Rotary Club of Holland
eBulletin
Service Above Self
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Club Web Site
Editor: Jim Meier
If you have any comments or
questions, email the editor.
This Past Week at Holland Rotary
by Charles Huttar
Future Speakers
Jul 21 2011
Reps. Amanda Price and
Joe Haveman
Experiences of an Ambassadorial Scholar
"What is going on in the State
Capitol? An update from your
Representatives"
Jul 28 2011
Ruggles Church
"Arab spring: Activism & protests
in the Middle East"
Aug 4 2011
Pete Hoekstra
"Life after Congress"
Aug 11 2011
Greg Robinson
"West Michigan Airport Authority
(Tulip City Airport)"
Aug 18 2011
Rudy Vedovell
"3RD Bucket List: COMPLETED "
Aug 25 2011
Tom Braak
"2011 Update on Haiti
Humanitarian Work through Faith
In Action"
Sep 1 2011
Dave Lorenz and Sally
Laukitis
"Pure Michigan means Pure
Tourism"
Sep 8 2011
Russ Miller (Holland
Rotarian)
"China: Looking in a Mirror"
Oct 6 2011
Jeanette Hoyer
Upcoming Events
Holland Rotary 5K Run / Walk
Sep 3 2011
News
Lydia Hartsell with Ed Swart
For at least three years our club has taken pride in knowing
Lydia Hartsell-first as a 2008 Hope College graduate whom we
sponsored (along with the AM club) for one of Rotary's
Ambassadorial Scholarships, and who won the competition on
the District level; then as our "ambassador" in 2009-10, reporting
on her life abroad in regular postcards; and now, finally, back for
our July 14 noon program, to give an account of her study year.
Begun in 1947, the Ambassadorial Scholarships program has
furthered the careers of more than 40,000 young men and
women, chosen as potentially "tomorrow's community and world
leaders." (Former Congressman Guy VanderJagt was one of
those our club has sponsored previously.) In 2009-10, Lydia was
one of nearly 700 students from 80 countries granted this
opportunity to study abroad. Each one received generous
Duty Roster Available On-Line
Get Involved with Exchange
Students!
Looking for a few Good Men and
Women....
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Date!
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support for tuition, travel, and living expenses (pegged for the
coming year at $29,000). The aim is to further international
understanding and friendly relations among people of different
countries and geographical areas. Study is only one
responsibility: they're also expected to serve as goodwill
ambassadors to the host country, partly through giving
presentations about their homelands to Rotary clubs (Lydia did
this in nine clubs in Africa), and, back home, to help their own
people better understand the country where they studied. Our
contributions to the Rotary Foundation make this admirable
program possible.
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"Diseases, Daladalas, and Didactics: My Life as an
Ambassadorial Scholar in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania" was the
title of Lydia's talk. With an ingenious "show and tell" of coins old
and recent, she gave a quick summary of Tanzania's history
from coastal domination by Arab traders as early as 1200
through the colonial experience (Germany and Britain) to
independence in 1961, followed by the merger in 1964 of
Tanganyika and the offshore island Zanzibar. Arriving in August
2009, Lydia spent the first two months in Zanzibar, escaping the
severest equatorial heat and learning Swahili, in which later she
became fluent through many conversations and was even
complimented on her accent! But she was very lonely, feeling
like she was the only person there neither Muslim nor a tourist,
though her home-stay helped. Then she enrolled in Muhumbili
[DV1] University of Health and Applied Sciences in Dar es
Salaam, but to save expense she lived on the city's outskirts and
became a commuter. This enabled a lot of cross-cultural
experience, especially on the jam-packed daladalas (minibuses)
for three to four hours a day in "horrendous traffic," for about 40
cents each way.
There were break times, of course: Christmas in Zambia, a
safari in the Serengeti, visits to Victoria Falls and Mount
Kilimanjaro and to the chimpanzees Jane Goodall worked with.
