A week with Rotary

One of the best parts of being a Rotary Scholar is Rotary. Now I’m not just saying that to get into anybodies good books (although if it does it would not hurt), but rather because  with Rotary there is always something interesting and fun to do and this past week has been the perfect example.

It started with a weekend RYLA seminar. For those of you who are not versed in the very in depth ways of Rotary acronyms it stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. It was a weekend devoted to leadership training for students and young professionals between the ages of 20 and 30 from all over the district. There was even supposed to be a group from Latvia, but unfortunately they could not make it because of the volcano. This volcano has really caused a lot of trouble here, some say that Iceland has not caused this much trouble in Europe since the time of the Vikings. First they burn all of Europe’s money and now they scatter it with the ashes. (I don’t know if you’ve heard these jokes, but I thought they were kind of funny)

Even though the Latvians where not able to attend, the seminar was still held in English so that I could participate. It was a really great group of people and I had a marvellous time getting to know them and discuss Swedish life. They were all from neighbouring  towns and I know I will be visiting them all in the near future.

As I had been on a RYLA camp when I was in high school it was interesting to see the different way in which they approached it in Sweden. In SA we went out into the forest for a few days and learnt about leadership while trying to survive. In Sweden it was a seminar with activities, group work, presentations and panel discussions. I learnt a lot about leadership and enjoyed the opportunity to learn from experienced leaders. It also gave me a chance to reflect on my past leadership positions and learn from them.

One of the highlights of the seminar was that I was also asked to give a presentation about my own experience as a young leader. I was honoured to be considered for this task. I have never had the opportunity to talk about JOOL before and personally it was quiet a moving exercise to reflect on what has been a big part of my life for a number of years.

After the weekend seminar the rest of the week was pretty standard with classes, an exam and of course the odd social activity. I also gave another presentation on JOOL to the event management class at the Folkhögskola where I live.

On Friday I was invited to visit a Rotarian, in my host club, and his wife at their summer home and help him chop a little fire wood. Always keen to see new parts of Sweden I travelled to Kisa by train, met him and travelled to another little town on the banks of two beautiful lakes. His summer house turned out to be a 100 hectare farm which he mainly uses for grazing and forestry. We spent the rare sunny morning exploring the property and the nearby town. 

After a lovely lunch of freshly caught fish it was time to get to work so I promptly asked him where I could find the axe. He told me and then asked me why I was looking for an axe. A little confused I told him I thought we were going to chop wood. He said we were, but not with an axe. As it turns out even wood chopping is automated in Sweden. He took me to a special section of his farm where he had all the machines already set up. There was the spinning saw to cut the trees into logs, the hydraulic arm splitter to split the wood into smaller pieces and of course the conveyer belt to transport the logs to fill the cubic meter sacks. With him on the saw and me on the splitter we filled 2 sacks in less than 3 hours. Instead of swinging an axe and building some real muscles, the most difficult thing I did all day was equivalent to closing the lid of a Weber Braai!  

Again this simple chore showed me how different these two countries are. In South Africa we would hire a labourer for a day, give him a saw and an axe and ask him to chop wood. The more labourers you hire the more wood you can get chopped. Its considered job creation!

After my very ‘tiring’ day on the farm I returned home with a smile on my face and very yummy jar of homemade whiskey honey.

The next day I was again up early and accompanied some more of my host clubs Rotarians to the nearby town of Vimmerby for the district president elect training seminar (PETS). It was a meeting of all the future presidents in the district to discuss the coming Rotary year. I was given an opportunity to promote the Ambassadorial scholar programme and encourage the district to start sending scholars of their own. It was nice to see some familiar faces from the district conference as well as meet some new people and arrange many more club visits and speaking engagements.

As the afternoon was a business meeting I took the opportunity to explore Vimmerby. This quaint little town is actually quiet famous as it is the childhood home of the famous author, Astrid Lindgren. Who is best known for the Pippy Long-stockings  books. There is even an amusement park dedicated to her books, but unfortunately after a very long walk I found it only to discover it was closed. Luckily her childhood home/museum was open and I got the opportunity to look around and buy one of her books in Swedish.

My week (or more like 10 days) of Rotary came to an end on Tuesday morning when I went to my host club’s meeting to support Alex, the youth exchange student from New Zealand, because she was giving her first presentation. It was very interesting to listen to her describe her home country and I found out that NZ has a lot more to offer  than just rugby.

As you can see Rotary really is a big part of my life here in Sweden, or rather it is my life here. Although these activities might be part of my duties as a scholar, they never seem like work and I treasure every moment.

Hej då