It is bigger than the whole Gateway complex in Umhlanga, has more shops than Gateway – over 350 - everything from Louis Vuitton to Chanel, Rolex to Benetton, Yves St. Laurent to Armani. I guess it is a shopper’s paradise. Unfortunately I’m not a shopper although the team are knocked out. But this is also a place for the seriously rich. With beers at around R70 and a glass of still mineral water at over R40 – you need to be well-heeled to operate here without nervously wondering what your bank balance is looking like.
Gondolas at the Venetian
Enough of that although we could probably go on for days about it. The people here are very friendly.
We got to the convention rooms in time for registration on Saturday morning. The Rotary International President’s Personal Representative, John Germ was at the opening and we were treated to a grand entrance. A brass band accompanied the dignitaries into the ballroom with about 500 Rotarians and family of Rotary present. I took a video but it won't upload to this blog - we'll show it to you later. It was great and the Conference got off to a great start. I’m not going to bore you with too much detail, you know what conferences are like, but the keynote address was delivered by The Hon. Edmund Ho who is the Chief Executive (Governor General in the old days) of the Macau Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China. He seems a very well-liked man and delivered a really great speech. It is interesting to note the good relationship between Government and Rotary in Hong Kong and Macau. In fact, one of the presentations was 5 Paul Harris awards to 5 different Government departments that had helped Rotary in one of it’s projects with an exercise program for the elderly and disabled. I am getting a copy of the CD because I am sure we can use it in SA. I’ve never heard of Paul Harris awards to institutions but the Rotarians here say it has great significance for the Government departments concerned and the Departments are very aware of the import of a Paul Harris award, and are therefore deeply honoured and encouraged to continue co-operating with Rotary.
Nivs with a lady who helps with a Leprosy project in China
Incidentally, (THIS WILL ONLY BE INTERESTING TO ROTARIANS) one of the sessions was an award session for Paul Harris donors, Major donors (US$10,000 or more), and Paul Harris society awards. Quite a few clubs here are 100% Paul Harris Fellows on the basis of donations of US$1,000 to the Rotary Foundation. In South Africa we award Paul Harris Fellowships (PHF’s) to Rotarians and others on the basis of their service to Rotary and/or the community. In this District, Rotarians are only awarded PHF’s if they make the US$1,000 contribution, and other members of the community are awarded PHF’s for service. AS RIPPR John Germ says, it is these donations, together with the Every Rotarian Every Year programme that keep the Rotary Foundation able to give it’s grants and carry out it’s work on Polio eradication around the world. Something to think about. One club in Hong Kong is 100% major donor – in other words every single Rotarian in that club has donated US$10,000 or more to the Rotary Foundation! Amazing.
Club Project Displays
Back to news – the Banquet was great on Saturday evening. Food was great – mainly Chinese cuisine and there was a great Portuguese band that played great music so a great time was had by all.
Nivs with a RC of Wanchai Rotarian PP David Sharpe
The boys with a Kiwi Rotarian
Sunday’s Convention programme was full – morning to evening. We did our presentation to the Conference in the session between tea and lunch and it was a great success. We decided to spice things up a bit and ended our presentation by singing the National Anthem to the backing of the Soweto String Quartet. The conference delegates loved it – they stood up while we were singing and gave us huge applause at the end of it – quite a little choir we’ve got here with Siyanda’s deep baritone booming through the sound system. Our booklets were handed out to every Rotarian at conference and people really seem to appreciate them. We are keeping some to bring to our District Conference at home.
A pretty poor picture of us doing our presentation - see the big screen with parts of Brendan's IT presentation
The outgoing GSE Team to South Africa were introduced – Alex and his Smart Angels is what they are calling themselves – they spoke about their plans for the trip and they are going to be great. We have quite an act to follow as far as hospitality goes but I know the clubs in our District will rise to the occasion. Really a super group of young people. After supper with some Rotarians on Sunday evening after Conference closed, we went to the Cirque du Soleil (pronounced Serk dooh Solay) to watch a show called “Zaia”. It was amazing, magnificent, outstanding – words fail us. Another thing for you to google. It is trapeze artists, clowns, acrobats, jugglers, live singing and music – an absolute extravaganza in the most magnificent theatre. The visual effects are out of this world. No pictures were allowed unfortunately so you’ll have to do the google thing.
The day ended with us going to our host families – we had checked out of our luxury quarters in the Venetian. Not a train smash as both Nivashni and Jonathan were getting a bit tired of the opulence and flashiness of the place. Getting into Rotarians homes and getting to know them is one of the things GSE is all about. We are happy to be doing this and looking forward to the rest of our week in Macau. Internet connection in Macau is a bit of an issue but we’ll try to get this posted asap.
No comments:
Post a Comment