FINI (I blame Melissa for the tears)

After the conference Eric and Carol swept me back to Medford for the last day of our GSE trip together as a team. I am the lucky sod that gets to go up to Portland for a week after the trip but that meant I had to say an early goodbye to Melissa. Liesl, Olivier and Ine as well as our wonderful, marvelous, kind, funny, silly Medford hosts.

Lisa and Sam went all out and threw us a barbecue farewell with pressies and all sorts. I was so happy to spend a little time with everyone but it was very difficult - knowing that this was the last I am going to see of them for a while. It was especially difficult saying goodbye to four people that I had spent an entire month with. We could not have been a better team - not even one argument between us!

My Frenchie, my graceful teamleader, my Guya-Bajan sister and Melissa - my pocket sized Trini - I will be friends with you the rest of my life. Thank you Sam for our lovely talk by the river - which postponed the inevitable tears (All Melissa's fault).

We ate, we drank, we made merry and in the morning Ken and Greg swapped me for Olivier and Ken and I had a five hour natter from Medford to Eugene (with a wee shoe shopping trip as Ken is also obsessed with shoes!).

Of course there has to be a little drama at the end. After a prefect record of travelling thousands of miles all over California and Oregon, my team sans me missed their flight to Los Angeles. But that is their story which you should follow on their blogs.

To my team - see you all June 19th! (Just kidding Frenchie)
To my hosts - see you next winter in Barbados (and I am NOT kidding)

I cannot express how giving and dedicated our District 5110 hosts have been. The most important thing I will take away from this is the confidence and faith that they have in us - the joy that they said we imparted into their lives. I have truly made a difference in a few lives, and each Rotarian has made a difference in mine.

District Conference

Boy - I have never packed in so much into two days. Try to keep up with me folks - we arrived in from Roseburg, we had lunch, we met loads of our past host families. Shout outs to;

Greta
Diane
Prudence
Kingsley
Diana
Carol
Eric
Sam
Lisa
Rick
Emily
Jim
Dell
Nettie
Cliff
Bill

and all the others I have forgotten to mention.

We then raced off to do a final run through of our presentation, we presented, rocked the crowd (yes we had loads of people telling us that it was the best GSE presentation EVER!), went to a fancy reception, butt up on the Oregonian GSE team, hi girls!, had dinner, then we ended up a the Rockin Rodeo across the road from the hotel. I will not say that the incoming president of a certain club was first in the dancing cage - no Carol I wont say that. Nor will i say that I was introduced to Crown and coke... nope Justin. Let's just say that we didn't get in till after 1am and that was just the first day!







Next day we missed breakfast - bleh. I mean why cant we still have breakfast at 11am even though breakfast ended at 9? We had a fantastic question and answer breakout session with the Brazilian and Oregonian GSE teams - full house and more! Good thing there wasn't a fire marshall in the house.

Had lunch - went to the Saturday market in Eugene, went shopping with the fabulous Shelly Kane, Justin and Lisa, had deserts, came home in just enough time to get ready for the formal dinner, tricked Chandra and Justin (GSE co-chairs) into thinking Melissa was sick, surprised them with their thank you gifts, ran off to change, went to a comped Damien Marley and Nas concert (with backstage passes) with the part of the Brazilian team, host families, GSE co-chair and Oregonian team (All hail Shelly Kane and her smooth moves and Sky High the road manager), went to a bar, had to go back to the hotel for ID (I'm 35 people!), ate a street hot dog, went to another bar, came back to the hotel, witnessed 16 police cars block the streets to break up a fight (with flashing lights and everything!), said goodbye to Justin and Shelly :-(, and went to sleep at 3am.











Had to be up and out of hotel at 11am to go back to Medford, our final resting place.

During all of this we also actually attended all the sessions we were supposed to and thoroughly enjoyed the Conference itself.

Phew.

Am I getting too old for this kind of thing? Nah - I'll just sleep when I'm dead.

Apologies for quality of pictures - I had to farm some off of the others as I suddenly developed camera shyness :-)

The last Hurrah Before...

The next day Dell let us off our wine tour duties in Roseburg so that we could prepare our presentation for the District Conference - a lot of work went into it and thanks to Diana Corder for letting us use her house for the task. i will admit to clearing her kitchen out of all the left overs to make a chicken stir fry for the team - and cutting off the tip of my thumb in the process. A bad workman always blames his tools - my excuse is that I have only made two meals in over a month! I'm out of practice! The team thought it tasted good though! Finger licking good he he.

In the evening we had a meet and greet with the Roseburg Noon club at the Misty Oak Winery where Diana won a bottle of wine! Tom, showed us his new house - stunning! and we saw cows rutting in a field - hmmmm.

I had said my good byes to Marisa the night before as she was off to New York to attend her daughter's graduation, but saying goodbye to the Roseburg team was still difficult. Marty and Marisa, Bill, Tom and Laura, Diana, Dell and his lovely wife Shell - it was hard because saying goodbye to all the wonderful Rotarians of Roseburg was like saying goodbye to all our previous host families. :-(

But off to the District Conference in Eugene and our big number...