Visiting one Rotary club, Lydia met immediate past RI president
D. K. Lee from Korea. And she made new American friends,
including another Rotary Scholar studying at the University of
Dar es Salaam. She also found time to volunteer while on
Zanzibar at the Kisiwandui Medical Center, a private clinic where
she conducted malaria tests, and then for five months in the
pediatric ward of the Ocean Road Cancer Institute. Here the
mortality rate, which was running as high as 75%, had been cut
to under 20% through the efforts of an Irish woman physician
who proved a good mentor. During Lydia's time there, the
Institute became part of the National Hospital, with better
technical facilities and "clean fresh drinking water in all the
wards"-a great improvement giving new meaning to its motto
"Upendo, Tumaini, Ujasiri" (Love, Hope, Strength). It also
happens that a central service project of her host Rotary club in
Dar es Salaam is concerned with health issues for mothers and
children.
At Muhumbili she studied with 20-some others- Tanzanian
doctors, nurses, environmental specialists, plus another Rotary
Scholar, from Chicago (all shown, along with much else, in the
photos that accompanied her talk). There was "group
learning" (classroom) and "first-hand learning" (field trips: e.g., a
conference in the north on health management, and learning to
distinguish mosquito larvae that would become malaria carriers
from those that would spread elephantiasis infection). Finally
came her thesis for the masters degree in Public Health, for
which she interviewed 15 medical and data-gathering
professionals in the Kilimanjaro region. Questions had been
raised about the accuracy of official data on maternal mortality.
Lydia's project was to assess their reliability, and she found that
through improved supervision, training on the use of data, and
routine meetings between supervisor and data management
worker, data collection was more diligently performed and
recorded.
The next step: soon she will enrol in medical school at the
University of Minnesota (her home state) with a full tuition
scholarship. Her main interest is in Global Health, specializing in
obstetrics and gynecology, and she hopes eventually to return to
East Africa as a medical missionary. More information can be
found in her blog at www.lydiahartsell.com. Holland Rotary
indeed has reason to take pride in its role in Lydia's
achievements. Her parting words: "THANK YOU HOLLAND
ROTARY!"
Newest Rotarians
by Meier, Jim
Holland's Newest Rotarian
Holland's newest Rotarian, Wendy Raymond , was inducted into
our club last Thursday, July 14. Wendy is manager at Chemical
Bank's South Washington Branch. Please welcome Wendy
Raymond!
Deb VanderJagt with New Rotarian, Wendy Raymond
MAGic Committee
by Donna J. Bogle
Rotary Family Day Event is This Week!
Thursday, at 5:30: a Picnic at Smallenberg Park on
Fairbanks.
Personal Checklist:
Family
Sandwiches
Diapers if needed
Shovel and gloves (optional)
Sunscreen
Sun hat
Bug spray
Washcloth if kids eat the ice cream like a kid
Neighbors' kids (optional)
Friends
Foundation Committee
by Martin, Mari D.
Members Needed for the Foundation
Committee
Please consider joining this committee; we need your
ideas, thoughts and Rotary service. See Mari Martin or
George Higginson. The committee will be meeting soon
and will be planning for the new Rotary year.
International Youth Exchange
by Janet Huyser
Help support International Youth Exchange
Host families needed for fall 2011 for:
Boy from Taiwan to attend WOHS,
Boy from South America to attend Black River Public
School,
Girl from South America to attend Holland Christian High
School, and
Girl from Poland to attend Holland High School
Contact any member of Rotary Youth Exchange: Janet Huyser,
Mark Rett, Linda Falstad, Ed Swart, Carol Dillenbeck, Carol
King, David Beattie, Deb Vangerjact, Rich Brandt or Kay
Hubbard
Communications Committee
by Meier, Jim
HELP WANTED
Want to help with the website or newsletter? We're looking for
help with stories, photos and editing / maintaining the website.
I'm eager to train! Many hands make light work...or something
like that!
Contact Jim Meier
Communications Committee
by Meier, Jim
Holland Rotary Newsletter
Jim Meier
616 399-3556 h 616 723-7727 c
[email protected]
Holland Rotary Club Website
www.hollandrotary.org
Holland Rotary Mailing Address:
Rotary Club of Holland
P.O. Box 2278
Holland MI 49422-2278