Peace Corp in South Africa

 Aug 1 - Steve Gerner told us about his tour of duty with the Peace Corp in South Africa. He discussed the huge contrast between city life and small town or village life in the country. While the area between Johannesburg and Pretoria contributes 1/3 of Africa's GDP, the rest of the country is extremely poor. Steve lived with a host family who had 8 children - so privacy was practically non-existent. Thanks to funds donated by Rotary, he was able to help the community build and populate a small library.  He showed us some of the local artwork that illustrated that the cultures were, indeed, very vibrant.  He told us several stories which illustrated how the UBUNTU philosophy was practiced in every day life, everywhere in his community. He tries to practice the basic tenets here in his everyday life and believes that Rotary embraces many of the same basic concepts. Steve is now a local entrepreneur who specializes in baking gourmet all-natural pies. Check it out.