October 26, 2017: Martin Ward - District Governor’s visit.
Head Table: Our President Linda Bathe, invites all major chairpersons, to join her at the head table.
This Week: Today, Anna and Gordon Sherwin, treated us to a captivating and enlightening slideshow, “India, Changing Nature of Country", which highlighted many of their amazing experiences while travelling across the seventh-largest country, geographically, in the world.
Anna and Gordon came heavily armed with statistical perspective on the Republic of India; a population of over 1.2 billion, 70% of whom are under 35 years of age, at least 400 spoken languages, 23 official languages, with a median wage of $3.50 per day.
They stayed in a homestay, which is similar to a bed & breakfast. They stayed on a spice boat converted to a luxury house boat in Kerala. Anna took a cooking class. They visited a massive and beautiful Sikh temple where an estimated 25,000 people were fed on a daily basis.
Their journey took them to the Ganges river. At 2,525 km, it is the world's third largest river, by discharge. The Ganges is the most sacred river to Hindus. The Sherwin's witnessed firsthand, the use of it by Indians for daily-life and end-of-life needs. The snake charmers touched their hearts. Snake charming is believed to have originated, in its present form, in India, where the Hindus consider the cobra to be sacred and a protector of the gods and that the charmers are considered holy men influenced by the gods.
They were greatly impressed by the Taj Mahal, in the beautiful city of Agra, which took approximately 20 years to complete at a cost of roughly $1 billion CAD, in today's dollars.
A very warm welcome was extended by the Pondicherry Rotary Club.
Ollie Henry introduced and Charlene Gordon thanked our speakers.
Scribe: Philip Schroeder
Guests: Today we welcomed, Andrea Reichert – Stratford, Victoria Breault – Stratford, Mary Reinhardt – Stratford, Wendy Wilkinson, Isoniah Super - St Michaels Rotaract, Aaron McNichol - St Michael’s Rotaract.
Draw: The draw prize today was donated by Mark Smith (2 tickets to Suchitoto fundraiser) and won by Michael Fox.
Make-ups: no report
October’s Attendance Committee: Rob Ritz (I/C), Carolyn Blackburn, Peter Roach, Carolyn Champagne, George Schroeder, Doug Thompson, Angus MacDermid, Gary Wreford, Lynn McKone.
November’s Attendance Committee: Clark Mitchell (I/C), Jim Young, Marcia Matsui, Lutzen Riedstra, Dave Skinner, Philip Schroeder, Gerry Thuss, Sue Wakelin, Doug Wilson.
