Bulletin - October 7, 2015

Posted by Carolyn Morley 
on Oct 07, 2015
 
October 7, 2015
 
Greeter/Note taker: Carolyn
Door Duty:  Ian
 
  1. Meeting called to order @ 6:30 p.m. by President Cosmo
  2. National Anthem sang by members
  3. Invocation offered by Dan Rippin
Guests:
Our guest tonight was John Jordan, our speaker.
 
Announcements:
  1. Glen Meadows called to say that, that given the cancellation of curling on Wednesday nights, we would have to pay for a minimum of 15 persons to continue to meet there on Wednesday nights.  While President Cosmo suggested a committee, in the end, Linda Leng agreed to contact Joanne at Glen Meadows about other possible evenings to meet. 
Program:
 
Our guest speaker was John Jordan from the Oak Bay club.  John told us about his trips to Rwanda.  He first went to Rwanda 7 years ago and has returned every year since.  He was mindful of the plight of women raising children alone and wanted to assist.  John gave a bit of history regarding Rwanda.  It was colonized by the Belgians about 100 years ago.  The Belgians left in the 1960’s but while there, entrenched the preferred position of the Tutsi’s.  The Hutu’s were farmers.  When the Belgians left, the Tutsi’s were swept out of responsible positions.  It resulted in 30 years of bad governance.  In 1994, there was the mass slaughter of 800,000 Tutsi’s.  At that time, a rebel army from the refugee camps was raised which routed the Hutu army.  Since the 1994 genocide, there has been a serious effort to rebuild society.  The current President, who is near the end of his second 7 year term, has managed to hold the country together and advance society there.  Still, the economy has not reached everyone.  John spoke of the group he was involved with who help people to rebuild their homes, put on new roofs to capture rain water and help with new brick stoves for the houses, build raised garden beds and try to give families breeding animals.
 
Sergeant at Arms
 
Because we ran overtime, the Sarge was passed by.
 
Happy & Sad Dollars:
 
None.
 
Marble Draw:
 
Dan had the winning ticket, but unfortunately did not pull the lucky marble.
 
Next Week’s Program:
 
Dr. Real Roy, The Francophone Community of B.C.
 
Duties for October 14, 2015
 
Greeter and Note taker – Jack MacAulay
Door Duty – Carolyn