met her at the library.    She doesn’t get a  lot of opportunities to travel.. and she said she dreamed of seeing the Rocky Mountains,  so we brought her along!   Her English is just fair, so there was a lot of “oohhh” and “aaaawww”.    It sure is fun showing off things we take for granted to a foreigner.

On the way back we picked up a hitch if you can believe it.  We haven’t done that for decades!   But it was a gal with a “Grande Prairie” sign on the Yellowhead Highway.   She looked harmless.    She just returned from Africa, and is a student from Toronto.  She is hitching to Yukon!  “Seeing the world.”  Very pleasant.  We dropped her off in Grande Prairie and she was off.  Very nice chatting with her,  hearing about her hitch hiking travels through Africa.  Wow,  brave.  She said she rarely was uncomfortable and never in danger in her travels.  it sure made for a fun 3 hours of driving for the 3 of us.

So,  two young people who made a good weekend – great.

When we dropped off Anna she said that seeing Jasper made for the “BEST DAY EVER IN CANADA! ” That sure was nice to hear.  She goes home December, 18 with memories of Jasper, Alberta in her mind forever.

Next week Jan and I attend “District Governor training” in Boston.  We were invited to Connie and Bernie Gervanski’s home, beforehand.  Connie is also DG same time as me.   They live on New York’s Long Island in  a town called South Jamesport NY.  A very pretty rural area.   Today we are going into NY city.  The past few days Connie and Bernie showed us around.. yesterday we went for a boat ride on their very cool boat.  (sleeps 6!).  In this pic Bonnie and I are reading our “District Governor Manual”.  Yes indeed!

Monday we drive to Boston where DG Elects from my zone (around 30 of us) meet for 2 days of training.  later in the week is more general Rotary training.   In January every DG in the world meet in San Diego for a week of training.  (There are 535!)

It’s so much fun to meet with the fellow DG classmates over the past 2 years to compare notes.   Connie and I have been bouncing lots of ideas back and forth.  She has unique challenges compared to my District.  For instance she has 30 clubs, and a district that is 3 hours across.   Of course mine is 18 hours of driving across!  When she does her club visits (Each DG every year has to visit every club) she can go home every night.   Not so for me.

So its been fun comparing notes.  More fun next week in Boston!

First off – I’ll start off with the fact it wasn’t me who raised 250,000 dollars.  It was a huge effort of Rotarians, sponsors, staff  and community that made it happen.    I was hired as the Raffle Manager and steered the ship.  Or, maybe just ensured the ship stayed upright!

It all started last August when the Rotary Club of Grande Prairie took over the 13 year old Dream Home lottery from the local hospital foundation.   There was a bid process for the management of the event.  One of the keys was they wanted  a licensed Raffle Ticket Manager under Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission.  There are around a dozen in the province..  Jan and I are included in that.  So I was excited to take on the project.  We found a builder, a home and got started.   There is a year of tales to tell..  But will say it was one heck of a rush to sell over 1.3 million dollars in tickets.  3 weeks prior to the draw we were pretty stressed!  But the community bought in and bought tickets!  Some of the highlights I enjoyed were..

• Using facebook.   Over 600 followers joined us in the journey.   They commented, they asked, they participated.
• Keeping a photo gallery of the build.  Many positive comments as people followed along from fall to opening in May 2011.
• Working with the Rotarians.   Some days I think the Club is not as young as some would prefer – until I realize these senior members are the guys and gals with time, talent and expertise.  Many put hundreds of hours in.
  

  Rotary President Dennis Young and winner Howard McPherson hold Howard's winning ticket.

Working under the eyes of Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission was a real learning curve.  It’s good to know the public’s hard-earned dollars are in very good hands when they buy a  fundraising lottery ticket.    On facebook people asked tough questions.  “How can a winner win more than once?  Is this a sketchy operation?”    AGLC ensures all tickets are in the draw barrel, they ensure an accounting firm reconciles the tickets VRS dollars and every ticket is accounted for.  AGLC rightfully so insists rules are followed to the letter.  With this question, the answer is – AGLC regulations require if you have more than one different prize – your ticket goes back in the draw barrel for every draw.   If you give away LIKE prizes (say 25 gift cards all exact same) then your ticket does not go back in the draw barrel till the next DIFFERENT prize is drawn for.   So yes someone can win more than once if the prizes are differing.  Again – Gaming regulates all this.

In the end $250,000 was raised.  $50,000 for our local hospital foundation, and $200,000 for Rotary projects.   Many folks asked “Where does Rotary spend the dollars”…  So we put a page here with those details..

We gave away 500 prizes including the main prize of the million dollar home package to 78-year-old Howard McPherson – who is moving from his seniors home to a Dream Home!

We laughed, we cried, we learned.  We earned the community a quarter million.

