High Gear March 8, 2017

Posted by Rosalie McCloud on Mar 08, 2017
 

Welcome, Pledge and Invocation

The most glorious day greeted us!  We are thankful. 
President Stan called the meeting to order at 12:15, and invited Peter Comaroto to lead us in the pledge of allegiance;  John Delaney delivered the invocation which is memorialized here:
We meet together in an effort to build community, to advance education and understanding. We seek the patience of one another as we strive to learn and grow and the stamina to make a difference in our communities and our Rotary Club. We express our thanks for the gifts of life and for the food of which we are about to partake. We gather here today as colleagues and friends with attention to a common goal.  That goal is the continued service to the citizens of our community through our programs and information.  We understand our responsibilities as committed Rotarians as well as learners – personally and professionally.  It is obvious that we work and live in challenging times.  We seek each other’s patience as we strive to learn and grow, and the stamina to make a difference in our club and the world. We express our thanks for an opportunity to gather together where we can reinforce our community principles of openness and engagement for all people, for the gifts of life, and for the food that has been prepared for us.  For all this, we are thankful!
 

Visiting Rotarians and Guest of the Club

Was that our old pal Mynor Chacon from ye olde San Francisco Airport Hilton where we lunched ‘lo those many years and where we enjoyed Mynor as part of the wait staff?  Yes, by George. Mynor is Guest of the Club today. Welcome, sir; welcome and wonderful to see you.  We’ll see you again on March 22nd for your second visit, and as you proceed to membership!  Felicidades!
 
Another familiar face was Rosemary Azem of the Baja Burlingame club. Rosemary is and has been active in international projects over time. She acknowledged Rotary gifts to Lebanon where Rotary helped build a Mother and Child Clinic, and donated a van to transport moms and kids to and from.  Lebanon has welcomed a large number of refugees.   We can all take pride in the work of Rotary International. Guest of Rosalie McCloud was Rachel Ni. Finally, our guest and speaker today, was Bob Roberts who is President Elect of the Rotary Club of Mill Valley and Rotary’s Man in Peru!

Rotary Fun

Who knew?   Today we celebrate “A Day Without a Woman.”  Is that all day, or just daylight hours?  Where are we going for dinner?  Those kids are  yours and they’re hungry!   Maki will write the High Gear?  Charlie Rosebrook can put it into the computer!  Father Mike can pray  over the men as they manage without their women.   The girls are going shopping.  The Bad Boys Table was short a lady, but what does one expect really?
President Stan had some fun for himself, asking questions of men only with a fine of ten bucks  for each man at the table with wrong answers.  That was fun, especially the part where the ladies did not participate

 

Program 

International Committee Chair Frances Boscacci introduced our speaker and spoke a little of the Peru project in which we are considering an investment.    Bob told us of his early introduction to Peru with the Peace Corps. 
 
In 1962, after having completed a political science degree at Stanford and an MBA in international business at Columbia, Bob was inspired by President Kennedy’s message “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”  The establishment by President Kennedy of the Peace Corps started Bob thinking.  Bob was intrigued and thought first of Costa Rica. Knowing the Spanish language helped.  He had a girl who pictured them settling in Binghampton, New York.   Not for him. He immediately signed up to study  at Cornell about the communal lands of Peru.  The Peace Corps needed him in Vicos to do accounting; he stayed two years.
Bob was in the first group of Peace Corps volunteers sent to Peru.  His assignment was to work as a business advisor to a Quechua-speaking village in the Andes.  The projects included streamlining the community’s potato cooperative, and negotiating the acquisition of a neighboring hacienda.  Subsequently, Bob served as Peace Corps regional director in Bolivia and director for the Latin American training center in Escondido, California.
 
His work in Peru was concerned with the agrarian life and nutritional needs  of the campesinos of the Andes in the Highlands of Peru, 13,300 feet up, in the land of the Incas and the pre-Incas. 
The hardworking campesinos produced  potatoes.  Yes, potatoes were the lifeline.  They planted and farmed, with harvests collected from November through April.  They packed 150-lb. bags of potatoes and trucked them proudly to market in Vicos.  They sold at market and returned to farm the next crop.
 
Bob and Betty, his wife of 52 years, worked together in the attempt to develop a sustainable economy.  They were fortunate to meet Mario, a Ph.D candidate who split his time between Lima and Vicos and was incredibly helpful. The campesinos organized a junta, made clothes themselves, and chewed coca.  Mario translated where necessary.
The campesinos wanted to buy the hacienda next door to their junta in order to expand and grow.  Socialists objected strenuously, lots of pushback.  Uh oh, Mario’s wife is a communist, campesinos owning property individually against communist idealogy.
Such were the challenges faced by Bob and the Peace Corps in the early days of their work in Peru.Bob continues to maintain a continuing relationship with the Peace Corps in Peru. Thanks, Bob, so much.  We will want to follow your progress in helping these deserving people.
 
 
March 15 - 4:30  Board Meeting at City Hall (Beware the Ides of March)
**March 16 – Thursday at Poplar Creek.  Joint meeting with San Mateo Rotary.  Methinks we’re the visiting Rotarians for the day.  Martin Harband, San Mateo Rotarian and attorney, will speak.
March 17 – Green tea for all!!!

MARCH BIRTHDAYS!
March 10      Dave Behling
March 17      Jay Plank
March 24      Charles Voltz