Rotary Programs We Support
GSE Team to India
In the spring of 1998, local businessman Todd Savill was a member of the District 6330 Group Study Exchange Team to District 3060 in India. The pictures and text on this page are but a tiny glimpse of Todd's experiences during that month.........
"The GSE experience was an opportunity of a lifetime. To meet so many diverse people and to make friendships that will last a lifetime is beyond all expectations. My exchange was to the state of Gujurat in the NE corner of India. Through Rotary I was able to see and do things that no tourist would be able to do. We stayed with host families, where we stayed up late into the night exchanging thoughts and ideas about how our cultures were different. We had the opportunity to be shown sites that only our Rotary contacts could get us into. We visited every thing from Leprosy colonies and Tuberculosis Hospitals to Sugar factories and crematoriums to Orphanages and eye clinics. Everywhere you turned there was a new sight and adventure waiting to be experienced. We participated in one of India's national days of Immunization for the eradication of Polio from the world (an effort largely undertaken by Rotary), where over 100 million children were immunized. I immunized 3 of them. Experiences like that and hundreds of others I will carry with me for a lifetime."
Oddities...
The town of Palitana. A typical street scene -- four GSE Team members strolling down the dirt road....and everyone staring.
Warm Hospitality
We enjoyed our stays with many different host families. Here we are with our hosts in Porbander -- Navzar and his wife, their nephew Porus, and a fellow Rotarian Harish.
Rotary at Work
At the Deaf and Dumb school in Rajkot, the local Rotary Club has helped out by building a computer room to teach the children computer skills.
100 Million Children!!
A group shot of our team -- Jim (team leader), Patty, Steve, Trish, and me in Mithapur on January 18th, 1998 -- a national day of immunization, where over 100 million children were vaccinated in one day!
All dressed up!
The final banquet before our departure for home......We all dressed up in traditional Indian garb. The outfits were loaned or given to us by our hosts. In most cases, we had to be told how to put them on!
