Alaska - photos and comments

  In august of 2005 I had a unique opportunity to visit Alaska and our very good friend mr. Steve Yoshida. Although the main puprose of my visit to Alaska was the opening of a new Rotaract Club there, Steve made every effort to organize an interesting cultural program for me and 3 other Mexicans, who were also invited to Alaska to present their rotarian project.
  But let me start from the very beginning. When one comes to Alaska the first thing that amazes is the closeness of wild life. The one, who was born and lived his whole life in the big city, just can�t at once get used to the eagles, soaring in the sky, to the whales in the sea and elks, who always eat something and pay no attention to you. This amazes, charmes and enraptures�
  A very vivid impression has also left fishing in Alaska. That day was very cloudy, strong, cold wind was blowing and actually nobody wanted to go to the sea fishing at all. However, It is just impossible to come to Alaska and not to catch a single fish. So, we went fishing; that day was hallibut day. I, as the fisherman who has never caught a fish, was quite sceptical about catching anyone at all. However, after 30 minutes of bootless efforts, I caught something, that was half of me; of course after that even I got excited. By the end of fishhing we had 7 hallibuts, which later became a nice dinner�
  Entertainments, friends � evrything is great, however I couldn�t forget about the scheduled meetings.
  The next day after my coming to Alaska, I went to the small town, called Fairbanks, where I met the Rotaractors from the Rotaract Club �Aurora Borealis�. It wasn�t my first visit to the Rotaract Club abroad, nevertheless, every time this kind of meeting bring something new.
Unfortunately, I didn�t have much time and hence spent in Faibanks less than a day. But still this time was enough to have good time together, to have fun and, what is much more important, to make friends.
  After my coming back from Fairbanks, we had a scheduled meeting on a radio. 15 minutes of broadcasting with the sole purpose of attracting attention to Rotary movement in general and Rotaract movement in particular.
Because of the amount of new impressions, the newness what I have seen and heard, even our sometimes too scheduled life there couldn�t make us feel but quite the contrary we were full of energy and new ideas.
Visits to the Rotary clubs� meetings, to the Rotaract clubs� meeting, new people, new friends � every time I learnt something new and I had the opportunity to share my own experiences. Isn�t that why Rotary exists, isn�t that what Rotary serves to?!


Past-President of the Club             Anna Lepeshko