The 2024 Rotary International Convention in Singapore was simply amazing! But it’s probably not for the reasons you are imagining. Sure the tropical setting is beautiful beyond imagination, and yes the gentle people of this land are kind, friendly, and speak English really well! Yes the food here is incredibly delicious and the sparkling clear water can be drunk from any tap with no fear of “after effects”. And, of course, I agree that the Rotary International Conference was a 5-Star event filled with motivational talks, stellar entertainment, instructive classes, and mind-expanding ideas.
But none of those things, as great as they all are, were the real reason I came to Singapore. In fact I didn’t truly realize the reason I came until I started to reflect back on what was the best part of this experience for me. NOW I can see clearly that the reason I came to Singapore was to MAKE CONNECTIONS!
Let me share just a few with you!
The first person Kathy and I connected with while riding the metro in from the airport was Issac. He is from Ontario, Canada. He will be his club president this year. We had dinner with him twice in Singapore: our first night here and our last! Our clubs are going to do a joint Entrapov project together in his native country of Nigeria and sponsor new entrepreneurs as they build their self-reliance dreams.
I connected with Ghaffar. He is from Accra, Ghana. Our clubs have been meeting together for two years via zoom. We are doing our first Global Grant to drill water wells at 3 schools in Ghana. Meeting him in person was so important. Now we are REAL people to each other and not just images on a zoom computer screen.
We met Daniel from the Philippines. His daughter lives in Pocatello where I live! We are going to connect our clubs to create a sister club relationship and do some projects together.
We met Yoshi from Tokyo, a fourth generation pearl farmer who took us up to the 57th floor of the Marina Sands Hotel to admire the panoramic views of Singapore together. His club wants to do an Entrapov project with us and sponsor enterprising farmers together in Africa!
Two years ago our club went to Suriname to do humanitarian work there. We met 4 incredible Rotary clubs in Suriname and successfully completed the Empowering Girls project together. Now imagine my surprise and joy when we connected with those same Rotarians again in Singapore! Amazing! All our good friends from Suriname! They were a sight for sore eyes!
My list of connections goes on and on. There are dozens of wonderful people who I met in Singapore, many for the first time and many more from happy times gone by.
I hope YOU will sign up to come with us to Calgary next year so that YOU can make connections too. Come with us and learn new things and live a fully happy life through Rotary!
Let’s connect in Calgary!
