FAREWELL SPEECH

Op de laatste zaterdagavond - 14 mei 2011 - waren we te gast, thuis, bij de 'inkomend gouverneur' Greg Owen en zijn vrouw en alle mensen die ons deze vier weken hadden begeleid of gastvrijheid hadden verleend waren er.
Er was een grand buffet (via een cateraar) en genoeg te drinken aan de binnen- en buitenbar...
Na het eten namen Johrita Solari (gouverneur D 5320) en ik namens het team het woord.
Ik zei ongeveer het volgende:

Natuurlijk eerst veel dank voor het district en de gouverneurs en het comité dat alles zo zorgvuldig had voorbereid: Johrita Solari, Greg Owen, Ken Montgomery, Tito Parola, Kim, Cathryn en vele anderen. De coordinatoren van Orange: Spud en Tito, van Newport Beach- Irvine: Ed, Bill en Art, van San Clemente: Mitch, van Long Beach: Lori en Pat.

In these four weeks we have been the guests of nothing less than 21 different host families! We were their guests and lived in their houses, sat at their tables and shared their lives... You gave us breakfast and lunch and dinner at your houses and in fine restaurants. Burgers and BBQ and Mexican food and fresh fish at the sunny pier of San Clemente... You invited us at your seaside balconies, in the harbour, on the pier, in your gardens, at the beach, at In and Out, in your kitchen, for a lovely Chinese buffet and we gratefully drank Coke and Coke and Coke... How  can we ever sufficiently thank you all for what you gave us?

I know a possible answer:
BY OFFERING YOUR 5320 GSE TEAM NEXT YEAR IN OUR COUNTRY AT LEAST AS MUCH AS YOU OFFERED US! 

Just imagine:
We went together to an interactive lecture - especially arranged for us - about conflict management at Chapman University, visited the gigantic Crystal Cathedral in Anaheim, the Nixon Library, spent a long day in crazy Disneyland, visited the University of California Irvine = UCI, were participants of the Rotary district conference at Hilton Irvine and danced at the wonderful evening party... We made a boat tour in Newport Harbour with Art and Susan, visited Casa Romantica in San Clemente, an exciting baseball game with 37.000 other people in the gigantic Los Angeles Angels Stadium - Anaheim, listened with 6.000 other people to the inspiring speech of the Dalai Lama at UCI... , visited the Joan Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego, where we met young adult, courageous and inspiring students from Saudi Arabia, Uganda and Ecuador, saw the art galleries and the beaches of Laguna Beach, spent (too much) money in the shopping mall in Carlsbad, were thrilled by the size of the flight carrier USS Midway in San Diego and some of us took a lunch at Hooters... We were guest at the Queen Mary, strolled down Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, visited the pastry factory Two Chefs on a Roll (and tasted their lovely products) and admired the excitingly beautiful Getty Center in Los Angeles and the famous Hollywood boulevard ... We visited the courthouse in Los Angeles and were there the witness of the (real) trial in a murder case in Judge Eto's courtroom (the one of O.J. Simpson...), we saw the new Catholic Cathedral of Los Angeles and the amazing Disney Concert Hall, took the subway to Hollywood and went surfing at Huntington Beach, et cetera, et cetera...
And individual members of our team went to schools, hospitals, factories - too much to describe here.

Can you imagine how grateful we are!? And exhausted...

We've had tough discussions.
About the health system and how people are (not) insured, about the care for mentally or psychiatric disturbed people, the educational system in schools, highschools and universities and how teachers become teachers and children are yes or no allowed to be children or are already focused  very, very young at achievement, achievement!
How does your society function and who is paying for it and how much?
Tax payers, patrons, sponsors, fundraising, gifts by wealthy people...
We discussed intensely how different our societies are.
We've had open and honest discussions. Our team comes from a flat country, you know that! and we are not trained to hide our opinions behind mountains or under sea level. We said what we wanted / needed to say ("Thom, you sound like a socialist!") and asked what we wanted to know. If we offended you, we apologize, we really do! 
We were often surprised and sometimes even shocked by what we saw and heard.
We met also a lot of people of good will, making a lot of efforts to care for others who need care. We felt the spirit of Rotary in daily life.
We met friends and fellows, we shook hands and kissed a lot,
we were together in traffic jams and waiting lines (long waiting lines!),
we felt at home and very welcome and
sometimes / often wondered how we had deserved all this you gave us!

Na afloop van deze speech kregen we van Johrita Solari een cadeau voor onze DG Onno te Nuyl mee en ook nog eens allemaal een windjack van Disneyland cadeau. Toen konden de forse taarten worden aangesneden: taarten met ons eigen GSE-logo erop! Nee, niets was onze gastgevers te gek om het ons naar de zin te maken!

Die zondag erna naar LAX, de internationale luchthaven van Los Angeles. Met een volle Boeing 747/400 vlogen we terug naar Amsterdam, tegen de zon in, waar we maandagmorgen de 16e om 09:00 uur landden. Wonderlijk snel waren onze koffers al op de band.
Ieder ging zijns weegs, naar huis. Moe, moe, maar meer dan voldaan en dankbaar.

Er staan foto's op de verschillende blogs van de teamleden: http://www.gse2011.com/ en ik heb ook al een heleboel foto's naar http://www.flickr.com/ getransporteerd. Daar vind je de mijne onder vandergootgse2011 en vandergootgse2011.1 en vandergootgse2011.2.