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Rotary Club of North Seattle
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| Erica Varga, speaker at the May 8, 2012 meeting |
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Adventures in Africa
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Erica Varga began her African adventures in 1993 as an anthropology student. Now she helps and encourages others to visit Africa, partially because some Rotarians gave her a start and told her she should continue to go back to Africa and aid others in doing so. Erica has a young daughter now, and has cut down on her trips, but she goes once a year still and is looking forward to taking her daughter.
Erica created a beautiful background to her presentation with photographs of her trips, almost all of which were taken by her and her husband. It felt like a National Geographic show with pictures of elephants, lions, giraffes, rhinow, some so close that it was almost frightening. Most of her travels are in Southern
Erica Varga. Photo by Bob Allen
Africa, in Botswana in the National Preserve near the Kaliharu Desert. Botswana is, as erica put it, the "life preserver of Africa", and the land is beautiful. It is a land of lakes and deltas in the middle of the desert, so animals of all kinds congregate there.
Erica promised that an adventure travelling in this area will change your life. She gave us a quote by Paul Theroux-"Someone on safari is just away and unobtainable and out of touch" - which in today's non-stop world on tech and contact might be a balm for all of us. Erica closed with a wonderful story written by 8-year old Isabella, one of her converts, who described the experience as life changing. Thanks, Erica, for the opportunity to visit Africa if only in spirit...who knows, maybe we will do so someday in person!
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