Speaker Meeting, 6.15 for 6.30pm

President Ann was accompanied by two of her friends at this meeting, Geoff and Hope Price pictured above.  They were not expecting to have to sing for their supper but due to the unexplained absence of the "booked speakers" they found themselves being asked to be last-minute stand-ins.  And what delightful speakers they were.  Both had an extremely interesting tale to tell.

Hope spoke first.  She is a trained nurse having a working career of some 50 years and still counting.  Her longest spell was 30 years with Marie Curie.  It was night work, sometimes involving round trips of up to 50 miles to visit patients in their own homes, yet she said, “Working for Marie Curie was a great privilege and a blessing.” 

Four years ago Geoff and Hope moved to Fairford.  Marie Curie don’t cover Gloucestershire so she became a community nurse working with the Friends of Fairford and Lechlade Communities a charity which our Club supported last year.  Hope enjoys this even more because it’s local, it’s day work, and she visits the same people regularly so she gets to better understand their needs and problems.  This is how she met President Ann as she cared for her husband Emile in his final years.

Admitting her age (73) she said she will carry on nursing for as long as she is able because she enjoys it so much.

Geoff has an agricultural background and holds an NDA.  “Some people say that stands for Not Daft After all but actually it’s a National Diploma in Agriculture, ” he said.   At the age of 19 he went to Zambia for a year to work with farmers there.  He fell in love with Africa.

Back in Britain he met and married Hope and later the two of them went to Rwanda.  Geoff taught the locals how to increase their crops of coffee, tea and cotton.  He planted eucalyptus trees and fruit trees.  He showed them how to collect rainwater and make productive gardens around their houses.  The big problems for Rwandan farmers are too much rain and mud, too little rain and, worst of all, the ravenous white ants.  

Geoff and Hope have set up a farming charity in Rwanda.  They are committed Christians and also worked as missionaries there.  Geoff said: “Rwandans don’t knock on the door on arriving at someone’s house, instead they just cough.”   For this reason when the bible was translated into the local language, Revelation 3:20 “[Jesus said:] Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” became “Behold, I stand at the door and cough.”

They are making a return visit to the Country shortly and will stay with some of their friends there.

On behalf of the members present, a genuinely appreciative thank you to Geoff and Hope was well articulated by Rotarian David Dukes.