Petting Elephants

I liked Roseburg - from the cut hills where goats used to run feral to the lush countryside that looks just like England, Roseburg will hold some great memories for me. Like my last vocational visits where I met Kathy Henderson, the executive director of Umpqua Valley Arts Association, the stunning Wilson Falls with Tom, Melissa's host dad, and the Wildlife Safari with Tom and Dell, but again I am jumping ahead...

The Arts Association was again a blend of volunteerism, community involvement and exhibition space that has worked so successfully in Oregon and that I would like to see of more of in Barbados. Taking into consideration that the Barbados National Art Gallery should be close to finally having a home, concepts like artists in residence, Art Express in the schools, community classes and student galleries will be high on my mind. Mind you these associations are filling a huge need in the community that we do not feel in Barbados, as there are no trained art teachers in elementary schools in Roseburg.

Sande of Creative Images was a great final visit where they are a full graphics and marketing firm, owned by the Seven Feather tribe. She also drove me in her BMW land shark - booyah to Ken!

We had a great Italian lunch and tour at KPIC the TV station in Roseburg - where the business community were feted by the catering class of the local community college.


The day ended with our final club presentation at the North Roseburg club. It was bittersweet as we ended our run of 14 presentations, but we had fun and gave a bow that we are definitely going to have to work on for the District Conference! my lasting memory will be having a conversation with four middle aged to older Rotarians who questioned me voraciously about my hair! They were so polite and curious and all loved it!

The next day Tom took the team on a day outing where we saw where two rivers meet at Colliding Rivers Viewpoint, a salmon fishery, the awe -inspiring Wilson Falls, lunch where I had a tasty philly cheese steak, and the Wildlife Safari in Winston where I got to get up close and personal with George, the bull elephant!




Words cannot encompass the beauty of the Falls. I was in hog heaven - could have stayed there all day. Besides the Redwoods that was the most beautiful Landscape that I saw - sorry Crater Lake - you're monumental and stunning but Wilson Falls was intimate and fantastical. The nine year old Nerys would have died and gone to heaven if she had seen this fairy and elf fueled environment.







The Wildlife Safari was lots of fun - we had personal encounters with Giraffe, Bear, Lion and Elephant, as well as countless other animals. For those of you that know me you will understand my child like joy at being able to pet George the elephant. I do not need to buy an elephant during this trip (something I always do when travelling) because I have the most awesome memories. Thank you so much Tom and Dell for arranging this for us, that is an experience I will never forget. Only thing I regret - the yak licking my door handle - yeuck!








The day finished off at Ine's host family, a veterinarian who lives on a beautiful ranch with horses. The barbecue was delish as we enjoyed the scenery and talk of past GSE experiences.

Bye Bye Dunes - Hello Roseburg!

A lovely dinner at Bart and Nancy Stein fared thee well as we left Bandon in the care of Dell Grey and Diana Corder the next day. Lots of conservation about tolerance of others was had, along with Salmon for everyone else and Halibut for me! How nice were they to cater to my preference in fish?

Just wanted to mention that Colleen Showalter is a direct descendant to Robert Morris, a signatory on the Declaration of Independence. She is also an all-round good egg! Keep up the good fight Colleen, you are your gorgeous family are welcome at my house any day.

The Fab-u-lous Dell swept us away from the Dunes and with nary a backward glance as we anticipated Roseburg, our final host stay. (Did I mention how great Mr. Gray is? How he came to Grants Pass to acquaint us and make sure that we were good with our schedule? The thing is, this kind of generosity and thoughtfulness is rampant through Oregon Rotary. Wherever we have gone we have been wined and dined, feted and pampered. It's going to be hard going back to normal life.)

Diana and Dell took us to lunch at Linda's in Coquille. Linda is a fantastic little firebrand and received the Rotarian of the Year Award again this year (but I jump ahead a little.) She started a whole slew of Interact clubs in her district, and we got to meet the first District Governor for Interact in 5110! All the young ladies and gents we met were lovely, well spoken and nascent Rotarians! The team really enjoyed chatting with them. I also chatted with some parents and Rotarians on the deck whilst wolfing down spaghetti and meatballs. Great conversation was had about tolerance and understanding, Haiti, religious understanding etc. etc. etc. Phew lots of fun.

Don't let me forget to mention Jim Bush, a dad of one of the Interact kids, who is a descendant of King Edward I of England AND Charlamagne of France!

Off to Roseburg we went after our little stop off. Where we met our host families at McMinimens and I met Marty and Marisa Fink. Lovely couple. I will admit to wondering why I didn't get paired with Diana due to our mutual obsession with shoes - but I was more than happy to go home with a pair of career YMCA'ers.


Marisa gave me a quick tour of the facility where she is Executive Director and then home to a lovely home and warm bed.