Howard wants to move in as soon as possible.  Now the home is empty (except the furnishings that stay)  the cleaners have cleaned and a few touch-ups done.  The home is ready for its proud new owner, his kids and grand kids.  After a year of work by over 100 Rotarians, sponsors and staff – it’s kinda sad to see it all end.   Kind of.

A sunny day with Luiza and Jan. Peace River bridge in the background

Luiza is our inbound exchange student for 90 days.  She was in Tokyo when the earthquake hit and had to leave.  Grande Prairie Rotary Clubs let it be known we would accept any Brazilian exchange student that had to leave Japan, this after the Brazilian Rotarians accepted ANY exchange student that had to leave Japan, as well.

Luiza has been here for a few weeks and doing terrific.  I think because she has had a rare “second chance” to do a Rotary Youth Exchange – she has a fantastic attitude.  We are lucky to have her.   Luiza is 17 and attending high school here and will be here till early August.   She has one host family, I am her counselor.

Today we all went for a sunny day to Dunvegan Park near Fairview, Alberta.  It’s always so much fun to show off the area to foreign eyes.  Luiza asked “What’s that?”, pointing to a cement grain elevator so common on the prairies.  She says “Everything is so big in Canada”.

Jan and I are proud of the Rotary members in Grande Prairie that were so quick to accept a young person into their homes and lives when tragedy hit Japan.  We are enjoying Luiza so much we feel we are the lucky ones.

Every year 8000 young people travel the world with Rotary Youth Exchange,   We have a local web-site here if you or someone you know is interested.  The international info details are here.

Karly ready to go to Brazil.

Karly departed for Brazil today – 32 days since her return from Japan.  We (Mom and Dad) dropped her at the Grande Prairie airport just after lunch.    Karly will be in Brazil for 122 days, flying home late August.

In a true display of Rotarians working together – Karly is only able to complete her Youth Exchange year after Rotary members in Brazil offered to accept any exchange student that had to depart Japan early due to the earthquake.  We accepted and the rest is history.  To complete the story, the Rotary Club of Grande Prairie offered to take any Brazilian youth exchange students that had to leave Japan – Luiza will be here in early May!  Luiza will be here for around 90 days.  The Grande Prairie Clubs (there are 3) offered to take more than one student. There were just a couple in Japan at the time, one accepted to come to Grande Prairie.   There was a  newspaper story done about the Brazil connection that explains it well.

I asked Karly if she was a little scared to go to Brazil.  “Nope”.   Anxious?   “Nope”. Worried?  “Nope”.  Sorry to miss the graduation ceremony of her class she left behind?  (It is next week!)  “Nope”.  She was really ready to go.

Karly’s home will be Belo Horizonte,  the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third-largest metropolitan area in the country and has a population of over 2.4 million, or almost 5.4 million in the official Metropolitan Area.

I asked Karly what was she hoping to get out of this journey – and she thought “language”.   She wants to put effort into  the Portuguese language.   She will have one host family in Brazil, a family that currently has a boy on youth exchange in Kamloops.

So from Grande Prairie to Japan, to Grande Prairie and now Brazil.  When she returns she will do her grade 12 (one year behind but oh, so wiser) at PWA High School Grande Prairie.

Who knows what Karly will come across in Brazil.  Who knows what adventures she will discover or what she will learn about her new country, her new home and about herself.  I know it will again be a steep learning curve, one she will be forever grateful for.

Someone said “From bad luck comes good luck”.  What ever you want to call it – Karly is very fortunate thanks to the work of Rotary members from  several parts of the world, and yes – some good luck, too.

Karly gets a hug at Grande Prairie Airport

I could not post on the blog about Karly and her Rotary Youth Exchange in Japan until now..  Now she is safe at home. The past 7 days have been, well – hard.  We are so grateful to have Karly home, yet so worried about what she left behind.   Host families,  host brothers and sisters, her Rotary Club, her school mates.  She was able to say good-bye to her host families and school principal, but not her friends or host Rotary Club.

Since August, 2010 Karly lived in Koriyama, Fukushima – 60 km’s away from the Fukushima power plant.  So when the earthquake hit we thought at first she would be staying, but it became obvious within a few days the danger from the plant was growing.

We are so thankful to Karly’s host dad.  I think he had enough to worry about – yet he drove for 7 hours from Koriyama to Tokyo using back roads, the main highways or trains were not an option.  After dropping Karly and another exchange student at the airport – Karly was airbound 4 hours later.  The other exchange student though didn’t leave for 24 hours.  Karly’s host dad refused to leave her side until she too was safe on the airplane.  He stayed with her another 24 hours in the airport.  He is our hero.

We have so many people to thank.   In Grande Prairie a complete stranger in the airport with he little daughter and husband  hugged Karly and started crying.   Rotarians were also heroes.  Three of the District Youth Exchange Team met Karly at the Edmonton airport and stayed with her for 3 or 4 hours during her lay over.     Before that many Rotarians from our area and elsewhere stood by with efforts and support.

