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Pnina Evental, SI Givatayim Club Governor, Israeli Union SI/E writes:
" I would like to share with you a wonderful week in Kenya. This year the
SI/E Board decided that the Governor meeting will take place in Nairobi Kenya. The plan was to meet the Kenyan Soroptimist members one evening(
1st of May). to meet the African Soroptimist clubs the day after and then 2 days of Governors meetings on the 3rd and 4th of May. I came 3 days earlier with an Israeli group of Travel Agents (educational trip) for a short Safari trip."
Pnina writes further: "Here is a short summary of that week:
"We arrived on April 29th at midnight, on the morning of the 29th the group of Israeli travel agents (educational tour) came to take me and we traveled to mount Kenya. The roads is something that can not be imagined unless you travel on them....... there is only big holes everywhere and you have to be an expert to drive and avoid them so in order to travel from place to place one needs many hours.... The group turned out to be a very nice one and I was the oldest........ we have talked of many issues and became very good friends in a very short time. We have talked of birthdays and I told them that mine will be the next day(the 30th of April) all day they sang songs for me and were very nice, so I told the guide that I want to order a cake for the group. He said he will arrange it. In the evening after dinner I was totally surprised. There was in the Lodge(we were already in Lake Nauru) a group of about 15 Kenyan dancers that came to entertain the tourists All the group in a row dressed in their dancing clothes, with a torch leading and the cake with 4 candles(I told them that I'm 30 years old as a joke.........) singing and dancing for me....... I was stunned. They had bought me an African drum as a present and wrote me a most beautiful note ( taking into account that I have met them only 2 days earlier). It was a very unusual event, and I consider myself very lucky to have experienced something like that.
"The Safari was very interesting even though I missed the best part of it the Massai Mara reserve, as I had to go back to Nairobi for the Governors meeting. The day of the Africans clubs ( and Kenyans in particular) was very interesting and outstanding. They are educated women, many of them University graduates, and are very devoted Soroptimists. They are doing a lot in helping the unfortunate among them, especially children. We were invited to see one of the Nairobi club's projects, an orphanage that they are supporting. We were invited as well to their houses for an evening of home hospitality.
" The Governors meeting was very intensive and interesting. We were delegates from 52 countries (including many African countries).
"I met Barbara Walsberger ( the Chat Line UN briefings) It was good to meet a Chat Liner face to face.
Barbara, wearing a Soroptimist scarve, is shown on the photograph on the left with Nicole
Frantzen from Luxemburg.
" I met Felicitas Hubert from Pretoria, she was looking for me as Hendré told her about us coming (Tamar and myself ).
"Tamar Sofer was elected the - Chairman of the Scholarship Committee of SI/E,(that is composed of 3 members), her report was very good. The other Israeli Governor, Sabina ( originally from Australia, but many years in Israel) was my very pleasant roommate. The international encounter was one of the highlights of the meeting.
"The last day of that week in the evening we were invited for a Charter Ceremony to the new club of Milimany. Meeting these young, energetic women (nearly 50 of them) dressed in colorful African clothes, was a wonderful end to a very special week."
The photo shows, from the left Hanne Jensbo SI/E President, Tamar Sofer Chair of Scholarship committee,
Margarete in beautiful African dress and other members from
the new Milimany club, in blue dress with white dots is Monique Kotchofa, a lawyer from Kotonou,Benin and far right Sabina Hirsch,Israeli Governor.
