Week of 15 May
Our guest speaker at this week’s meeting was Catherine Warren, who heads up the Riverina branch of Days for Girls, an international program to assist young women coming of age in Africa. The focus of the group is to provide sustainable sanitary products for girls as they start their monthly cycles in order to allow them to stay involved in school and lead productive lives and not be relegated to a subservient lifestyle where they are often treated as second-class citizens (or worse) and their monthly cycle is viewed pretty much as a curse. Local women in the shire meet once a month to sew and assemble the kits, which are distributed to girls in several African countries. The sewing group made 50 kits over the past year, which Jan Breust presented to Catherine on the night. Myffy thanked Catherine for a very impassioned presentation and gave her a kangaroo hide change purse as a token of thanks.
Week of 22 May
This week’s meeting featured a presentation by guest speakers Gordon Saggers and Paul Galloway, members of the Rotary Club of Wagga Wagga. Gordon described their project in Timor L’Este, building a school for primary school children in Tutuala. The school was desperately needed after the destruction of buildings as rebels pillaged the community as the local government took control of the area, including appropriating the tiny building that had functioned as the only school for the community. A relatively modest expenditure of $30,000 was able to get the school built and equipped. Gordon became aware of the needs of the community of Tutuala when he had recently visited to do free dental work for the residents of Timor L’Este (Gordon is a practicing dentist in Wagga). Just another example of a high-impact project benefitting needy people and executed by dedicated and selfless Rotarians. Good on ya, boys! Julie Clark thanked Gordon & Paul, presenting them with a kangaroo hide coin pouch.
Reminder: No regular meeting this week (29 May)
Just a reminder that there is no regular meeting this week. We’ll be having a social night with the Rotary Club of Temora at Coolamon Cheese.
On the lighter side
International one-upsmanship
Recently, Germany conducted some scientific exploration involving their best scientists. Core drilling samples of earth were taken to a depth of 50 m and during the core examinations, small pieces of copper were discovered. After running many arduous tests on these samples, the German government announced that the ancient Germans 25,000 years ago had a nationwide telephone network.
Naturally, the British government was not that easily impressed. So they ordered their own scientists to take their core samples at a depth of 100 m. From these samples, they found small pieces of glass and soon announced that the ancient Brits 35,000 years ago already had a nationwide optical fibre network.
Irish scientists were outraged. So immediately after this announcement, they ordered their scientist to take samples at a depth of 200 m but found absolutely nothing. They concluded that the ancient Irish 55,000 years ago were an even more advanced civilisation, as they already had a mobile telephone network in place.
The Puzzler
The Puzzler is on stress leave this week as he recovers from the rigours of work. Maybe next week…
Answer to last puzzle
The trees were arranged in a star pattern, with trees located at each point of the star and at the intersections of each line connecting the points to each other.
Diary
Monday, 29 May*: Social Night (5th Monday), joint with Temora Rotary. Coolamon Cheese, 6:30 for 7 pm.
Monday, 5 June: Club assembly. Coolamon Sport & Rec Club, 6:30 for 7 pm.
Monday, 12 June: No meeting (Queen’s birthday public holiday).
Thursday, 8 June: Bingo. Roster: Neil (Captain), Wayne, Leslie, Mark. Allawah Lodge, 6:45 (setup) for 7:30 pm.
10-14 June, 2017: Rotary International Convention, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Saturday, 24 June: District 9700 changeover. Leeton (details forthcoming).
Monday, 3 July: Coolamon Rotary changeover. Coolamon Sport & Rec Club, 6:30 for 7 pm.
*Partners and Guests Night
Apologies for Monday meetings: call Ian Jennings on 0428 492 157 BY FRIDAY