TS Eliot and GSE

When I was a senior in high school, my English teacher, Matt Carr, gave us a writing assignment based on a quote from Eliot's poem "Four Quartets":
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

A month ago I arrived here in Manila, spent the night at the AIM Conference Center, woke up the next morning and explored the Greenbelt Mall in Makati before attending our welcoming dinner with Gov Sid. Now here I am--it's just after midnight, and I'm sitting in one of Greenbelt's big open plazas outside the Cafe Havana listening to the band. A few hours ago we were at our farewell dinner with Gov Sid and so many of the other wonderful people we met and spent time with this past month. In a little while I'll walk back over to AIM to finish the last bit of packing and while away the final few hours before Fed arrives at 3:30 am to take us to the airport.

Wasn't a month ago just yesterday?

Manila is no longer a foreign land of strange customs. I can order from the menu with relative competence, translate the abbreviations with greater ease...although I doubt I will ever have what it takes to drive on Manila's roads (Palawan, sure, but not Manila!).

It has been an extraordinary month, filled with surprises, education, understanding, appreciation, sharing, and service. We have been given a precious gift in this time abroad--a gift of more than pasalubong (souveniers)--a gift of inspiration. Despite the challenges and hardships present here, our Rotary hosts have stood up and commuted themselves to be of service. Hunger? Feed the hungry, one at a time if need be, then create programs that will help them find ways to feed themselves. Homelessness? Build new houses, by the hundreds and thousands. Government corruption? Sponsor voter education meetings, so people will not fear the election process and be willing to come out and cast their votes. Illiteracy? Adopt remote communities, build schools, supply textbooks and resources, sponsor new programs. Rotarians here are pillars of strength, beacons of light, willing servants for the community's greater good, despite the seemingly overwhelming odds against success.

In every community we visited, I saw roadside signs enumerating the Four-Way Test - as clear an indication as any that Rotarians here are as concerned about community values as they are about social justice.

At the dinner tonight Cliff said we are leaving with far more than we arrived with (and he wasn't referring to pasalubong either!) I absolutely agree - the 84 clubs of 3830 have found a way to develop their leadership potential, be of service, and create an exceptional network of fellowship as well. There certainly is a lot to be learned here, and I hope I've managed to bring some of it home with me.

I'm in the same place I was a month ago, but that place is not the same to me.

It's time to go home.

Lew