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| Oct. 23, 2009 |
Editor: Ron Adkins
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We opened in an irregular manner. President
Greg Horn was off somewhere, and PP Rick Selden was standing in. Terry
Fung, however, recruited Morris Northcutt to enliven things a bit, and
PP Rick was sent to the back of the room. The magic hour of 12:30 was
nigh, and in the nick of time interloper Fung gaveled the bell. As PP
Rick worked his way forward, Fung and Northcutt tried to "bring him on"
in gala fashion. Nice try, guys. PP Rick is a nice guy, but nobody
tuned in to this "runway" entry.
The crew of usual suspects did their customary work behind the scenes.
Jason Whalen offered the invocation, and Donya Martin led us in the
Pledge. Bill Young staffed the Sgt at Arms office and Gary Fulton
covered the Paul Harris Desk. Ron Adkins composed
this week's bulletin.
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Visiting Rotarians
Two dropped by: Charlie Maxwell of CP Rotary and Derek Sanders of the Puyallup Club.
Visitors
There were three this week. Mo Sarram brought Dr. Abbas Boland Gray, a long-time friend from Los Angeles but known to Mo since 1965 in Iran. Jason Whalen brought his wife, Gael. PP Scott Buser brought his son, Nick, but it was grandpa Carl Fynboe who introduced Nick as his guest.
Sunshine
Jan Luze reminded us of the memorial service for Ann Tremaine, and she indicated that Larry Faulk was now home and that Dave Reames is also home and making satisfactory progress.
Announcements
Since there was no one else available, PP Ron Irwin was called upon to remind us of the need to sell fall raffle tickets. Not all of the data was at our fingertips, but it appeared that Bill Young might be the leading seller. So far he's sold 28 books.
PP Rick indicated that Halloween costumes were okay for next week, but it didn't strike your ace reporter that the audience took him seriously.
The NEW MEMBER tune-up (is that really what we're calling it?) is set for November 6. New members should expect to hang around immediately following the regular meeting.
Trayce Kakely probably exaggerated when she suggested she'd not attended a Club meeting since last spring, but, hey!, Trayce's normal behavior is way beyond expectations. She noted that last year the Club's support of the USO, Puget Sound Area, helped provide food baskets for 636 military families. She would like to top that level this year. Bring non-perishable items on Friday, October 30 and/or November 6. Another welcome non-perishable could be a check written to USO Puget Sound Area. (I bet she'll take cash also.) Should your preference be for food items, think: dry stuffing; canned vegetables, gravy, yams, olives and/or cranberry sauce; and instant potatoes. Special questions? Contact Tracye at tracye@usopsa.org.
PDG Dave Sclair encouraged members to attend the Tacoma #8 celebration of its 100th anniversary. Dave would like to put together a table of Lakewood Rotarians for the event. It will be $95 a seat. Last year Dave attended a similar celebration for Seattle #4, and he expects the #8 "do" to be just as good. (Note: Each table seats 10 and 4 seats are already spoken for so contact Dave - dave@thesubtimes.comASAP - to reserve your spot.)
Student of the Month
Robert Peterson celebrated the achievements of Gaspar Avila, our Student of the Month from Clover Park HS. Gaspar is moving along with a 3.98 GPA and currently serves as ASB President. One of his service areas is the training of mentors who then work with younger mentees.
Anniversaries
We ran out of time last week, so Terry Fung and Sally Porter Smith seized the microphone to put the squeeze on those who skated last week. Terry Fung found himself first in line; he had a birthday and a wedding anniversary recently. Advice from the podium was that Terry should have given a woolen gift for his seventh anniversary. Jim Early, however, was told that a gift of burl or alabaster would have been appropriate for his 38th anniversary. It seemed to your reporter that Jim took this under advisement but he did state that he and Lila had made a car trip over the North Cascades Loop.
Club anniversaries.
Something not recognized often enough by our Club is the anniversary of members' joining the Club. Here's the list for this month.
PP Greg Rediske - 27 years; Skip Stephan - 21 years; Jan Luze - 19 years; PP Ted Wier - 18 years; PP Bob Zawilski - 12 years; PP Scott Buser - 17 years; Duncan Cook - 8 years.
PP Scott offered up $50 for his 33rd wedding anniversary last month, and John Walstorm put up $20 for his 20th wedding anniversary.
