Two Great Days in Changhua, Taiwan

As we were told would happen, from the moment we arrived in Taiwan, we have been treated with great care, been fed more food than we could eat in the next month, met delightful people, and visited treasured places.

On Monday, March 16, Barry, Kyle, Natalie, and I (Hailey) hopped on a 6:45am flight from Orlando to San Francisco. (Due to his post-Taiwan travels, Fabio was on another flight route to Taiwan.) Soon after, we boarded our plane and made the 14-hour journey to Taipei, Taiwan... and arrived on their Tuesday evening. We were greeted by Philip, Yvonne and C.S. and then we drove an hour+ to the Hotel National of Taichung City where we rested well.

Our first full day in Taiwan - Wednesday, March 18 - was an overwhelming experience, in a good way! District Governor Jim and about 15 others came to the hotel for a special breakfast and we gave our first presentation to about 15 people. Good morning, GSE Team!

Wednesday and Thursday were spent with the members of the Changhua County Rotary Clubs. They were a fun bunch of people who loved taking pictures and enjoyed the sights just as much as we did. First, they took us around the historic town of Lu Kang, where we visited Baker's meatball shop. He is the 8th generation to run this store that makes the best dumplings in the area, and his daughter opened a French bakery and coffee shop next door after years of living in France and Italy.

Baker 

and

Claire

The rest of Day 1 included a spontaneous tour of the Folk Art Museum, the Taiwan Glass Gallery, a walk down "O Street" and lots and lots of food!

Thankfully, Day 2 had a slower pace and started with a tour of the Wann Ying Art Garden, which is famous for award winning bonsai trees, enormous pieces of jade, and an impressive art collection from China, Japan and Southeast Asia.

After lunch, we visited the Changhua Roundhouse and got a scenic overlook of the city - next to the Big Buddha. We had some downtown before our first Rotary meeting, and so we did what Taiwanese people love to do in their free time: sing karaoke.

Ivan and Barry were totally in their element. They really stole the show!

Singing our jet lag away, we were amped up for our first Rotary meeting with several Rotary Clubs of Changhua County. To be honest, I don't know how many clubs were represented... there were too many to count! Our sponsoring clubs need to start making space for all the Rotary banners we are bringing back with us. There are over 5,400 Rotarians in this one district of Taiwan (D3460) and over 30,000 in all of Taiwan!

The first two days were a wonderful start to our month long journey in Taiwan. We really enjoyed our hosts families and our host clubs, who took such great interest in us and showed us the best of their city. To them, we say "Xie Xie!"

Meet the Team of 2015

Ni hao friends of Rotary and welcome back to the GSE blog! After serving as an alternate for the 2014 GSE Team, I am thrilled to announce that I will be representing Rotary District 6980 of Central Florida as a member of the 2015 Group Study Exchange Team! 

On March 16, our GSE Team will travel to Taiwan, and we will spend a month with District 3460 of Taichung City. In these last two weeks before we depart, we are making final preparations for our trip, which includes rehearsing our presentation, packing up our Rotary pins, and meeting Rotary International President Gary Huong, who just so happens to hail from Taiwan! Before we jet off on a two-day journey to the other side of the world, allow me to introduce our team!

Meet Barry Gainer - Team Leader and Rotarian

Kind-hearted and sincere, Barry is a laid-back guy and a pleasure to be around. He has been married to Lynn for 44 years, and they have two daughters who are both married with children. Over the years, Barry has lived in Milwaukee, Detroit and New York City, but Orlando has been home for many years now. With a career that spans from accounting to owning his own business, Barry now works in real estate sales. He is a member of the Seminole County South Club and has been a Rotarian for 17 years. He has a philanthropist’s heart, and we are fortunate to have such a caring leader.

