Wine tasting, cheetah petting and international sing-a-longs -

Wine tasting, cheetah petting and international sing-a-longs 04/27/2009

The past few days have been a well deserved mental break for the GSE Team. After two packed weeks of visiting Rotary projects, doing vocational visits and giving presentations, we spent a great weekend with the Rotary clubs in the Helderberg Basin region near Capetown and the visiting GSE Team from Germany.

On Saturday, we had the opportunity to visit the Solms-Delta Winery near Stellenbosch. This was a great experience, as the visit combined wine tasting and a bit of local history and socially responsible farming. The owner, who is the nephew of one of the Rotary club members, is a pretty amazing person - in addition to making great wine, he created a museum to highlight the region's history and affects of apartheid. He also told us about a plan he is implementing to give the farmworkers part ownership in the company.

Sunday also proved to be super fun with a visit to Spier, where they have wildlife encounters and a raptor show. The highlight of this day was getting to pet a cheetah. The cheetah was supervised by a trainer, so it wasn't exactly out in the wild, but it was still very cool. The cheetah was purring and the trainer explained that cats can either purr or roar, and that the cheetah is one of the cats that purrs.

Later Sunday evening, the Helderberg Rotary Club hosted a dinner for us and the GSE Team from Germany. The highlight of the dinner was when our team leader, Randy, led us in singing some great American hits, including "Take Me Home Country Roads," "This Land is Your Land" and "Folsom Prison Blues." We had an all-star international singing cast with our friends from South Africa and Germany, who were very familiar with these songs.

Cheetah petting

Me, Jenny and Sarah at Spier, where we got to pet cheetahs and hold owls.

Comments

Michael Carson

04/27/2009 10:59

Inside Tucson Business – April 27, 2009

Barbara Dolan: Since childhood community has always been a way of life

http://www.azbiz.com/articles/2009/04/27/news/doc49f1fef4ef9f2977634709.txt

Barbara, I’ll save the current issue for you.

Michael

Deb Hume

04/28/2009 06:55

I hear you & Sarah got up close and personal with the cheetahs -I did this also on my visit and it was wonderful - they are amazing animals, and look so cuddly?#@ - will look forward to those photos for sure! Glad you are all getting a little break, so that you can continue on to complete your sentences and remember your own names (which is difficult after being on overload)You all sound great - thanks for keeping us informed on your travels -

salvatore ferragamo link

12/25/2011 23:51

fields in Thailand

salvatore ferragamo outlet link

12/25/2011 23:55

serving drinks and snacks

ferragamo online link

12/30/2011 00:35

"And what better way

Moncler Jackets Men link

01/01/2012 19:26

fast, fried and frozen