The GSE Team
From Left to Right Standing in front of one of the tallest species of trees in the Amazon forest: Eric Sanford - Manhattan, Amanda Dura - Emporia, Ken Davis (Team Leader) - Kansas City, Christine Pearson - Emporia, and Gaelynn Wolf-Bordonaro - Emporia
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Team's Successful Return
The team arrived safely in Kansas City on May 4th. The experience of a lifetime will remain in our memories for years to come. We will now share this experience with Rotarians in our home district and welcome our Brazilian GSE team, which arrived safely on May 14th. Their team leader is Podalyro Neto, who graciously hosted us in Santarem.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
End of Week 4 and Rotary District 4720 Annual Conference
Today is the last day of the Rotary District 4720 Annual Conference presentations. The GSE Team is scheduled to make a presentation to the assembly and have prepared a summary presentation for this event. The openning ceremonies were held on Thursday, April 29th at night and the programming has been half days since then. Last evening the program included a talent show with several Rotarians volunteering to sing, play instruments and share other talents with the participants. The program ended at 1:00 a.m. making for a short night sleep. We have been able to meet several Rotarians from our earlier visits to Manaus and Santarem. These reunions have been very enjoyable and rewarding.
Our week has been filled with professional visits and tours of the city sites. Yesterday we enjoyed an hour and half boat excursion around Belem, enjoying the sunset and evening city lights. The boat ride included performances of regional dances and music, which added to the festive flavor. We had toured the botanical gardens earlier in the day, mesmorized by the abundance of life and beauty of the virgin forest.
This week marks the culmination of a wonderful cultural and professional experience for each of our team members. The trip wasn't without its unforseen events, but in the end can be viewed with great success and satisfaction. The team learned a great deal and the host district provided a wonderful experience for our members. Our host families went out of their way to make the visit enjoyable and provided a wonderful opportunity for personal growth and understanding of Rotary International's service above self mission.
During the three-city visits our team has presented to eleven Rotary clubs and the District conference, we have visited universities, churches, theaters, emergency communication centers, hospitals, ambulance services, fire and police headquarters, nature centers, social service agencies, performance arts centers, pre-schools, schools, open air markets, parks, beaches, artesan and craft shops, aviaries, museums, rivers, boats, jewelry makers, public health centers, secretaries of health, laboratories, ports and docks, sacred art centers, theological seminaries, live butterfly exhibits, farm houses, rubber plantations, islands, resorts, medical clinics and dance studios. We have traveled over 15,000 miles by plane, boat, car, bus, van and by foot. We have visited villages, towns and cities up to 3 million population. The foods we have savored run the full range of typical native Brazilian culinary offerings. It's difficult to capture the immensity of natural beauty we have witnessed during this Amazon trip. The people and generous Brazilian spirit have been a delightful presence everywhere we have roamed.
As we prepare our bags for departure on Monday and return to the USA, our hope is to reflect on this month-long experience and share the things we have learned with the Rotary District 5710 upon our arrival in Kansas.
Our week has been filled with professional visits and tours of the city sites. Yesterday we enjoyed an hour and half boat excursion around Belem, enjoying the sunset and evening city lights. The boat ride included performances of regional dances and music, which added to the festive flavor. We had toured the botanical gardens earlier in the day, mesmorized by the abundance of life and beauty of the virgin forest.
This week marks the culmination of a wonderful cultural and professional experience for each of our team members. The trip wasn't without its unforseen events, but in the end can be viewed with great success and satisfaction. The team learned a great deal and the host district provided a wonderful experience for our members. Our host families went out of their way to make the visit enjoyable and provided a wonderful opportunity for personal growth and understanding of Rotary International's service above self mission.
During the three-city visits our team has presented to eleven Rotary clubs and the District conference, we have visited universities, churches, theaters, emergency communication centers, hospitals, ambulance services, fire and police headquarters, nature centers, social service agencies, performance arts centers, pre-schools, schools, open air markets, parks, beaches, artesan and craft shops, aviaries, museums, rivers, boats, jewelry makers, public health centers, secretaries of health, laboratories, ports and docks, sacred art centers, theological seminaries, live butterfly exhibits, farm houses, rubber plantations, islands, resorts, medical clinics and dance studios. We have traveled over 15,000 miles by plane, boat, car, bus, van and by foot. We have visited villages, towns and cities up to 3 million population. The foods we have savored run the full range of typical native Brazilian culinary offerings. It's difficult to capture the immensity of natural beauty we have witnessed during this Amazon trip. The people and generous Brazilian spirit have been a delightful presence everywhere we have roamed.
As we prepare our bags for departure on Monday and return to the USA, our hope is to reflect on this month-long experience and share the things we have learned with the Rotary District 5710 upon our arrival in Kansas.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