District Youth Exchange members Wayne and Rhonda in Edmonton airport

Karly is doing great.  Yesterday she said she wanted to put efforts towards Japan fundraisers.  I know she will make this a positive where possible.  She is speaking for instance at an Interact (Rotary Club for youth) Charter Evening and Japanese fundraiser April 1 in Peace River.

Karly along with her Mom and Dad are pondering what the next 3 or 4 months holds before she attends grade 12 this fall.  (Youth Exchange years do not count education wise so she will be a year older and far wiser in grade 12 year).  She is thinking some studies,  some work and correspondence.  And, being a 17-year-old no doubt.

We have so many people to thank for their support.  It has changed our lives I know.   The Daily Herald Tribune did 2 stories.  Remo Zaccagna is an amazing writer with tact and care.

DHT March 17 Karly

DHT March 15 Karly

Part of the process of moving forward in life is sharing.  So thank you for allowing us that.

UPDATE:  Rotarians in Brazil offered to take any exchange student that had to leave Japan.  What an offer.  We have accepted and Karly departs April 18 for Brazil.  She will be there till August. 

See newspaper story here:  DHT April 14 Karly

In return Rotary Clubs in Grande Prairie offered to host Brazilian exchange students who had to return from Japan.  (There were a couple in Japan from Brazil).  One has accepted and Luiza should be in Grande Prairie by early May.

A family in the airport visits with Karly and discusses her ordeal. More tears.

Lets go home.

A stylish Goorin Bros. hat

I was at my favorite hat store in the world this week – Roberta’s Hats – on Douglas Street, Victoria, BC. There are many reasons I love them.  Here is another example of the excellent staff they have.   I walked in with a cup of coffee and I saw that sign that said “No drinks please”.  I thought “Oh gawd they’ll probably ask me to drink it outside”.   I actually sat it on their counter and said “Could you take care of this?’ .   “Of course”, they said.   I looked at hats for a bit and found my second Goorin Bros. hat.  Quite like it.   I took it to the till and the staff looked at my current hat (A dressier winter felt hat I quite like).   They immediately took some packing tape,  turned it backwards and dabbed my old hat to remove any lint or dust on it.   I guess they figure, this being a hat store – you can’t go wrong treating a customers’ hat well!   Gosh that was nice.  So I said “Gee you should put a new feather on it!”  And she grabbed a new red and blue feather set for the brim.  Truth be told I bought this hat from them a year or two ago.   I don’t know if they knew that or cared, they were just making their customer feel special.   I paid for my new hat and was about to go before she said “Oh, want me to top up your coffee?”  Wow.  Icing on the cake.   In this age of non-existent customer service why is some people like this hat shop just “get it” so well ?       So natural at it!  That’s why I say they are Canada’s Greatest Hat Shop.

(Hit the title link above to see the whole story) Well we did it.   Christmas in Cuba.  Jan and I went December 23 – January 2.   Our eldest, Catherine – met us in Toronto on the flights.  

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Vinales - Home Sweet Home

We then took a bus to the small town of Vinales, about three hours away.  Internet?  Yeah right.   Well, in one building they had it but it took too long so didn’t bother with it much.  Our hostess Gloria was a sweetheart.  I smoked a cigar on her roof while she made us supper. We ate lobster every night and she did a fantastic job with hearty, tasty meals!  Oh – we weren’t supposed to tell anyone it was lobster.  It was illegal for her to offer lobster.  She told us if anyone asked  – “chicken”!

When turned on, this doo hickey heated the shower water. We actually saw sparks!

She had a real enterprise happening with room for a few families.  We loved meeting a  family from France and enjoyed great conversation over meals.  The shower water was heated with a scary looking electrical device you flipped on while standing in the water.  Bedding was sparse but we sufficed.

We got hitched up with a local who took us for a day trip walk.  Little did we know it was 6 km’s to the caves, then 6 k’s back!   A tiring but cool day.   We hiked through tobacco farms and enjoyed some sugar cane rum and a freshly made cigar.

A local farmer rolled and showed us how to properly smoke a cigar. Then sold us a few.

The tobacco farmers had  a crank device they put sugar cane through to get the liquid out,  mixed some rum in  then offered us some in metal cups.  All this in a little shed in the field near some small mountains.   After we drank and enjoyed we realized they just put the cups down for the next gang of folks who wandered by, and let them sip from the same cups, too!   No running water here!

The shed where we enjoyed rum and sugar cane.

We hiked for a full day – 5 hours. After a few days here we hopped on the bus again and this time stayed in Old Havana.  We didn’t have lodging so we splurged and stayed by the town centre square.  A very chaotic, loud area.  We loved it.  The hotel was called “Ingleterra” and featured tall, tall ceilings, every room was dark.  Electricity must be expensive. Continue reading →