Greetings 5170 Century Builders,
Last Night was a free night and we went out and 17 of us went walking
out of the hotel and decided to explore and see what we might find to
eat. 
We
had to break up into little groups and so Mike and Nancy Garver (Mike
is DGE for District 5160) and us went looking for a restaurant. On the
way we ran into the Dick and Carol Hatch and we invited them to join
us. Dick and Carol are our (District 5170) Co-Chairs for the Avenues
of Service Event which we are having on October 21, 2004.
We had a great time and we talked about the Avenues of Service Event.
Everybody got excited when we shared that Cliff Dochterman was going
to give his irreverent History of Rotary Speech. We talked about our
Building Bridges Theme and how that was going to be illustrated at the
Event. We also talked about how appropriate it was for us to have the
Event this year in Centennial Hall.
We came back to the hotel, Cindy retired, and I wrote to you after
which I retired.
Today we got up early so that we could go to the All African breakfast.
This
was tremendous event. We met so many of the people that we have been
building bridges with. Cindy, Arlene, Yaovi, Bambi, and I re-established
our friendship which had begun back in February at Anaheim. Yaovi is
the District Governor of a District that has 10 countries. One of those
countries is Rwanda.
Jonathan Majiyagbe spoke and the interaction between him and the interpreter
was quite comical.
Jonathan would say something lengthy and the interpreter would say 2
words. Jonathan would say something short and the interpreter would
say something lengthy. Jonathan glanced several times at the Interpreter
and after a few of these interactions 
and
he, good naturedly said, …….“that was too short”,
or …….“ let me finish a sentence”!
After Jonathan and several others spoke, Sam Okudjetto gave a Passioned
plea for the Africans to do more with all of the Non Africans who are
in the room. He pleaded with all the Africans to work with the others
in the room who by their mere presence showed how much they loved Africa
and wanted to help. Sam stated that Africa only has 30,000 Rotarians
and also pleaded with them to find more hands in all the nooks and crannies
of Africa to the do the work of Rotary. He also talked about the West
Africa Project Fair and the need for all to work to make it a grand
success.
After the breakfast we got on the bus and went to the Osaka Dome. The
first speaker was Jim Lacy, the Chair of the Rotary Foundation Trustees.
He awarded the Rotary Award for World Understanding and Peace to the
Tim Parry Jonathan Ball Trust. The Trust received $100,000 to continue
the work they are doing. Tim Parry was killed in an IRA explosion on
3/20/93. His Father, Colin Parry, was the co-founder of the Trust.
The Trust takes children from North Ireland, Ireland, and England and
puts the 3 groups of children together for 3 weeks. The goal is to break
the cycle of violence by planting the seeds of non-violence. At this
time they have placed 7000 Ambassadors of Non-Violence in the 3 respective
communities.
Jim Lacy then spoke and gave a rousing speech about The Rotary Foundation.
There was a request from several people to get this speech on tape and
it appears that John Osterland will be trying to do this.
Usha Saboo then gave a moving sensitive speech about the evolution
of her feelings about being married to someone who gives so much of
himself. What she went through to get to the point of being proud of
her husband, Raja Saboo, the Past President of Rotary International
and to also get to the point of declaring a victory over herself. She
currently is thrilled about the volunteering that she does along with
her husband.
Saying goodbye from Osaka, Japan.
See you tomorrow on the web site.
Ron and Cindy Sekkel
