Rotary musings

So at my last Rotary Club meeting, one of the members wants to pay 100 Pula towards his annual dues of 600. He turns to the treasurer with a 200 Pula note. Treasurer can’t change it so the member goes to the restaurant staff to try to change it. Time goes by and I am not thinking about this, as the treasurer and I each had eaten dinner so were working on paying our bills. But I guess it was hard to change this 200 pula, because much later in the lobby the staff person walks up and hands the member a 100 Pula note.  Presumably she had already given him the first 100 Pula.  He takes it from her, turns to the treasurer and hands it to him, to pay his dues. The treasurer takes the 100 Pula and turns and hands it back to the restaurant employee, because by that time he has to pay his restaurant bill and he has a 200 Pula note of his own. Since he doesn’t want to stand around as long as it took the first one to be changed, he temporarily dipped into our coffers to expedite life.  I just thought the whole interchange was amusing. The treasurer said I could share it as long as I made clear that he wasn’t actually using Rotary money to pay his bill and he would square it up later.

Ours is a small club and we are in a poor place, so trying to get ourselves out in the community and raising money to help people is challenging. We are working on collecting used clothing to give to people who need it and are distributing English books for kids to local medical offices, clinics and programs serving orphans and vulnerable children.  But there are just a few of us who are really doing anything, and bringing new members in is challenging. Even though 600 Pula is less than $100, it is a lot of money for many and the concept of joining a service club is still foreign in Botswana. We need something that puts us out in front of the community so they say, “wow, those people are cool and I so want to be one of them…”  In South Africa, there are a lot of clubs, some of them very wealthy, but ours is not that.

I am hoping to travel to Johannesburg with some other members in October to attend a Rotary function, and I want to plan some traveling next year to visit Rotary clubs in South Africa who are doing some good HIV/AIDs related work.  I am probably going to make my way to visit the other Botswana based Rotary clubs in November.  I am also contemplating going to Bangkok for the International meeting in May. I feel like I am half way there anyway, but I better look at a map and my bank account.

Rotary International has an Action Group working on AIDS and they finally have a contact name for someone in Botswana, so I am hoping to connect with him and see what they are working on.  I like my fellow Lobatse Rotarians and hopefully we will be able to bring in more members.  I realize now I made it way too easy for my Arcata Club to recruit me. Then again, I haven’t given you any dues yet now, have I? Thanks for letting me be an honorary Arcata member until  I return. Too bad 600 Pula won’t get me very far in Arcata.