My Somewhat Absentee Host Counselor - Rotary Surely is Different Here in Spain

August 2, 2012

Well some of you might be wondering why I haven’t written anything about my experiences in Rotary since my arrival in Barcelona.  All that I can say is that Rotary surely is different here in Spain.  Back home, when you contact a Rotary person, they will contact you constantly to check up on you, include you in events, get you to speak at their club, etc.  Here in Spain, that is NOT the case (at least not in my experiences thus far).  I was first assigned a district Rotary counselor who is in charge of all 5 scholars currently studying in Barcelona.  She told me that if I needed anything, she was here for me but that we would wait to get together until all 5 of us had arrived here in Barcelona.   I was then assigned a Rotary counselor from my local club shortly before arriving and when I contacted him, I did not hear back from him for over a week.  When I finally did, I had already been in Barcelona for a few days and he wrote to inform me that he had injured his shoulder playing football and was going through some corrective surgeries and rehabilitation therapy.  He said that he would let me know when he was back in operation.  This came about two days before August when he then told me that he was feeling better, but would be on vacation the entire month of August.  I guess we’ll see what happens in September as I’m anxious to get involved, meet the members of my host club, and get started with my presentations.

I’ll keep y’all posted.  


UPDATE:  I have finally made contact with my host counselor and he is back in Barcelona for good.  We have plans to meet up next Thursday to talk about how I can get involved in his club and what they're doing here in Barcelona.

I also have a meeting with my district counselor on Sunday night so things are looking up =)