Lions Club
Lions Club
Did you think I was going to talk about the animals? Sorry totally different topic. Last night I went to a Lions club meeting. I had never heard of the ’lions club’ before coming here but maybe some of you have. It is an international voluntary organisation that raises money to help people particularly those with eyesight problems. Something like the Rotary.
The meeting could not have been more different from the WI if it tried.
Venue: where the WI met in a very sumptuous setting of poolside garden area with comfortable deck chairs; this meeting was held in a Botswana family house. The lion club owned the property and rented it out to a local at a reasonable rent on the understanding that once a month he vacated it and let the members meet there between 6.30- 9. It was stifling hot, no air-conditioning or fan, plastic chairs and cramped. The carpet was torn and stained and the wallpaper peeling off the walls.
Food: where WI had sausage rolls, cut sandwiches, tea, coffee, juice and cake; Lions club had half a can of coke each and some pakoras
People: where the WI was all white, middle class, Stepford wives dressed to kill, well coiffured and professionally made up, the lions club were mainly Asian, two white (me being one) and two black (one a man) all dressed comfortably and casually not a scrap of make up between us, unless you count the marriage mark Asian women have on their foreheads.
Meeting: where the WI was organised, structured and balanced; the lions club forgot the minutes, everyone talked at the same time, no decisions were made and lots of noise. Great fun and such a pleasure to watch. Sometimes they broke into other languages so I really didn’t know what was going on half the time but it was clearly significant cos there was such passion.
There were similarities: they all were involved in fundraising; which mainly consisted of orgainsing something around food. The lions’ club functions cost around 30 pula (2.50) and the WI funtion was 65 pula (£5.50). It was explained to me that Asians won’t spend as much as white people to attend. They were all committed to their causes and wanted to help people. Both meetings started with a blessing: the WI had a prayer and the lions read out their code of ethics.
For me they were interesting; very different but highly entertaining. Both clubs made me feel welcome and wanted me to join. It will be fascinating to see the politics of both as I get to know them better. The WI was much bigger group to that of the Lions club. Two of the women in the lions club come from Zambia (one white the other black). They did not spend any time talking but I got to talking to the black woman. She was a teacher in Zambia but is not working here mainly because it is difficult for foreigners to get work here. She doesn’t have children and is a bit bored. She was much younger than the others. This was only her second meeting.
Two of the Asian women lived in my street so I offered them a lift home. Neither drove. Since then, one of them has come over to mine for tea and brought with her some interesting Asian food. I think I might put on weight here.
She is lonely. She doesn’t work and hasn’t since she married her husband in 1985. They are both from Sri Lanka. It was an arranged marriage and doesn’t seem the happiest from what she was saying. She said she wouldn’t talk to him as she did with me. She can’t tell him things. I had just met her. She had lived with him for over 20 years. But she says in her culture you don’t leave just cos you are unhappy. She is Hindu and a Tamil. She told me a horrific story of when she was young. When the Sinhalese group (dominant group in Sri Lanka) tried to butcher a lot of the Tamils. She and her family had to hide for over two months first with a neighbour and then in a convent. When they went home, everything they owned had been smashed or stolen; they hadn’t even left a light bulb. She said she as lucky cos some of her fellow Tamils were butchered. She says this is why she still doesn’t care about possessions. She knows how easy it is to lose them and that life is more important.
How shallow did that make me feel? Just last week I was missing my stuff.
She is also very religious and after explaining reincarnation to me she was horrified that I did not pray every day and did not have a god. She could not see how I could function as a being without recourse to god. I on the other hand had difficulty with her belief that nature punishes the wicked; hence we have volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. It take all sorts I suppose.
What an interesting morning I had. Not my usual conversation before 11am but certainly an eye-opener.
Did you think I was going to talk about the animals? Sorry totally different topic. Last night I went to a Lions club meeting. I had never heard of the ’lions club’ before coming here but maybe some of you have. It is an international voluntary organisation that raises money to help people particularly those with eyesight problems. Something like the Rotary.
The meeting could not have been more different from the WI if it tried.
Venue: where the WI met in a very sumptuous setting of poolside garden area with comfortable deck chairs; this meeting was held in a Botswana family house. The lion club owned the property and rented it out to a local at a reasonable rent on the understanding that once a month he vacated it and let the members meet there between 6.30- 9. It was stifling hot, no air-conditioning or fan, plastic chairs and cramped. The carpet was torn and stained and the wallpaper peeling off the walls.
Food: where WI had sausage rolls, cut sandwiches, tea, coffee, juice and cake; Lions club had half a can of coke each and some pakoras
People: where the WI was all white, middle class, Stepford wives dressed to kill, well coiffured and professionally made up, the lions club were mainly Asian, two white (me being one) and two black (one a man) all dressed comfortably and casually not a scrap of make up between us, unless you count the marriage mark Asian women have on their foreheads.
Meeting: where the WI was organised, structured and balanced; the lions club forgot the minutes, everyone talked at the same time, no decisions were made and lots of noise. Great fun and such a pleasure to watch. Sometimes they broke into other languages so I really didn’t know what was going on half the time but it was clearly significant cos there was such passion.
There were similarities: they all were involved in fundraising; which mainly consisted of orgainsing something around food. The lions’ club functions cost around 30 pula (2.50) and the WI funtion was 65 pula (£5.50). It was explained to me that Asians won’t spend as much as white people to attend. They were all committed to their causes and wanted to help people. Both meetings started with a blessing: the WI had a prayer and the lions read out their code of ethics.
For me they were interesting; very different but highly entertaining. Both clubs made me feel welcome and wanted me to join. It will be fascinating to see the politics of both as I get to know them better. The WI was much bigger group to that of the Lions club. Two of the women in the lions club come from Zambia (one white the other black). They did not spend any time talking but I got to talking to the black woman. She was a teacher in Zambia but is not working here mainly because it is difficult for foreigners to get work here. She doesn’t have children and is a bit bored. She was much younger than the others. This was only her second meeting.
Two of the Asian women lived in my street so I offered them a lift home. Neither drove. Since then, one of them has come over to mine for tea and brought with her some interesting Asian food. I think I might put on weight here.
She is lonely. She doesn’t work and hasn’t since she married her husband in 1985. They are both from Sri Lanka. It was an arranged marriage and doesn’t seem the happiest from what she was saying. She said she wouldn’t talk to him as she did with me. She can’t tell him things. I had just met her. She had lived with him for over 20 years. But she says in her culture you don’t leave just cos you are unhappy. She is Hindu and a Tamil. She told me a horrific story of when she was young. When the Sinhalese group (dominant group in Sri Lanka) tried to butcher a lot of the Tamils. She and her family had to hide for over two months first with a neighbour and then in a convent. When they went home, everything they owned had been smashed or stolen; they hadn’t even left a light bulb. She said she as lucky cos some of her fellow Tamils were butchered. She says this is why she still doesn’t care about possessions. She knows how easy it is to lose them and that life is more important.
How shallow did that make me feel? Just last week I was missing my stuff.
She is also very religious and after explaining reincarnation to me she was horrified that I did not pray every day and did not have a god. She could not see how I could function as a being without recourse to god. I on the other hand had difficulty with her belief that nature punishes the wicked; hence we have volcanic eruptions and tsunamis. It take all sorts I suppose.
What an interesting morning I had. Not my usual conversation before 11am but certainly an eye-opener.
posted by George Herd at 11:57 AM
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