Rotary Conference

Just like last year and the year before, the 82nd Regional Conference of Rotary District 4980 was held this year in Punta del Este. There were 513 people in attendance from 37 different clubs in the district. The total also includes the Dutch scholars who are here for a month (2 of the 5 shown below) and the new Interact Club of Melo, proudly displaying their new charter and banner directly beneath the Dutch scholars. I was surprised to see how many Interact members belong to the Melo Club. They filled up half the meeting room! It was a stark contrast to my Interact days when I think we had about 7 or 8 active members. The conference was really fun (and the food was delicioso! I ate two desserts at every meal.) and the talks were thought-provoking.  The most prominent themes (does that sound like it was translated directly from Spanish...because I've found that I forget words in English more often now than ever) were revamping the education system (el sistema educativo) and developing/funding a program in the schools to promote dental health.
The program, called PRAT, was developed by the WHO but is being implemented by various organizations world-world.  The video link is in Spanish, but if you go here, you can read more about it in English.  You may not be able to understand the video, but at the very least, you can see the Uruguayan public school uniform (the big, white tunic with the enormous, navy blue bow) worn by the kids getting their teeth cleaned.  

After the Saturday presentations, there was a formal dinner with a band that sang all manner of early '90s American jams as well as a couple of Shakira covers.  I had the pleasure of sitting with the coordinator of the Dutch scholars, a World Peace Scholar from Argentina who was one of the guest speakers, and another Rotarian from Montevideo (Rotary Club Aguada, District 4790) who was born in New York and speaks English.  I didn't know a soul at the conference and the Rotarians and their wives took excellent care of me.  We ate steak, drank wine and danced all night.  

I have since been invited to Buenos Aires to give my Tennessee presentation to the World Peace Scholar's club, and yesterday I attended the meeting of Rotary Club Aguada.  It's a club of ALL MEN, about 40 of them.  It's also much more formal than my host club.  It's good to see the differences in the clubs, and I enjoyed their meeting very much, but I feel really lucky to have been placed with my small, mixed-gender, whiskey-drinkin' club!

To the right is a table with the District Governor and a plethora of other important Rotarians, including various noteworthy guest speakers.  Below you will find the big guy, Paul Harris and the Conrad, where the conference was held.  It's the most important hotel in Uruguay.  It has everything, including a casino and a Tiffany's.  Everything, that is, except a hotel store in case you forgot your toothpaste.  

Beneath the Conrad ($275/night with the Rotary group discount) is another view of the hotel from the beach near my hotel ($35/night and really cute). 

Anyway, I had a really good time at the conference and met some fun people who are doing big things through Rotary.  It's always inspirational to learn what kinds of projects (proyectos) other groups are organizing.  I've managed to stay in contact with just about everyone I met at the conference, and hopefully, I will get to host a dinner for the group from the Netherlands at my apartment this week!  One of my classmates is a Rotarian whose club is hosting a dinner for the Dutch scholars tonight and invited me to go along.  Sooo, I can either go to class and listen to my professor talk for 4 hours about international relations, orrrr I can go make some international relations of my own!  I think we all know which option best fulfills the duties of an Ambassadorial Scholar.  So that's that.  I miss you all.  Send me emails and tell me all your fun summer plans!  It has finally started to get cold here, but people act like we're in the arctic, wearing scarves covering their faces in 55* weather.  Maybe they're hiding from Gripe "A"? Is that still being called the Swine Flu in the US?