Rotary GSE to South Africa 2009

 

In the past several days since my last post, we have continued to have a variety of professional, cultural, and social exchange opportunities here in South Africa, this time hosted by the Helderberg Basin Rotary clubs. I was hosted by Peter from the Gordon's Bay club. I was also excited to have a team member from the German team also staying at the same place. We had found out that the German team was just downstairs from us when we were at Newlands but didn't have the opportunity to meet them that day. The group is a lot of fun, and having a combined double exchange meant being able to share the experience with even more people! It's interesting seeing the perspectives of other visitors. We are all having a blast, seeing the sights, visiting with people in areas relating to our profession (my most recent professional visit, as well as my German room mate Arne, was to an environmental planner, that is working on community based improvement efforts in the townships - if you thought that planning for well-funded and extensively planned development efforts was difficult in Arizona or elsewhere on raw land, try cramming hundreds of thousands of people into squalid conditions, and then trying to renovate with literally dozens of constituent groups to please surrounding even the tiniest change in the area after it has developed very organically and out of the blood, sweat and tears of a generation of South Africans living in the township. The challenge is to create a plan that results in the highest aspiration, rather than the lowest common denominator...

Just yesterday we were brought to the small seaside town of Hermanus, and the local Rotarians actually left us - unattended - as a team in a home near the town's center. It is very much a quaint and pleasant little town, and a place that I know my wife would enjoy thoroughly with its laid-back atmosphere! Yesterday was "Freedom Day" in South Africa, a public holiday that means different things to different people in the country. For us, it was the first opportunity to be able to choose our own location for dining, to

I think that part of the charm of this town, is that it reminds us a lot of home for better or worse. We're sitting in "Mugg & Bean" Coffee Co. which is very starbucks-esque with inexpensive Wi-Fi, drinking coffee tea lemonade or whatever else we want. For the first time in two weeks, tonight we have nowhere to go, no name tag, no presentation to give...  just us, as a team for this entire day, doing as much or as little as we like. I'm looking forward to getting back to our activities, but truly appreciate the opportunity to un-wind a little bit and be able to process our experiences of the trip, the good, the bad, the funny, the quirky, and share those experiences with our team. It's so great having a team that we can feel a level of comfort, trust, honesty even if we don't agree with each other fully, and at the same are able to have a lighthearted mood even when we're talking about very serious and important matters...

We're also listening and singing along to Christmas carols on the coffee place's music system... how funny!!! I guess it really is Christmas in April...

Miss everyone, and thanks for reading and supporting this great trip --

LOTS more pictures on the website,http://photobucket.com/gsesouthafrica

BJ

 


Comments

Francoise

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:33:42

Hi, B.J.
You are the "editor in chief", so, let me tell you that Randy needs your help once again, because his last page is not on line!But you know, he is very old and sometimes, his mind is not working very well!
So thank you for him!
i'm joking of course( for his mind, not for his page!)

 

BJ Cordova

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:58:23

Hi Francoise, I have no clue what he did to the page but it works now...!!!

-Editor in Chief and Technology Joker

 



Leave a Reply