D2410 District Conference

This past weekend was one of the most inspiring weekends I've had in a very long time. Maybe it had something to do with having a lot of time to think because I did not understand much of what was going on or that I always feel so capable when I'm at a Rotary function. Capable in the sense that I know no matter what, anything is possible with Rotary!

I think I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, some background information is in order. This weekend I attended my host districts conference in a small town on the south east coast of Sweden called Torsås. The area is famous for an island called öland, where the king has his summer residence, and for a castle that is the most fortified castle in Sweden.

I left early on a very cold Friday morning with a Rotarian from my host club. If you don't mind, I'm going to side track a little and tell you about how quickly it got cold here! On Monday it was still an average autumn tempreture of about 12'C, but within 3 days I was waking up to frost on the grass and tempretures no higher than 3'C and its been like that ever since! Needless to say I spent most of last week shopping for my winter clothes. Now the Swedes having a saying that there is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing. So it took me all week to buy the right clothes because I didn't want to make that mistake. I'll be sure to let you know if I was unsuccessful.

Back to the conference. We arrived at about lunch time at a beautiful historical hotel just outside the town. The hotel is an old farm surrounded by pine forest and only about 500m from the sea. As there was to be a board  meeting that afternoon the husband of the conference organiser and my host family for the weekend came to fetch me for an afternoon of sightseeing. I'm not usually one to get excited about a car, but when you are sightseeing in Sweden in a gold Mercedes SLK 230 I can't help it, I felt like a little boy again with a silly grin on my face the entire time!

That evening we had supper at the hotel and I got the oppotunity to meet some of the Rotarians. I really enjoyed meeting the Swedish and Latvian (the entire Latvia is part of the district, if you were wondering) Rotarians this weekend as everyone was very friendly and really made me feel welcome and I was able to make countless contacts with clubs for me to give my speeches at! Not only did I meet Rotarians, but also the 8 Youth Exchange Students and a GSE team visiting from The Neatherlands.

I seem to have gotten sidetracked again, sorry. The Saturday was the main conference day with the usual speeches and formalities of a conference. I was able to participate in the conference as they had arranged translators for us and I enjoyed listening to the famous Swedish guests, one of whom I actually recognised as 'The Weatherman', give their talks on Health, Children and the Environment (the theme for the conference).

Saturday evening I got the oppotunity to once again enjoy a Swedish banquet and really had a lot of fun singing songs, listening to 'fly in my soup jokes', eating, drinking and of course there was snaps! The diner was followed by dancing to the music of a big band and I took the oppotunity to teach the exchange students how to 'langarm'...of course! Even though the bus came to take us home at 12, it was still an amazing night that was perfectly ended with a night cap with my hosts and their neighbours at their house.

Sunday was to once again be a more business like meeting so I joined the bus that was arranged for the the wives and husbands of the Rotarians on a tour of a local harbour where we enjoyed coffee and cinnamon buns, looked at the local handcrafts and took a tour of a sailors museum.

When we arrived back at the conference I was given the oppotunity to quickly (I was only allowed 1 minute) introduce myself to the 200 odd Rotarians.It has been a long time since there has been an Ambassadorial Scholar in the District and the DG just wanted to make the rest of the clubs aware I'm here!

After lunch was the memorial service for all the Rotarians that have passed in the last year. It was very moving service at a local historical church. I really had to keep from shedding a tear as the combination of candles, an old church and beautiful singing really tugged at my sentimental side. Afterwards it was time for the long journey home and it was while travelling home that I realized how much I still want to do in Sweden and I'm starting to think that the 10 months I have left will not be enough!

I know I started this post with talk of being inspired, but what it was exactly that inspired me I have no idea. I do however now have, what I think, is an amazing idea for a project that is really going to get heads turning not only here, but in SA as well. I can't tell you what it is yet because I still have to iron out the details, but it's going to be a real ringer! So watch this space...

I would also just like to thank all the Rotarians that helped make this weekend such an amazing one. Especially Lena and Bos (My ma and pa for the weekend) for their hospitality and putting me up for the weekend. Also to Thord for allowing me to drive with him to the conference, I hope I did not talk your ear off? I know I will be seeing you all again in the near future.

(I handed out a lot of cards this weekend so I hope that they have an opportunity to read this blog)

Hej då