Our speaker this week was our own Dr. Lorne Parker. Lorne talked about his recent trip to Mozambique and his plans for further school development in that country. Lorne had a rocky start to his presentation. His laptop had “upgraded” software so, of course, his carefully prepared presentation would not work. However, being an ex military man, Lorne was able to “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome”. Lorne visited our school in Xia Xia and reported that the enrollment is up further and the bathrooms have been completed. The wall had been damaged in the recent typhoon but, otherwise, the school is in great shape. Lorne also talked about his visit to the Canadian Embassy in Maputo. He told us that the Ambassador had visited a school in the Maputo region and been dismayed by the conditions. Over 2500 kids were being educated in the outdoors under trees. The washroom conditions were so poor that they were a health hazard to the students and staff. The Embassy had heard about our school in Xia Xia and they invited Lorne to meet with them and asked him to help them with a project to construct new washrooms and a school on that site. The Embassy has negotiated with the local government so that they will match our construction on the site and he is reaching out to other Clubs to assist with our funding. Hopefully we will have our new charitable society, Steven’s Hoe for Mozambique”, in place to assist with fundraising for the project. Thanks Lorne for all of your good work. You make our club look good. |
