GSE update

For those of you that are following our trip regularly, you should know that we have a variety of blogspots. Janet's posts are on the main site because I am not very computer-savvy. The other team members set up individual sites that can be tracked from the column on the right. They also have many pictures of the places we have been on their pages.

Last night we spoke to the Rotary Club of Sondrio. Our Italian has improved since last week so some people actually understood us. We are using it more here as there are fewer English speakers who want to practice their English on us. We also benefitted from having a new friend from Britian who runs an English-language school in Sondrio. He assisted us in a question and answer time at the end. Lucianno, the GSE coordinator, drove 130 km to see us - very sweet of him.

I visited a volunteer agency yesterday. Banks in Italy give 1/15 of their profit to these types of groups and they coordinate grants from the government for volunteer assosciations and help promote the needs for volunteers. In some ways, they have similar coordination efforts to our United Way without the fundraising component. That was their primary focus of questions for me as their funding is not sufficient and they need to develop a donation system.

In the afternoon we saw a historical museum, the church, city hall, and several other sites. The afternoon again closed with gelato and a nap!

Most of the Rotary clubs here do not enforce the 60% attendance rule so they have many more members than those who actually participate. Last night's meeting had 75 members and about 25 in attendance. They are 10% female and have had a female president. We have been experiencing so much through the cultural events and the vocational visits. Rotarians everyone would be proud!