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The review of an exiting time......
Date: 08.09.2023
Location: Bali, Indonesdia
Our friends from the Sisterclub Rotary Luxembourg Horizon visited us in recent weeks, and that's a good reason to review some of our joint activities.
We were visited by our good friend Jean-Marie Hoffmann and his wife Claude, Diane Dhur and her partner Ralf Schellenberger, as well as Marc Lenert and his wife Martine Bertrand.
For the rest of this post, I'll refer to them as "the Luxembourgers."
Initially, a 'Fun Walk' through Denpasar was planned for August 26th, organized by the Bali Provincial Disability Assistance Task Force.
But let's just say that right after landing in Bali, the Luxembourgers were not particularly enthusiastic about the idea.....🫣😅.....sure, with 30 degrees in the shade, it might be called a 'Fun Walk', but it's definitely not a leisurely stroll 😅😅😅 And let's not forget about the jet lag playing its part too...✈️🥱
But then things got specific.....
1. Visiting the Bali Blood Bank
On September 28th, the Luxembourgers, along with Hugh Brown and Karl-Heinz Schmelzer, visited the Blood Transfusion Unit in Denpasar and met with Dr. Chandra and Dr. Patra, the director of the BBB. It was an informative visit with a lot of information exchanged.
2. Annika Linden Center
The next day, Puspadi Bali was visited at the Annika Linden Center. There were many meetings, including an in-depth discussion about our latest project on 3D scanning and printing for prosthetics and orthotics with the founder of the Annika Linden Center, Mr. Mark Winegard. Ms. Juli from Puspadi Bali also participated in this meeting.
3. Visiting Tiara @home
On the third consecutive day, the Luxembourgers, comfortably traveling in a minibus, Karl-Heinz and Rudi met at the community office (Kantor Desa) in Tampaksiring, located northeast of Ubud. We were warmly welcomed by the village head and greeted with drinks and fritters.
There, we also met Bapak Wayan, a scout from the Kolewa Foundation, who led us to Tiara's home just outside the village.
Tiara lives with her sister and parents in a traditional Balinese house. It was incredibly quiet in this side street—no noise, just the birds and us. Tiara spent the entire time of our visit in her loving mother's arms and was a bit shy. 🫣🫣🫣
It was wonderful to see how beautifully young Tiara has developed since her surgery for a cleft lip and palate. We could only see the lip, but it looked great! It's awe-inspiring to think about the efforts involved in a Global Grant and how it has completely changed the lives of young people like her. ❣️❣️❣️
We were all incredibly happy to see Tiara in the best conditions.
Her slightly older sister also perked up when she received a whistle as a gift, which clearly delighted her.
For our Luxembourg guests, it was also an interesting experience to get a personal impression of the life of a family in a typical Balinese house.
4. Visit at Yayasan CIMD in Singaraja
Finally, our Luxembourg guests and Rudi met with Geert van Praet and his wife Ayu at the Cahaya Impian Masa Depan Foundation in Singaraja, in the north of Bali, last Saturday.
Geert and Ayu told us many details about their school for mentally or intellectually disabled children and teenagers, which also includes 'regular' children.
And I must say, it's always nice to visit CIMD and the children, whom we've known for some time now.
They greeted us with several bouquets of paper flowers, which was so sweet! 💐💐💐
Both clubs, RC Luxembourg Horizon and our RC Bali Nusa Dua, have just transferred 38 million IDR each to the foundation to support the continued existence of the school.
Geert and Ayu also told us big news: They have been given the management of the Orphanage House Dombo Bali, which is funded by a German foundation.
We didn't let Geert wait long for his question about whether we were interested in visiting the orphans. Said and done, we were already on our way with a minibus and motorcycle.
🚌🛵🚌🛵🚌🛵
Dombo Bali is a very well-run orphanage with about 10 boys and 10 girls of different ages.
The children were super friendly to us. As soon as we arrived, everyone greeted us with a handshake first. It was a great reception, although it was totally improvised.
We wish Geert and Ayu every success with both projects and are extremely impressed with the commitment and effort they are putting into their path.
5. Luncheon @Hotel Merusaka
Yesterday, the time had come again. Our club met for the regular lunch meeting at the Hotel Merusaka in Bali Nusa Dua.
But it was truly no ordinary lunch:
Our guests sat in four rows, which hasn't happened in a long time, if ever. A total of 34 guests were registered, 3 unfortunately could not come.
With our president away on a European adventure, he was represented by his vice president, who welcomed everyone present and moderated the program.
We had all the Luxembourgers as guests, or was it all of Luxembourg...?? 😅😅😅 Fantastic!!
We had Al Purwa and his wife Marina as guests!! What an honor!!
DGE Suzanna Chandra came, along with Indra Mahyuni from RC Bali Legian!! Top class!!
Hans Schmid, the re-elected president of RC Bali Ubud Sunset visited us, and also the ladies from the Kolewa Foundation, Syta, Ana, and Uttari, honored us with their presence.
And about half of the members of our own club, some also with partners, did not want to miss this luncheon.
As usual, we all enjoyed a very good and creative tasting by the chef of the Merusaka Hotel. It was extremely tasty.Thank you so much to the Team of Pak Made Yuliarta!
Jean Marie Hoffmann, Diane Dhur, and Marc Lenert also greeted us all in a short speech, and so we came to the highlight of the day: Dr. Putu Trisna Utami was our guest speaker and told us, partly very informative, partly very funny, about her stay in Taoyuan, Taipei, during her 6-month surgeon training at the local Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.
This training was supported by GG 2096241 Luxembourg, and therefore our guests from Luxembourg were of course particularly interested in the lecture by Dr. Putu Trisna Utami. After the speech, many questions were asked, reflecting the extraordinary interest of our guests.
Adding a touch of Rotary tradition to our extraordinary luncheon, we exchanged small, beautifully designed banners with our Luxembourg friends. This simple yet meaningful gesture served as the perfect cherry on top of an already unforgettable gathering.
I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that this luncheon was a success, although we missed our president and our president also missed us.
In conclusion, there was a group photo on the hotel's veranda:
Most of our Luxembourg friends will fly back home today. 🛫🛫🛫 We would like to express our thanks for their visit to Bali and to us. We are happy to have met everyone... we had great encounters, meetings, and also a lot of fun and joy together.
Stay all healthy and cheerful, and we hope to meet again in the same round very soon.
Thank you all for everything! 🙏🙏🙏
