Well, we are now past the half-way stage and all is going really well, touch wood etc.
This weekend we have attended the District 3230 conference, named Kurinji after the flower that blooms every 12 years (conf being 12........monthly).There are some notable differences to ours, for instance there were 5,200 registrants, which has interesting when there is only seating capacity for some 1,600 in the auditorium, so a couple of hundred standing, not for our presentation, but for the lifetime award for a Kolleywood film director(!), was not surprising.
It is amazing that the catering facilities do cope with these numbers, for lunch and evening dinner, always seated, with slick service creating very short eating times, all at tressles in a huge hall. Bearing in mind that a lot of the sessions are conducted in tamil, and we have not yet completed our lessons in this ancient Dravidian language, I have thoroughly enjoyed quite a few of the sessions. R.I. vice President Tom Thorfinnson spoke well on 'the Challenges before us', forecasting some of the changes that Rotary MUST make to keep up with the internet/i-phone world that lies ahead, of meetings not face-to-face and therefore not weekly, for example; however, the core values of diversity, leadership, fellowship and service should not change.
There has been delightful dancing by spouses, and separately by their children, which we could emulate. In India they do, however, include their families so much more than we do in the UK
I have been greatly entertained with typical Southern Indian Carnatic music, singing and dancing to a professional level as well as juggling, gymnastics, conjuring and laser dancing at last evening's performance which was exceptionally good.
Our presentation went very well, I believe. Because we felt that quite a number of those present would have seen much of our personal aspects, we had changed the format completely, to show much more of the features of our region. Carl has been the creator of the powerpoint, so he came on last and took up all theallocated time that as left with these slides and it was well received.
Lastw eek was my birthday; I received no less than three cakes, with great cermony ( I can certainly say that India is a first-class country in which to celebtrate one's birthday, as they really know how to do it in style). Ben's is tomorrow, so we must not let that go by without the same treatment.
On Thursday we had a meeting with the Mayor and were able to ask him some questions. He certainly answered each one fully, although we shall probably never know whether his dreams will come to fruition! Certainly it was one of those many things that we have done that would not have been possible if it weren't for this GSE exchange facility. We are truly grateful to our meticulous and attentive hosts.
Tomorrow is a very early rise in order to meet at 6am to drive out to the Hill Station of Vellore. This next few days will be long and full, but will, I am sure, be fabulous owing to the rural nature of this area. Oh dear, now less than two weeks to go, and we've lots more to see and do!