Gala Banquet

The Gala Banquet was amazing. 'The Concorde Experience', dinner and dancing to a live Caribbean band under the wings of Concorde. Thank you to DG Tony and everyone in D 7030, you gave us an experience of a life time. We cannot thank you enough for all your hospitality whilst we were in your District. We have certainly made friends for life.

D7030 Conference

Conference Presentations

The presentations at the conference were awe inspiring and included topics on Leading your Club to Greatness, the Caribbean Diabetes and Chronic Disease Epidemic and Hurricane Tomas. Here you see AG Lisle receiving a Paul Harris Fellow for his work with the relief project in St. Lucia. Congratulations Lisle very well deserved. All the presentations made you realise how hard everyone works in D7030. It made you proud to be part of the Rotary Family. Thank you to everyone for the opportuity to be with you at your conference.

Cocktail Reception The Prime Minister's Residence

After the opening ceremony we were invited to cocktails at the Prime Minister's Residence. We met up with some of our hosts and made new friends from around D7030.

House of Friendship

Visiting the House of Friendship gave us the opportunity to view projects from across the District and to meet Rotarians from clubs in other parts of the Caribbean.

District Conference Opening Ceremony

Wow what a reception we got when we walked into the Conference building. The same reception we have had since we arrived in the Caribbean. It was great to meet new Rotarians who we knew would become friends over the next few days and coming years. We had even more surprises when we met up with friends we had met along our travels.

History of Barbados

Pottery

Stoke on Trent gets everywhere, our potter and tour guide came from Stoke on Trent. She works with her brother, who built a lot of the machinery that is used. Very much sounds like Brian , an engineer that throws nothing away in case it comes in handy.

Roots and Rhythms

Barbados through the ages including the history of the carnival and local barbadian cuisine.

Vocational Visit

Thank you to my hosts on this day. It was interesting to see what goes on in the community and in the polyclinics. Health promotion is advocated from a young age through the Paredos Gems. The diabetic foot project is being spread across the Caribbean, due to the fact that amputations are high in this cultural group. This project links very closely with D1210 Stroke Health Awareness Day Project. The children I met were extremely polite, well doen to everyone on the work that you are doing.

Plantation

The cocktail party was in a converted plantation. Here you see pictures depicting the history.

Cocktail Party at Roger's

Thank you for a superb evening. It was great to meet up with everyone to share Rotary fellowship and to listen to the caribbean beat from the steel drums.

Harrison's Caves

Thank you to Vivien for taking us to the caves, they were awesome. The story of the caves is quite something. It helped to see the video prior to being driven through the caves, on a guided tour. It is an attraction that no matter how many times you visited you would never see the same thing twice.

Methodist Churches Around the World

Thank you to everyone at the Children's Centre for giving us your time. We saw an extremely dedicated team caring for a number of children with multiple complex needs. Rotary Clubs in Barbados work in partnership with the Community to improve the quality of life for the children by helping to take them out, although transport is a problem. We found that even the most basic things are hard to come by. This is certainly where D1210 can work in partnership with D7030 to make a real difference.

We also visited St. Philip District Hospital, where we again saw dedicated teams looking after elderly people under extremely difficult circumstances. It was certainly a very humbling experience.

Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados Inc.

Thank you to everyone who gave me their time when I visited the Heart and Stroke Foundation. A non-profit organisation, originally called the Heart Foundation but changed to embrace stroke in 2006. The mission statement "is to keep people heart healthy and reduce suffering and death from heart disease and stroke". I met an extremely dedicated team and had the oppotunity to speak with patients. It was great to see them enjoying themselves by exercising to the beat of Caribbean music.

Thank you to Nina for also explaining the work of the Barbados National Registry. A national surveillance system for Stroke, Heart and Cancer. The work by the Chronic Disease Research Centre is undertaken on behalf of the Mnistry for Health. We have already been able to identify where we can share policies, protocols and training programmes.

Hello Barbados

Here we are pictured with DG Tony, AG Roger and our hosts in Barbados. You may recognise Songee, she sends her love and best wishes to everyone in D1210. It was super to meet everyone and to hear about our programme which ends with the District Conference. It will be great to share in the Conference and to see how all the Rotary Clubs within D7030 share fellowship and fun.

Farewell to St. Lucia

Thank you to everyone in St. Lucia for making our experience something special. Your hospitality has over whelmed us. It was great to meet all of you to share, fun and fellowship. Your help, support and friendship means a lot.

Segway Ride

Another new GSE Team challenge a segway ride in the rain. Yes you thought that we would be enjoying total sunshine whilst we were here in the Caribbean. The difference is it knows when to stop raining and it is still warm. Segway's are used in the Police Force and are being piloted for use in other industrial fields. Thank you to June for organising this and to the other members of her staff who let us join them.

Spotting Pottery

Fay has taken it on herself to be our pottery spotter for anything that is Wedgwood or Spode. Everywhere we have been she has been lifting plates to see if they were made in Stoke. It has been quite a conversation starter with people wondering why a member of the GSE team was so interested in pottery in the Caribbean.

The Power of Rotary

We have caused quite a stir as we have travelled through the Caribbean airports in our pink polo shirts. The striking colour with the Rotary Roundel has certainly got us noticed, so much so that we have met an Ambassadorial Scholar sponsored by the RC Stone, Alisha now works in Haiti. On the same flight we met Eric from the RC De Bruay-La Buissiere in Haiti. We have been questioned by airport staff as to why five women are dressed in such a way. This has given us an excellent opportunity to explain about the GSE Programme and to promote Rotary. We have been commended on our choice as we have visited all the islands, good choice girls.

Presentation to the RC St. Lucia

Thank you to President Tim and the RC St. Lucia for your excellent hospitalty. It was great to see how you run your meetings including singing the St. Lucian National Anthem and for us all to recite the 4-Way Test. It was interesting to hear from President Elisha that the Rotaract Club of St. Lucia are celebrating their 26th Charter over the following week, activites include building book shelves, games night and lots more fun and fellowship. We also met visiting Rotarians from the RC Barbados South and RC Del Mar, near San Diego, California.

Views of the Marina

This is a view of Rodney Bay Marina whilst we enjoyed a light lunch with fellow Rotarians, listening to what was a Christmas Carol!!

Rain Forest

Team Building with a Difference

My own personal challenge was the 'zip lining' but team spirit won through. Thank you to my team and everyone at the centre for your encouragement to help me achieve this. The rainforest was spectacular. We must also thank Vision for his hiking tour and giving us his knowledge of all the flora and forna. Thank you to all the Rotarians and everyone who made this possible.

Club Fellowship

Thank you to President Tim and his wife Lorraine for hosting a fellowship evening for all three clubs on the island. It gave the team the opportunity to meet everyone and to see how the clubs work together. The entertainment from your Rotary Group added sparkle to the evening, plus giving us an opportunity to dance. I know Sue has evidence of this.

Patients Come First

In both hospitals we visited, one Government run and one private, it was evident that all staff do the best for their patients with the resouces that are available to them.

Vocational Day Medical

Thank you to all the Staff at Victoria and Tapion Hospitals for your time. It was good to be able to get an understanding of your hospital systems and to share issues and challenges. Thank you to the patients who had time to talk to us, it was great to meet you all.