Rotary Mondays...

It has been a while since I wrote all about a meeting so I am going to write about my Rotary Mondays so everyone can get a feel for what exactly takes place in the meetings here.

Rotary Club: Mengo (Located a 10 minute bus ride from my house)
Est. January 7th 1988
From 1:00pm -2:00pm (working lunch)
Attendance: 38

The afternoon meeting starts off with a shirt prayer and the four-way test. The president will appoint a different Rotarian every week to lead the two.

Next are introductions of visiting Rotarians, Rotaractors, Interactors and guests. (There are usually many introductions because there are 25 clubs in the city of Kampala).

Following will be announcements and this Monday was my turn to talk about my experience in Egypt and the projects that Egyptian Rotarians were involved in.

Usually the meeting is then directed to the guest speaker who has around 35 minutes of talk time, however, this meeting was a little different and time was divided between a guest speaker and a club assembly (exclusive to Mengo club members).

The guest speaker (a Mengo Rotarian) spoke about land policy and Uganda’s lack of one. The Ugandan government has a huge problem with allocating and distributing land. Unfortunately corruption, money, and greed, are fuel to this ever-expanding problem.

The problems as discussed by the speaker are that everyone sells land when “legally” the only body allowed to do so is the land commission. Apparently 680 acres were set aside for mentally and physically challenged Ugandans, but when you visit the area everyone there BUT the mentally/physically challenged have land titles, even children as young as six years old, of that 680 acres there are 150 that remain.

From my understanding of the speech Ugandan citizens and Ugandan parliament are at a loss. No one knows how land should be given out or distributed, what the process is, what the laws are according to constitution or the land commission.

The speaker also mentioned external organizations and people as the problem (this is not uncommon in Uganda and I hear it all to often in class and in public). The speaker used China as country to blame, stating that Ugandans feel pressured and have to give into the demands of China and their search for minerals.

The speaker concluded by saying that a firm law or amendment needs to be made in the constitution and needs to be followed. Once everyone knows that is there only one law or rule things should even out. As for now there is just too much confusion to understand the facts.

After the speaker was the final toast to Rotary International.

At lunchtime Rotary meetings there is usually a buffet lunch and they range from $5-20 a meal.

During the club assembly (which takes place once a month)

1) Achievements of the club:

20th birthday celebration of the club
Increased fellowship (meeting)
More lively fellowships
Better speakers
Sponsoring of a new club
Strong work in Rotary Community Core (RCC) projects
2) Problems:

Club participation
Poor participation during in country trainings

3) Reports:

Research is being done on Microfinance and scholarships

4) RCC
Buyuki water project is almost complete: Three (3) wells are being constructed and each contains a pump.

There was some confusion about a wheelchair volunteer project, but it will be cleared up at next weeks meeting?

Then the last thing that was discussed was the president asking why Mengo club members are not going to other Rotary meetings in the city. As I mentioned there are 25 clubs in Kampala and the president asks for Mengo members to participate in one other meeting every week to learn about what the other clubs are doing.
There is a club meeting everyday of the week…usually one every lunch and every evening. The president says that finding a club to attend is no excuse!!!