Hello All
As it turns out, this stop in Capetown was a wonderful way to start off our visit to Africa and has inspired the entire team. Ironically, we probably got to see more Rotarians, including from all parts of the District we are working in then we would have gotten to see otherwise with our busy work schedule in one place. We have already gotten more invitations than we will have days and may have to apply to stay on longer than we planned just to meet social obligations. Our mission has been very well publicized and people were very interested in our program and Vocational Training Teams in general. It seems that the expertise I have developed in the process has put me in an exclusive group who has understanding of how the new program works.
Once again we had a full day of conference scheduled. We started with a talk on the "Reach out to Africa. " program which is trying to steer Rotary toward more involvement in Africa and trying to encourage additional membership in Africa. Of the 1.2 million Rotarians in the world, only 30,000 are in Africa. We were then treated to a musical interlude by a string quartet. The group called the "Peace Quartet" consisted of 2 violins, a viola, and a cello all made by a famous Capetown violing maker and each instrument dedicated to one of the 4 South African Nobel Peace Prize receipients. This was followed by an address by the former South African Finance minister, Trevor Manuel, who is lauded for his excellent work in directing the economy of South Africa, and, who, in anticipation of the global economic crisis positioned South Africa in such a way that they barely felt the effects. Mr. Manuel is white and was an anti-apartheid activist who was imprisoned for 3 years for his beliefs. The rest of the group visited Robbens Island, where Mandela was imprisoned in the afternoon.
The afternoon session, which I attended dealt primarily with problems facing Africa. There was a very high energy panel discussion with representatives from Nigeria and Gabon as well as 2 from South Africa. One of the South Africans was a woman about my age or older who was one of the leading magazine publishers in the country and a former Ambassadorial Scholar. She brought up the premise that even more important than food, literacy HIV, etc, was the empowerment of women. She felt that solving this problem would aid the rest. Other sentiments expressed by the panel was that it was time for Africans to stop talking and start taking action, and that it was time for African Rotary Clubs to take a proactive position in developing programs and then going out to secure funds, rather than having donors create programs for them. The panelled was also challenged as to what Rotary is doing in Sudan. Apparently there is a new club chartered recently in Southern Sudan and plans for more on the horizon.
It is often strange how you make contacts. At a project fair coincident with the conference, I met a Rotarian who was expert in the South African process of procuring mon ies that all businesses are required to give to charity. He had some influence with Coca Cola and other corporations in the Capetown area, and offered to help Bill make similar contacts in the Durban area.
Tonight, we attended a cocktail reception at an excljusive cricket club and continued to meet more and varied people. I had a long chat with Orscelik Balkan, a former Rotary International Director, who was instrumental in pushing for further Rotary involvement in Africa. He was quite interested in our work and asked for a write-up on our project when we have completed our month, so that he could ublish it in the "Reach out to Africa" newsletter.
In all a most productive and enjoyable 2 days spent in Capetown. Tomorrow, a little sightseeing of Table Mountain and then our flight to Durban. Monday we begin our orientation and work, and all are very excited. As leader, I lead in excitement. Will have nothing to write about tomorrow, so will get back to you in a few days.
Marty
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