Busy Wednesday

Wednesday April 13^th, 2011

After doing our usual morning routine Joe and I met the young ladies at one of the training centers in Wentworth. We met there because the man who was coming to speak to them wanted to use a projector in order to show his photographs, unfortunately that never happened. However, Cedric Nunn the photographer did get speak to them about the power of photography and the role that they were playing as well as the potential power they have by creating images of their community.

After that Joe and I attended the Rotary meeting that takes place at Durban Botanical Garden’s Visitor Center. When we first entered it looked as though there would be about 50 people attending, however the man who greeted me assured me that there were far fewer people who would be in attendance than the chairs.

When everyone arrived everyone sat down with their drinks, one of the members Mike passed out playing cards to the members in order to vie for a bottle of wine in a card draw game. This is common amongst Rotary clubs here in South Africa. After saying the Rotary “Four Way Test” the business of the day was announced. When it was my turn to speak I was able to entertain the group with my PowerPoint and got lots of questions after. The people were so very welcoming to Joe and I that they gave us a Rotary Mug – which I am sure Joe will be drinking his coffee out of - and a Rotary shirt.

Our only trouble with the meeting is that it started a bit late and I probably talked longer than I should have so we got out later than expected. The trouble with that was that immediately afterwards we had a dinner party to attend at one of the Rotarians from the morning club that we me the previous week. After a few last chats Joe and I raced to our dinner party at the home of the managing editor of the Sunday Tribune. http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/

We were 40 minutes late at least and were crossing our fingers that everyone hadn’t already eaten and were getting ready for bed. Luckily they had waited and we got to meet some really lovely people. They treated us to a lovely dinner filled with intelligent conversation and delicious biryani (like a rice pilaf), bobotie (a minced meat casserole dish with a South African twist), and salad. At about 10 pm we called it a night because editor’s son and exchange student had school early in the morning. We promised to return for games next time. All in all it was another lovely day in South Africa.