Meet Kyle Coon

A man of many talents, Kyle brings the adventurous spirit to our team. Kyle is an accomplished athlete, having competed in multiple marathons and summited some of the world’s highest mountains like Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount St. Helens. Due to a rare form of eye cancer, he lost his sight at age 6, but that fact has obviously not hindered his abilities to enjoy life. After growing up in Jacksonville, Kyle moved to Orlando to attend UCF and is now a Customer Care Professional for Lighthouse Works. He lives in East Orlando with Tyrone the Golden Retriever.

Meet Natalie Hamer

Like a sister to me, Natalie is a brilliant woman with a compassionate heart. Born in Iowa but raised in Naples, Florida, Natalie moved to Orlando to attend UCF. After graduation, Natalie spent two years living in Solerno, Italy before returning to the Sunshine State. Natalie is a loyal friend, and she has a heart for fighting against the many injustices we find in our community and around the world. She works for LIFT Orlando, a non-profit organization that seeks to break the cycle of poverty through asset-based community development. Natalie is sure to impress our Taiwanese friends with her professionalism and earnest nature.

Meet Fabio Vargas

Born and raised in Colombia, Fabio and his family moved to Florida when he was in high school. Fabio is a diligent worker, and he is a visionary. He studied Psychology and performed research at the Florida Mental Health Institute in South Florida, but after some time in the healthcare industry, he decided to make a switch in careers. Currently, he divides his time working in Tallahassee and Orlando, and his major role involves bringing electric bicycle programs to Florida as his company, Efficient Systems, works with local governments, Fabio has proven to be a reliable team player, and his business acumen will surely intrigue our hosts.

Meet Hailey Domeck

Orlando has been home for over four and a half years, which is exactly how long I’ve been married to Justin, a member of the 2014 GSE Team! However, I call many places home: Dothan, Alabama where I was born and raised, Greenville, South Carolina where I attended Furman University, and Madrid, Spain where I taught English for two years – just to name a few! After teaching and working in church ministry, I find myself in my first year as the Founder of my own travel website: Global Heartbeat. I have a passion to see the world and experience different cultures, and I can’t wait to recount my experiences in Taiwan on Global Heartbeat… once we return from this trip of a lifetime!

Updates from Taiwan

Our team is planning on taking turns writing for the blog to keep you all abreast of our journey. As many who have gone through the GSE experience would know, our days will be full of meetings, tours, and meals with our host Rotarians, and our beds may seem more appealing than writing a recap on any given night. We are going to try our best to offer up our thoughts on this incredible whirlwind of an experience! We hope you’ll subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a word! Also, you can keep up with our travels on our team's Facebook page and Twitter handle.

Thank You, Rotary:

We cannot fully express our gratitude to Rotary District 6980 and the Rotarians who are working so hard to send us on this incredible journey. A big THANK YOU goes to Chris Stubbs, the GSE coordinator, who has spent hours sifting through documentation, coordinating uniforms, and sending countless correspondences to our Taiwanese counterparts. We are grateful for his attention to the myriad of details that go into sending a team of 5 across the world! Thanks to Pete Burg and Bill Potter for our team’s photography and printed materials! And finally, we’d like to thank our Sponsoring Rotary Clubs and the District Governor, Jo Weber, for her support of this program.

And so, it is with excited hearts that the 2015 GSE Team say Xièxiè and Zàijiàn!

谢谢再见

Final Words and Thoughts

Months have passed since the 2014 GSE Team from District 6980 bought some very special shoes in Zlín. Today, the team - and their footwear - are back in Central Florida. While this year's Group Study Exchange Trip is over, the memories of that incredible journey live on.

Given that the final days of the trip were the most whirliest of whirlwinds, the team was unable to write about the rest of their experience.  Upon their return to the USA, the team presented their GSE experience to a number of Rotary Clubs throughout Central Florida. Yet, the task to put it in writing was harder to manage.

At last - and after only a few from me - Team Leader "Mamma Geri” has penned the final stages of the 2014 GSE Team’s journey in Czech Republic and Slovakia. Read on to take in her poignant reflections on this remarkable experience.

