August 19, 2008

Bill Roba (on left) gave us a view of Ukraine with a power point presentation of a recent trip. He is a professor with Eastern Iowa Community College and received a Fulbright scholarship to teach in that country. Ukraine is north of the Black Sea near Russia. Bill started out by talking about how the Ukranians remember the past and says, while he did not speak Ukranian, he did manage to figure out a few words and phrases.

He spent most of his time in the city of Drohobych that housed the university where he taught and numerous architectural sites he was able to tour.

While there, he and his wife lived in an apartment complex of 12-14 buildings that was built in Soviet times. He said "one of the nice things we noticed was all the gardening that was being done. An unpleasant aspect was garbage dumpsters that were overflowing."

One of the things his wife enjoyed was going to the market everyday and preparing different meals using Ukranian recipes. Bill said he had his hair cut about every five weeks and found the stylists and equipment similar to that used here.

He visited the Drohobych City Cemetary and toured the countryside. They found a death camp that has a sign in front that states "Bow Your Head and Pay Respect."

North of Drohobych is the city of Dubno and from there they went to Kremenitz and saw a 15th century monestary which is visited by thousands of pilgrims every year. Bill said they also toured the Crimean Peninsula which had "nice sea scenery and many monuments to Lenin." One of the areas he toured was the Palace of the Khan which he said was "very exotic" and showed pictures of the area described in the Charge of the Light Brigade. He was also able to go on a wild mushroom hunt where he found several varieties.

August program chairman Tim Moss introduced Bill and thanked Michelle Fitch of Midamerica Bank who helped set up the presentation.

Next week: Mel and Betty Peterson will give a program on the Kiwanis International Foundation.

Guests from the Monmouth Kiwanis Club were (left to right) Don Perrin, Jack Reitman and David Culder.

President Jeremy Benson presided. John Moon led us in singing "On Kiwanis" and the invocation was given by Chuck Nicholson.

Jeremy said "we're coming up on the end of the year and if you have dues due be sure to clear that up with Pat." If you have a need for a new name tag, see Jeremy or Sue and it will be taken care of.

Debbie Vandemark won the 50/50 Drawing and donated her share to Dr. Godt and the Danish Student Exchange Program.

• Tim - happy for his puppy that he inherited. It.s been sick but everything looks better now.
• Jeremy - for the Monmouth Interclub and another for Rick Bulger and his work on the Builder. Jeremy and Sue filled in for Rick last week.
• Pat Stout had a few $$$ - for his friend Earl Godt who is running for state representative; he also announced that a meeting of the Macomb Area Chamber of Commerce Design Committee will be held August 28 to discuss Chandler Park (which includes the Kiwanis playground); another for the Monmouth club being with us. Pat said "they're involved in a lot of activities"; and one more for Rick and this website winning the I-I District Website Award for 2007-2008 (second year in a row!) Pat was inducted as incoming Lt. Gov. at last weeks District Convention and presented Rick with a patch for our banner. What an honor. Thank you!
• Don Perrin - for our support in nominating Nancy Clayton of the Monmouth club winning the Amador Award at the District Convention. Don said she was very surprised!

Check out previous Builder newsletters by clicking on a date below.

1/8/08 1/15/08 1/22/08 1/29/08 2/5/08 2/12/08 2/19/08 2/26/08 3/4/08 3/11/08 3/18/08 3/25/08 4/1/08 4/15/08 4/29/08 5/6/08 5/13/08 5/20/08 5/27/08 6/4/08 6/10/08 6/24/08 7/1/08 7/8/08 7/15/08 7/29/08 8/5/08 8/12/08