2018 ROTARY DREAM TEAM - INDIA

After meeting all of the team members, who had thus far made it to India (still waiting to meet Sharalyn Davis from Detroit) we all had breaakfast and then met in the lobby with Bani and boarded the bus - our home for most of the remainder of the day.  On board, we also met "Sweetie", who was to serve as our tour guide as we "did" the city tour of Delhi. We began by arriving at the old section of Delhi, where for centuries, merchants brought their goods to sell and to barter.  This area of the city is directly opposite the RED FORT, whcih unfortunately is closed to the public for renovations.  Our bus driver snaked his way deep into the narrow streets, all the way to the foot of the steps, leading up to the Mossque - the largest one in all of Asia. We would climb the steps and enter into the open courtyard of the Mosque and tour the huge plaza, which sets this Mosque apart from many others in the world,  There were literally hundreds of visitors, tourists and loc...

From year to year, it astounds me that our team is continutally and consistently housed at the ROYAL PLAZA in Delhi.  Yes, it is convenient to the attractions in the city, yes, there is flexibility in being able to check in at any hour of the day and night, and check out similarly. The hotel facility, however, lacks in many ways,not the least of which is hospitality and quality of rooms! When my grandson, John, and I arrived at about 11:00 p.m. last evening, coming directly from the airport, we checked in and I know that over the past ten years, I have stayed in the actual room where we were assigned.  Nothing, andImean NOTHING has changed!  The furnishings are absolutely the same, the decor has not changed, i guess when one enters the hotel lobby, one is taken back to a century ago when there was glamour and glitz, but the appeal emnds there.  I suspect that if perchance I had made a mark on the wall inour room six or seven years ago, the mark would still be the...

An old addage suggests, "if you see a line, go stand in it and eventually you will get somewhere!"  Well, my grandson and I have seen and stood in plenty of lines today, while some of our DREAM TEAM members have also been standing in lines, have been lined up on the taramac and have gotten absolultely nowhere! Once we arrived in Newark this morning, John and I picked out a spot to camp out, to enjoy our breakfast and to have him work on some homework assignments, while I was contacting clients and other brokers to contnue business as normally as possible.  However, at about the time we decided to have some lunch, I received a telephone call from Jim Kenyon, a veteran member of past DREAM TEAMS, and he was standing in line, in the Vancouver Airport, having been told, "just go stand there and wait and we will let you know IF and WHEN you will be allowed to board."  Although Jim had a confirmed reservation AND a boarding pass, the clever clerks informed him that non...

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Monday, February 5, 2018 What a pleasant surprise this morning, when I came into the office and signed on to FaceBook and received a text message from Dinesh Sharma.  I first met Dinesh in 2010, when we traveled to India for our firs DREAM TEAM DAM BUILD - we had a great crew and none of us really had any conception of what we would be doing.  Among the native workers, a young man stood out - dressed in white "pajama" bottoms and a white shirt and a short scarf around his neck, he stood as straight as an arrow.  It was obvious that he had some authority.  Later, I found out his name is DINESH and he is the son of the overseer of our dam building project - Goverdan, a gentleman about my same age. That first day, when we are beginning to assemble our members into a sort of "chain gang" of line of passing full basins of sand or concrete mix down the line from where it was being mixed and then sending the empty basins back up for refilling, Dinesh seemed to be con...