PP Rick tried his hand at a little walk down memory lane and challenged PP Ron Irwin to identify the year Rick was Club President. Irwin nailed it (1990-91), so PP Rick paid the $5 fine he'd expected to extract from PP Ron.
Fun and Fines
Bob Gee offered $50 for his recent trip to Florida for a reunion of his Vietnam aviation group. He said he'd not seen these guys since 1966. He didn't say how long it had been since any of them had seen him.
Evidently not spotting many fining opportunities, PP Rick fell back on the old "pin sin" option, and this seemed to garner some $12 to $15 for the Club.
After noting that he remembered fining his father during the 1990-91 year, PP Rick took advantage of the opportunity to fine his daughter, Gayle Selden. As the story was revealed there was more substance than even Pappa Rick knew. Yes, Gayle, did go, I believe, to Fayetteville, NC, as part of the business trip, but she also slipped off to Myrtle Beach, SC, and took in a U2 concert in Raleigh, NC. She felt this was worth a $100, part of which went to "match" a bit of extortion from Pappa Rick on the occasion of their business celebration last week.
Program of the Day
Mark Blanchard introduced Anatole Verhaeghe, our Rotary Exchange Student for the year. Anatole gave us an entertaining lecture that accompanied his visual aids. By the time we were through he had told us a bit about his hometown of Rouen, a port city, his family, as well as a compressed history of France from its origins in the medieval period when its borders were not well defined though Louis 14th, the Revolution and Napoleon. He had some fun with the French flag and its colors, but I don't think he was successful in levying any fines for our inabilities to answer his questions. He noted that he likes it here very much, partly because everything here is so clean but also because he has found Americans most welcoming.
Want to take Anatole out for a meal or an event? Call the Blanchards, 582-6741.
The weekly drawing
Anatole's final "duty" was to pull the winning ticket, and he selected one belonging to Jason Whalen. Alas, Jason did not find the red chip among the whites so next week's drawing will most likely be for more than $1,000.
Next Week's Program
You don't have to be a Tom Clancy fan to want to hear next week's program. We will have Mike Endicott, a former Secret Service Agent who was on President George Bush's team. No talking into your sleeves, please.
Nov 6 Program:
We'll join with Clover Park Rotary for our annual Veterans' Day Salute. And, as a final call, if you have a photo of yourself during your military service, get it to Dave Sclair by this Friday so it can be included in the slide show.
Another letter from Exchange Student Hunter Larson
October 17, 2009
I would write you an email every day if I could but things just aren't exciting enough in rural India. My reports would be filled with "today I chased a cow out of the house" or "today I watched my mom make Indian cookies." Currently there is no school so I spend most days with friends. Things have been rather boring here in Jalgaon. But things are looking up. In a few days, I will attend a Rotary meeting in Chandrapur which is a much bigger city. Chandrapur has around 700,000 people and is known as the City of Black Gold, because of all the coal mines around the city. Then, I'll be going on the South India Tour through Rotary!! All the exchange students have been counting the days until we get to leave and see places like Goa and Hyderabad.
Goa has a population of 1.3 million residents. There are 363 people for each square kilometer of the land. It is a tourist destination because of its museums, historical sites, and 77 miles of beaches. Hyderabad has a population of over 8.8 million. It is known as the City of Pearls.? ?Scouting is not as common as in America. Once on my way to school, I saw a kid in a little blue uniform with a scarf but when I asked my friends about it they didn't know what I was talking about. I can't even find out where the meetings are. It's just not that common over here. If I show my scarf around, I might get some answers.? ?Juhi's uncle passed away maybe two weeks ago. It's been very hard on her and the family because it was a bit of a sudden death. It has been an interesting but somber experience for me. The families are very close -and I mean physically close as well. You build your house near your brother's home. When someone dies, anyone who's anyone in the family comes and pays respects to the deceased. He died at the hospital. After loading his body into a van, he was taken back to his home and placed on a bed for prayers. He is worshipped and given prayers for awhile. My host family was at his home for about 36 hours. Most immediate family members stay the entire time, not sleeping and not eating just to pray for him. My host family would come home and check on me every few hours to make sure I was still alive and eating. After days of prayers, they wash the body, give another prayer and the men carry him over to the burning piles. Another prayer is given before they load the body onto the piles and say goodbye one last time.