ZLIN (continued)

Each host family and Rotarian seemed to focus on offering us something special every minute of our five-day stay in Zlín.  We sampled delicious food and delightful beverages.  We watch local artists and craftsmen at work.   We toured museums, a tire manufacturing and a semiconductor plant, and the Tomáš Baťa Foundation and University.  We attended the grand opening of the 54th International Film Festival for Children and Youth and rode in multi-million dollar antique cars.  And just when we thought we had seen it all, we enjoyed a breathtaking display of art and religious artifacts in the gorgeous basilica at the Velehrad Monastery.

OSTRAVA

Our senses filled, we poured ourselves and an ever-growing number of suitcases into two European cars and headed to Ostrava, an industrial city in the northeast part of the Czech Republic, about 15 miles from the Polish border.  En route, we stopped at the small city of Příbor to tour the birthplace of Sigmund Freud and to rest on his famous couch.  

Our time in Ostrava was a little harder for us as we knew this stop would be our last and therefore, the GSE experience would come to an end.  We made the most of our final four days, however, exploring the city from many different angles and heights.  We traveled to the depth of the once-active Alexander coal mine and to the height of the once mighty Vítkovice Mining complex.  High above the city at the top of the new Town Hall Tower, we looked for miles in all directions, spying Poland in the far distance.  

Very late on our last day in Ostrava – after touring the Radegast Brewery, hiking up Mount Radhošť to see the Albin Polasek statue of Radegast (old god of Slavic mythology, pictured below), speaking to a Rotary Club, and touring an antique car museum, we packed and repacked our suitcases, bid our hosts a teary farewell, and boarded a train for Prague, arriving at 4 a.m.  

We had no idea how we would get the five of us and 18 pieces of luggage from the train station across town to the airport.  But once again - Rotarians to the rescue.  District 2240’s GSE coordinator, George, and host mom Jana met us as the train pulled in,  helped us drag our luggage off of the train quickly, and carted us to the airport, waiting with us until it was time to board our plane.  Former District Governor, Martin Timr, had driven the 100 miles from his home in České Budějovice (our first stop) to say good-bye as well.  We were truly touched.

REFLECTIONS ON OUR GSE EXPERIENCE

I have had a very difficult time finishing our blog, in part I believe, because I do not want to bring closure to 28 of the most incredulous days of my life.  I have hundreds of thoughts and impressions as the team leader, as a Rotarian, and as an American, and a summary seems so shallow and practically impossible. However, I would like to offer three reflections that will stay with us always:

The generosity of all those who welcomed, hosted, chauffeured, arranged for, and totally embraced five “unknowns” from Central Florida overwhelmed us.  We were treated with the utmost of graciousness, kindness, cheerfulness, and selflessness, greater than any we had ever witnessed.  For that we are eternally grateful and humble.

The appreciation of freedom that began in 1989 after the Velvet Revolution, which ended 41 years of Soviet rule, opened our eyes and hearts. We listened to tragic stories of oppression, fear, and suppression.  Joyfully (and tearfully) we heard amazing descriptions of what it was like for the Czechs and Slovaks to travel across neighboring borders without fear of death or imprisonment, to listen to a free media without looking over one’s shoulder, and to speak opening and honestly about retribution.  It was good for us to be reminded about freedom and life-long liberties that seem so common to us.

Our experience truly confirmed the very basic fact that most people around the world seek basically the same thing:  good health, the love of family, decent shelter, enough to eat, the opportunity to learn and earn, a chance to laugh, friendships – and peace.  This fact is at the heart of GSE and of Rotary.  International understanding and friendship will only strengthen the human spirit and resolve and hopefully impact  - for the better – the future of this world.

On behalf of one of the best GSE teams ever, I want to thank District 6980 for believing in us and for supporting us.  From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank District 2240 for embracing us.  

We are grateful – and changed forever.

Geri Evans, APR, Fellow PRSA
Team Leader
Rotarian – The Rotary Club of Orange County East Winter Park