Conference!

We arrived in Oudtshoorn for the Rotary District Conference yesterday morning and the past 24 hours have been like a giant reunion! We’ve really enjoyed seeing so many of our previous hosts, other Rotarian friends and of course, our German GSE buddies. I’ve even surprised myself with remembering most of their names! However, I’m most looking forward to seeing the returning South African team that has been in Arizona while we have been here. They should be arriving soon.

Last night after the opening reception and mayoral welcome, we went off with folks from the Newlands Rotary Club for a braai back at their guest houses. The food was AMAZING of course and they even had a chocolate fountain for dessert! The Newlands club have nearly 30 people attending the conference. They are such a fun club and made us feel like we are really a part of them. A special “shout out” to Biffy for being one of our favorite people from our whole trip!

Morning came WAY too soon today after only a few hours of sleep last night. We were expected at breakfast at 7:30 and then transported to the conference site. After some more meeting and greeting this AM, the team (sans Randy who needed to be at the conference meetings today) took off for a café to do some more work on our presentation. We’ve got to summarize our experience in 15 minutes! However, I think we have developed a great tribute to our hosts that shares a good overview of our trip. I’m looking forward to giving our presentation on Sunday. Today we’ll watch the German GSE teams (both incoming and outgoing) give their presentations. I’m looking forward to see how they express their experience as well.

Tonight will be the District Governor’s party which has a “Black & White” theme. We’re supposed to come in “costume.” We didn’t really know about this party before we packed for this trip, but I think we’ll manage to pull something fashionable together from the limited contents of our suitcases. J

After our presentation tomorrow, we’ll be heading back to Cape Town for our final night in South Africa. And then we’ll begin our approximately 36 hour journey home. It will be comforting to be back in familiar surroundings, but I think I speak for all of us that we will return home changed. We have seen and done so much in four short weeks. It will be difficult to share and summarize this experience with our friends and family when we return. But I hope that this blog will have provided a small glimpse into this amazing journey and appreciate everyone who cared enough to follow along and share a part of it with me.