The next 10 or so days everyone goes to his home and takes lunch and dinner (East Indians only eat twice a day but with large portions) which is provided by the deceased's family. It is a basic meal but the immediate family stays for the entire 10 days while people come in to visit from all the neighboring villages. Even If you met him just a few times, you attend the funeral. About 50 new people showed up per day but only stayed for a few hours - enough to pay their respects. My host mom told me that the funeral can go up to 15 days. During these 10 days, there are no forms of enjoyment. Everyone is supposed to show great sorrow and not take any pleasures until the last day. I made the mistake of turning on the TV and was quickly told that this wasn't in the culture. No TV, no music, no books even. It's a very depressing time. On the last day, it gets better by serving a sweeter lunch of puren puri and kyr (puren puri is a sweetened coconut flat bread and kyr which is basically coconut pudding).
One thing I noticed was the communal act of crying. I think in America it is more common for women to sob lightly and only for a little while before they find somewhere quieter to let out their feelings. In India, the women hug each other in big circles and just wail in each others' ears. And really loud crying too. I could hear it long before I entered the house.? ?There are some really big differences in the way women are treated here. One of the foreign exchange students was told in her first few days that whenever she got her period she had to tell her host mother because there were rules she had to follow. While on her period, she is not allowed to touch any household taps (bathroom or kitchen) and not allowed in specific areas of the house, usually the kitchen. If a menstruating girl needs to open a door, she calls her mother (who can't be on her period). If she needs to flush the toilet, she calls her mother or an aunt. Some families are stricter than others. I've heard of homes where menstruating girls and women are not allowed to leave their rooms.
Women and men rarely eat together. You must avoid at all costs eating with the opposite sex. The children and teens don't follow this tradition unless they are from a more traditional family. Men and women don't even sit together at Rotary meetings. They sit in opposite sides of the room. In school we can't sit in the same row or side of the room either. Whenever I do talk to girls (I have no problem with it, they are people too) my guy friends instinctively run away. Literally run away. They find the lamest excuse possible and quickly run away. If I am talking a long time, I will soon get guys tugging on my sleeves and at times my entire body to get me to go away from the girls. The girls don't have a problem talking to me.
Things are way more communal here. In America, we have this idea of privacy and personal space but here everyone just gets along and does everything together (with the exception of gender of course). They eat together, laugh together, cry together and if there is a joint family, children may get raised by two mothers. You call one auntie and one mom. It's just a completely different idea of how people should act. The Muslim and Hindu religions both forbid homosexuality. In the newspaper they had an article calling it "An Invasion of the West." Yet best friends will hold hands and even dance closely together.
Today is Divali, the festival of lights and really, really fun. It is made to celebrate the return of Rama (incarnation of Vishnu) and to welcome Lakshmi (goddess of wealth and prosperity) into the home. To celebrate, everyone takes these small urns filled with oil or ghee (clarified butter often made from water buffalo milk) and lights it like an oil lamp with a homemade cotton wick. They take these lamps and place them on the north, south, east and west walls of their homes. They put several on the front gate to welcome Lakshmi, Hindu goddess of wealth, prosperity, light, wisdom, fortune, fertility, generosity and courage. It's really beautiful to take a walk late at night where all the houses are decorated with lamps. After decorating your home with lamps, everyone comes inside to pray and sing for the welcoming of Lakshmi. My father told me that Divali is also the New Year for all businesses. All businessmen start new accounting books, calculate their earnings for the year and set a new goal for next year. He explained to me the significance of these lamps and having lights everywhere. He said that fire is a cleansing thing and that with the New Year we should burn away all things and ideas that in the past harmed us and embrace the New Year with new ideas and light for life.??As this is a celebratory festival, there has to be fireworks. It's just such a spectacular time right now. The sky is bright with all various colors and the sky is alive with the sound of various bombs. They don't have too many bombs in the US do they? It is common to buy explosives that I don't think are legal anywhere in the world and are loud enough to damage your eardrums and everyone's next door. Luckily, they tell you that on the package. They are really fun. Yesterday I was putting atom bombs in bottles and blasting them at houses with my friend, Akshay. It was pretty funny because the explosives are so powerful that if you put them in the bottle and try and aim the bottle to go in a particular direction it won't work. The bottle just goes everywhere.
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