By Rotary International From the November 2015 issue of The Rotarian
When I was 20 years old, I flew to Israel for a semester abroad. The moment we landed, all the passengers onboard burst into applause. I’d never seen such a thing. The man next to me, an elderly Hasid, sensed my bewilderment.
“This is to say thanks,” he murmured.
“For what?”
“For the miracle of safe passage to the promised land.” He looked at me for a long moment. “It is a miracle, don’t you think?”
I don’t remember much about that semester. But this exchange has haunted me for nearly three decades. I’m still taken aback by the towering ignorance… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

By Rotary International From the November 2015 issue of The Rotarian
In the summer of 2014, Tunji Funsho met a little girl with polio. In his more than 40 years as a physician, he had never had a patient who had just been diagnosed with the virus. The girl turned out to be one of Nigeria’s last children to contract the disease, and the encounter made a powerful impression on Funsho, chair of Rotary’s Nigeria PolioPlus Committee.
Nigeria marked one year without a case of wild poliovirus in July 2015. The next month, Africa as a whole followed suit. This remarkable achievement means that soon there may be only two… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

By Rotary International From the November 2015 issue of The Rotarian
Left with a deep emotional void after the loss of his wife four years ago, Ron Bowden discovered the perfect respite, a place filled with the whirring of buzz saws, the clanking of wrenches, and the listening ears of a band of brothers: his local men’s shed. An Australian phenomenon, the sheds are communal buildings equipped for light carpentry and other woodworking, bicycle repairs, or leatherwork, where men (women are welcome too) gather to tinker and socialize. Bowden, now a member of the Rotary Club of Toowoomba East, Australia, initially… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

By Rotary International From the November 2015 issue of The Rotarian
The Rotary Club of Cartagena, Colombia, has worked to bring health care to poor children for almost seven decades. Most recently, with support from a Rotary Foundation Global Grant and Rotarians around the world, the club has obtained more than $200,000 to provide pediatric cardiac care. Past club president German Spicker rounded up funds from Switzerland to Japan to help make it all happen.
THE ROTARIAN: Tell us about your city.
SPICKER: Cartagena is a city of contrasts. You find beautiful places that look like Miami Beach. But much of our… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

By Rotary International From the November 2015 issue of The Rotarian
When Camilla McGill planned her first visit to India about 10 years ago, she couldn’t have known how quickly – nor how painfully – she’d learn one of the trip’s most important lessons.
“I was alone in a hotel, and I had a nightmare,” she says. “I jumped out of bed, caught my foot in the sheet, fell to the floor, and hit my head.” In the morning, she found herself dizzy and disoriented, with a blossoming black eye, but she was determined to keep her first appointment: assisting with a National Immunization Day event with Rotarians at a nearby… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

By Rotary International From the November 2015 issue of The Rotarian
Several years ago, I got an idea for a book, one so strange that I naturally became obsessed with it. The manuscript would consist of 30 one-page essays on the craft of writing, and 30 one-page stories. I had a title all picked out: This Won’t Take But a Minute, Honey.
I was terribly excited about Minute, Honey, which I fancied as a kind of Strunk and White for the post-modern set. And thus I set about pitching it to editors at various New York publishing houses. To call their reaction negative would be overstating the case. They were simply… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

By Rotary International From the November 2015 issue of The Rotarian
The neighborhoods of Seoul pulse with distinct personalities. Myeong-dong is for shopping. Hongdae is for partying. Gangnam is for people watching. And the charming neighborhood of Insa-dong will be a great place to delight over handmade crafts and antiques while you’re in Seoul for the 2016 Rotary International Convention from 28 May to 1 June.
Insa-dong’s reputation as a tourist destination began after the Korean War, but its roots as an artist’s haven go back more than 500 years, when it was home to a government painting school.
The neighborhood… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

By Rotary International From the November 2015 issue of The Rotarian
When Anna Harry relocated to Evergreen, Colo., she knew no one. But her father, George Harry, a member of the Rotary Club of Cary-Page, N.C., had a plan. While he was in town to help her move, he took her along to a make-up meeting at the Rotary Club of Evergreen. Three weeks later, she was a member.
But after her father had gone back home to North Carolina, Harry was nervous about attending a meeting on her own. Would people talk to her? Would she be able to make friends and get involved? What she didn’t know was that the Evergreen club has had an… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org

By Rotary International From the November 2015 issue of The Rotarian
In June, in the middle of the worst drought in California’s settled history, San Francisco did something bold that got almost no attention. The city passed an ordinance requiring all new developments of a certain size – commercial or residential – to install water recycling systems right on-site. Any new development of 250,000 square feet or larger will have to collect rainwater and gray water, clean it, and reuse it in the building or development for toilets, washing machines, and landscaping irrigation. New buildings with the recycling systems… …read more

Source:: Rotary.org