Welcome to Group Study Exchange Team from the Philippines

What a great welcome awaited the GSE team as they arrived at the Dundas Air Force Club accompanied by their host families. President Elect Jan Southall set the room ready for a traditional Thanksgiving celebration and Maggie and her team cooked up a fabulous dinner of turkey, ham and all the trimmings. Bob Morrow was Emcee and tied the GSE visit to the recent district conference in Brantford reminding us all that Peace Through Service happens when our wishbone connects to our backbone and we make things happen.

GSE team leader Alfredo (Boboy) Campos is a civil engineer and project sales consultant and a Rotarian from the Rotary Club of Teresa in District 3800. Boboy would like us to look for joint projects our club and district can do with his district. Boboy is staying with Thie Convery and Francis Manias.

Team members are non-Rotarians aged 25 - 40. Pamela (Pahm) Balasabas is a police officer with the National Police, has been a police officer on the Presidential Detail and is presently part of the training team for police. On a recent visit to Hamilton Police Service she already picked up some ideas to help in her training role. Pahm is staying with David and Sue Carson. Maria (Kit) Kwe is a university professor, magazine editor and journalist. Her area of interests are environmental issues and reproductive health issues for the underprivileged. Kit is hosted by Barbara Busing and Norm Read. Anna Karenina (Dos) Roque  is a marketing specialist working for Asus computers. Previous to this she was a DJ on a Manila radio station. She likes the great space in Canada and how young adults are involved in politics. Dos is staying with the Carsons. Arcie Mallari is the founder and executive director of a foundation that helps children of the dump. He lived for three years on the largest dump in the Philippines so that he could help first hand the children and families living there. He is working with local schools to help educate the children and raise the grade nine registered students' English from a 4th grade level. Arcie is staying with Ian and Jane Smith.

During each GSE introduction one comment regularly was said. Canadians sure eat big servings! After all, it was a Thanksgiving dinner.