Chatterbox 1211 - Rotary Club of Belper

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Meeting – 7th November Ethiopia by Tony House President Martin opened the meeting by thanking the Duty Officers and welcoming two visitors, Tony House who was the guest speaker and John Marshall, brother in law of our Activity Organiser for the evening, Peter James. We enjoyed a very well prepared and presented meal and PP Sheilagh spoiled us all by passing round After Eight mints to accompany the coffee. Club Almoner Vernon was the bearer of sad news; after the loss of Honorary Member Eric Naylor only four months ago, he now reported the death of Eric’s wife Margaret. Some of the members were to attend the funeral on the 8th. Peter James then introduced his speaker who was to talk about his work in Ethiopia. Tony was a civil engineer and he had decided upon retirement to use his skills with a charity called Habitat for Humanity which was involved in building housing in deprived areas of the world. Ethiopia was one of the countries benefiting from this work and Tony gave us a brief account of the country. While it was large in area, it was sparsely populated and most of the people worked and lived off the land; some areas were quite productive whilst others were almost barren. It had a history of occupation by invading countries and the population was mixed both culturally and by religions. Tony described his visit with the use of slides. It started with their arrival at Addis Ababa and the welcome party at their hotel with a typical coffee ceremony and a display of dancing. The party then travelled a few hundred kilometres up country to Dessie where they were to help with the construction of houses. These are quite crude; a stone foundation is built up and the walls are based on eucalyptus poles which are then covered with a mixture of mud and teff straw (teff is the local cereal crop). The outer face is covered with chicken wire and a mixture of sand and cement to give a weatherproof exterior and the roof is corrugated iron sheeting. The expected life is about 50 years. After spending some time building houses, Tony went north of Dessie to visit Karagutu Elementary School. Although it was in a poor district, all the pupils attended in smart clothes and there was so much demand for schooling that it operated two shifts daily. He also had the opportunity to visit leprosy colonies at Dessie and see the progress being made with drugs and improved living conditions. Alan Widdowson thanked Tony for a very interesting presentation and invited questions from members. Finally, the Raffle Organiser (David Henson) won the Raffle!! John Scotney Photograph of a house under construction on page 2. 4
Meeting – 14th November Club Birthday Party This time of the year is usually when we celebrate the granting of our charter, way back in 1930. President Martin has elected to move the formal Charter Celebration to May 2012 but we felt we could not let the occasion pass unrecognised so we decided to hold an informal ‘Birthday Party’ and invite our partners and friends to come along for a lighted hearted evening. Amongst the guests, we were especially pleased to welcome back Chris True for the evening; she explained that while she had settled well in to the Rotary Club of York Ansty, she had very fond memories of her time with Belper and Duffield. The Lion served a very good Minestrone Soup with Parmesan shavings and followed this with Boeuf Bourguignon (beef stew to some) and then as a topical treat, President Martin lit and blew out some candles on a special cake (see photo on page 2) which was then served with the coffee. Following the loyal toast and the bare minimum of club business, David Henson introduced his guest, Rtn Chris Knight. He started by telling us he would only talk for 30 minutes as he knew some of the members had to get home in time for their cocoa! Chris is a fellow Rotarian from neighbouring District 1070, has served as AG and acted as their District Conference Director. His special interests were Theatre and Pantomime and he was delighted to tell us he had just heard that he was on the short list to assist with the promotion of the Olympics. Chris then proceeded to give a light hearted performance starting with material from silly food labelling, schoolboy bloomers and moving on to talk about the greats from Music Hall. The early performers only had one act but they went round the country with it; the really good ones received sponsorship to the tune of £120/week, equivalent to £27,000 at present day rates! He then covered the era of the great entertainers such as Max Millar, the Crazy Gang (‘Underneath the Arches’ was based on the railway bridge in Derby), the Black and White Minstrel shows at the Palace Theatre and finished with some pantomime anecdotes (Oh no, he didn’t!) Proposing the vote of thanks for a most interesting and entertaining presentation, SVP Graham revealed that he had been initiated at the tender age of 15 to the high life of London with a visit to the Palace Theatre as a birthday treat. Chris then proceeded to draw the Raffle Prize for John Horwood to collect, John Norreys managed to extract some sustenance for the pig and President Martin brought the evening to a conclusion with the Rotary Toast. John Scotney 5
Page 1 and 2: otary international district 1220 w
Page 3: A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE Dear Friends, I
Page 7 and 8: Meeting - 28th November Sustrans by
Page 9 and 10: Sheilagh and Peter wish all members
Page 11: Best Wishes for Christmas and the N
Page 15 and 16: Meeting - 12th December Santa Sleig
Page 17 and 18: Margaret Naylor Died 23rd October a
Page 19 and 20: Graham Wright watches as Stuart Lim

Chatterbox 1211 - Rotary Club of Belper

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