Guests: Betty Allison, Dorothy Evans. Arjun Modi ( Possible new member), Michael Conway RCAgincourt.
Announcements:
District governor's meeting September 20th at Floga. Cost $29,99 each. Spouses and guests welcome. Send the registration fee to Dhanni.
Volunteers are needed for an arts festival on Sept. 9th at Birchmount Community Center. Avrum will send out details.
Rotary Learning to lead program. For young people September 28th. Avrum will send out details.
Rotary Leadership Institute. Nine weeks on Zoom. No Cost. Avrum will send out details.
October 20th, Conference. Please Register
Program
Arthur introduced Steve Rutledge from the Rotary Club of Whitby Sunrise who is always welcome at our club.
Laos Water Projects
Steve mentioned that he was going to focus on the water projects but he touched on the feminine hygiene project also to bring us up to date.
The water project this year had some unexpected issues.
There was no rain for 5 months so the crops were ruined. The farmers burned their fields which caused considerable pollution, hitting 571 on the pollution index. The truck delivering the water filters for the primary school broke down and the children had to wait in the cold. The authorities had closed down all but one gate on the dam supplying the river so no boats could be used.
The toilets that they had decided to put in place had a problem with space.
There were two tribes in the village. One much larger than the other. The water was really meant for the smaller tribe, but at the last minute the larger tribe, which had shown little interest decided that they wanted the water also. meetings had to be held to sort this out.
They supplied 288 tanks to the village.
Video:
Steve supplied us with a video that shows very clearly how things progressed. At the start you will see kids with bikes, these kids had to walk 3km from school, so they were given bikes.
Gerd apologized, but, he, as a Canadian, refused to apologize.
Basil: Wished Peter a happy birthday and we all sang "Happy Birthday" to Peter.
Rocco and Frank wished Peter a happy Birthday and contributed.
Steve was happy to attend the meeting and commented that his club's meeting yesterday was at a funeral parlor.
Danny was happy to see Steve at our meeting as he is always an inspiration. Also, he was glad that our meetings are at lunchtime and not at 7.00 a.m. like Steve's club.
Avrum commented on Steve's string bracelets that he receives during village ceremonies to mark the end of a project. Avrum had one so long it looked very worn, but he didn't like to take it off.
Arthur told a joke. Thankfully I didn't hear it.
With nothing left for the good of Rotary, Avrum closed the meeting and wished everyone a great week ahead.
Mike Mushet
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