One of the Rotaractors staying in our district right now, David, is from Baja California, and he rooms with about 4 other Mexicans. They were somehow roped into cooking for the event, much to my delight!

It was a non traditional Easter Dinner by U.S. standards: quesadillas, pico de gallo with chips, slow cooked beans (frijoles) and seasoned rice were made along with other dishes. Of course no Mexican dinner would be complete without meat, which was supplied with seasoned chicken and beef.

To take from Paul’s Blog:

“ It was a good opportunity to gather with the international students and the Rotaract club members. We were about twenty in all and represented eight different countries, three different continents, and five different languages. Despite all the great cultural differences, we all had one thing in common…. an Easter celebration with a Mexican feast prepared by a few exchange students from Mexico!”

It was a nice gesture of Paul to organize the dinner, and I certainly appreciated being around friends on the Holiday. Since I have a large and fairly close-knit family, I hate spending the holidays without them!

See the picture album for this dinner here.

Easter Dinner with friends in Valparaíso

The home receives minimal funding from a government subsidy for youth.

We played with the children, danced, and distributed small snack packages with juice and other goodies. The packages were bought with an allowance given to Rotaract by their sponsor club. Due to the disabilities of many of the children, it was hard to play organized games with them. Most of the children are considered con riesgo social, or “social risk” children, meaning they were either abandoned or were taken from their families because of abuse or related reasons.

More pictures from this event may be found here.

One of the short videos I took at the event may be found here.

A video of the drive to Olmué can be found here.

At least for me, it has been almost 2 years since I last had the opportunity to work with special need children. Aside from being eye-opening I reflected on the type of impact I want to make on this area during my time here.

After leaving the hogar we went to a country house owned by the parents of one of the members, Mauricio.

This little guy lovvveedd being picked up!

Who knew there were Tiger fans in Chile?

Two girls from Valparaíso Rotaract’s sister club in Peru were visiting for the event. They were from the Lima area Rotaract Club of Monterrico Surco in District 4450.

Also a Rotaractor named José from the Rotaract Club of Azapa in Arica, Chile came for the event. The Azapa club is also in District 4320.

We spent some time near the pool and barbecued in the back yard of the house. Diego, who studies Multi-Media, was the resident DJ. The girls from Perú spoke and also gave everyone a pin so that we can show off our clubs sisterhood. The vice president of the Valparaíso club spoke, and I also said a few words.

Barbecue time–with coal instead of charcoal.

The Rotaract Club in Valparaíso meets on Fridays, I can’t wait to start attending meetings and become an active member of the club.

Here is a buttery update on a Rotaract Conference in Istanbul that we are trying to attend with the Beirut Club:

Fw: Trip to Istambul

From: Rima Abou Mrad                               Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 10:39 AM

To: VP WSU Rotaract Hannah, Katrina WSU Rotaract, Rotaract WSU

Dear all,

Please find below an email from the Rotaract Club of Beirut.

Please let me know what you think.

Take care

Rima

—– Forwarded Message From: Mona Karam <mona.karam@usj.edu.lb>
To: rimaaboumrad@yahoo.com
Cc: adibmounla@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 3:17:56 AM
Subject: Trip to Istambul

Hello dearest Rima,

I am glad to get in touch with u after a long absence.
As Adib told u ill be organising with u our trip to Istambul

So i propose to u this plan :
As Easter will come from March 20 till the 24, it is the best time for us
to go there as we will be on vacations.
What about u ?

As for transportation, Adib told me that it will be by bus.

We need then to know where we will be hosted (if in rotaractors houses)
or in a youth hotel maybe we will charge the turkish rotaractors about
this issue

As for the project I will ask Adib about any ideas
U can do same from your side
and will update u of our findings

Rotaractly yours

Mona

The vision for the Student Convention is an all-youth run evening focused on peace issues.

I was joined on the panel by Dr. Fred Pearson, Director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State, District Governors Jennifer Jones (6400) and Audrey Chevalier (6380), Rotarian Bob Selwa and the President of Mt. Clemens Rotary.

Pictures of this meeting can be found here.

A video of Dr. Pearson addressing the meeting can be found here.

Left to Right: Bob Selwa, Jennifer Jones, Fred Pearson, Hannah Kelley, Audrey Chevalier, President of Mt. Clemens Rotary

Dear Hannah and Katrina:

Thank you and Katrina very much for the fine gift and your friendly reception of me in Mechigan. I am sorry my stay was very brief. I could have made better acquaintance with you and many others who made me feel at home so well in your beautiful city. I could have used the opportunity to tell you much about Liberia and its peoples. But you have many Liberians there who can tell you about our country. I am sorry too I did not have copies of my books to share with you. You can get my latest novel Sundown at Dawn at DustySpark.com. It will tell you much about life in our traditional society. As for the folktales, I am trying to find an American publisher to make them available to readers in the US.

I am looking forward to copies of the pictures we took together. Some of them might appear in my next book, a memoir. I was very impressed by your enthusiasm to go to Liberia. The people are friendly and eager to learn. They love Americans and will become your friends. You will find the Kpelle people especially happy to meet you people. I hope you make Liberia your second home. I also hope your studies go on fine. One day we might meet again.

With kind regards and best wishes,

Sincerely yours,

Wilton Sankawulo Sr.