Another Thursday and another Rotary meeting. It’s great to get together to socialize and work to help others in our community and around the world. Leon, Rudy, Wayne, John, Merle, Anthony, Brendan, Nora and Stephen were present, with Bob and Allan (in Hawaii) joining in via zoom. Regrets were received from Gertrude, who will be away for a month visiting her family in Nairobi, Kenya.
O Canada was performed in an “excellent rendition” after Stephen called the meeting to order. We discussed the Rotary signage indicating where and when Rotary clubs in Langley meet and the need for updating the information. We then moved on to hear from our special guest speaker, Merle Fisher Booij, our newest member.
Merle Fisher Booij - an introduction
Merle was raised on a farm in Zambia with lots of animals, and became involved in Rotary activities at an early age. The outdoors has been a large part of her families’ lives, but unrest and political decisions made life in Zambia less than ideal. In 2001 her brother’s farm was taken over by the government with no compensation. In fact, they were evicted unexpectedly one morning while still in their pyjamas.
She worked in Cape Town, South Africa, for five or six years and then moved to Johannesburg, the economic hub of the country. My notes indicate that she worked for Mitsubishi in sales, and then for a Spanish company dealing in domestic water (Jacuzzis, pools, water equipment, irrigation). With the beautiful weather in South Africa, the demand for pools and water supplies was plentiful. Her duties expanded into Europe before she made the decision to come to Canada.
Merle has two sons. One is living in London, England and is attending university. The other married a Canadian and is living in Langley. She had a choice of continuing to work and live in South Africa and not be an active part in her sons’ lives, or come to Canada to be near her son and daughter-in-law and her two grandchildren. She wisely chose to come to Langley, and we are glad she did.
Merle’s paperwork re. immigration status has been paused (she arrived in April, 2022) while Canada deals with the large influx of people from Ukraine, as this crisis has taken over (overwhelmed?) the immigration services.
Merle described how South Africa is a beautiful country with all sorts of landscapes and animals. She has seen most of the country, but doesn’t expect to be able to do the same for Canada. “It’s a bit big for us to see the whole country.”
Rotary Moment with Wayne
Wayne read the Rotary Information moment he had found regarding the history of the Rotary bell.
In 1922, U.S. Rotarians organized an attendance contest: the challenge was that the losing clubs would join in giving the winning club a prize. The Rotary Club of New York City was declared the winner and to them was awarded as a prize a bell from a popular patrol boat, which was placed on wood that came from HMS “Victory”, Admiral Nelson’s vessel at the Battle of Trafalgar. Since then the bell used in Rotary meetings started to represent, as on the ships, order, discipline, and the time to guide us through the weekly hour and a half meetings. The bell informs us with its sound the beginning of the Rotary meeting, at which time people present should stand, same as at the end, in order to salute the Rotary and national flags. The gavel symbolized the authority invested in the Rotarian elected to the highest position in Rotary, and through him/her reminds those present of his/her authority. When presidents transmit their positions to their successors at the end of their mandate, they give the bell their last hit turning the gavel over to their successor, symbolizing the transfer of authority.
Light Touch
The Light Touch featured three short jokes this week.
1. A man walks into a bar with a white horse. He asks the barman for a beer. Barman says, “We’ve got a whiskey named after him,” nodding at the white horse. “What?” asked the man, “you’ve got a whiskey named Eric?”
2. A man walks into a bar and passes out immediately. The second man walks into the bar and also passes out. The third man ducks.
3.The sheep dog calls to the farmer, “That’s all forty of them.”
What?” calls the farmer.“We should only have thirty-seven of them.”
“I know,” answered the sheepdog, “I rounded them up
Other updates
Nora then shared a story which included Frank, a sausages counsellor (my notes may be inaccurate) who was the designer of the MRI scanner, and a girl named Maria who burned her hand on a sparkler. Wow, it sounded much better when Nora told it.
We moved on to happy and sad dollars with pledges for: Merle’s story; watching golf with Abbotsford’s Nick Taylor currently in the lead; the passing of former member Peter Rich; Merle’s presentation and Nora’s story; going skiing with grandson; Merle’s talk; 35-45 mph winds in Hawaii; a leaking foyer needing repairs; having two zoomers present; and a favourite Russian relative passing away. Another story was told about a concern over recent COVID boosters when an individual leaving the pharmacy after receiving the booster experienced blurred vision. He phoned the pharmacist and asked if he should go see his doctor.
“No,” came the reply, “but you should return to pick up your glasses.”
We toasted Canada and bid each other adieu, wishing Rudy well at PETS next week. Remember that on the 16th we meet at RIC so we will be having only an in-person meeting, followed by our executive meeting.
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