I met with my Rotary club for the first time last Thursday. Any nervousness I had about our initial encounter was absolved within the first 5 minutes of arriving. Many of the details of their meetings were polar opposites of my host club in College Station. I have to say, with the vast amount of love I have for my home club, the meeting time here suits me much better than our 6:45AM time! We meet at 9 PM, which actually means we meet at 9:30PM, every Thursday. My club president, Rotarian Chois picked me up at home, took me to the meeting, and introduced me to the club. We started off the with food from a local chifa, or Chinese restaurant. This was a bit to my chagrin, as I had already had dinner, but I managed to be culturally sensitive and eat my share. I will know for next time that 9 PM is not thought of as too late for dinner. The actual meeting was similar in structure to my host club. We stated with a salute to the Peruvian flag as well as that of Rotary International. We went through our business, there was a bit more an informal conversational dialog than I am used to, but it made for a very comfortable atmosphere. The club here is relatively new, which is fortunate in a way for me, because we are all beginning together. I told them of the preliminary work I've done with some groups here in Lima in regards to establishing a women's shelter in the citya. They were very excited about the idea and informed me that there are more than 50 Rotary clubs here in Lima we can seek help from. I look forward to developing that service project with them. Lima has one of the highest incidences of violence towards women in all of Latin America and my fellow Rotarians emphasized the need of a refuge that could begin to address that problem. Tomorrow we are having visitors from the community that are proposing a project working with indigenous groups here in Lima. I look forward to our mutual growth through service as the year goes on.
