Our GSE hosts have been our window to Australia and its people, places, values, customs and stories. The people who serve as hosts volunteered their time so we GSE participants experienced an educational and enriching journey through Aussie-land.
Let me clarify this point - I am defining hosts to mean everyone who helped make our GSE trip possible. This includes the GSE coordinator, lodging hosts, drivers, Rotary Club members, hosts of the many places we visited, and everyone else who added to the coordination of the month-long trip.
The majority of our time during the trip was planned out for us. We were masters of only a few hours of our time - leaving little time for self-exploration. I realized early that I would have to turn myself over to our hosts and trust them to show me their Australia. From this point forth, I was a sponge for insight and information. This doesn't mean I shut off my critical thinking, did not contribute or did not ask for some things during the time I did control. I simply allowed myself to be taught (something I've told former players on teams I've coached).
Our hosts opened our eyes to Australia. They did this by serving in several roles, such as:
-Serving as our educators
-Serving as our second (and third, and fourth, and...) point of view
-Serving as our coaches
-Serving as our cheerleaders
-Serving as our laughing companions
-Serving as our friends
Through our hosts the intense introduction to Australia flowed seemlessly. We learned about: the Northern Territory; Queensland; small towns; mid-sized cities; "blue collar" people who work with their hands; professionals who occasionally wear ties; Timor Leste; young, emerging leaders; ANZAC day; Easter traditions; employment practices; and life-long Rotarians.
The values of Rotary and good-hearted people shined throughout the trip. Our hosts were: kind; giving; thoughtful; proactive; loving; sociable; inquisitive; humorous; teachers; concerned for the common good; fraternal; whole-hearted; and much, much more.
This whirlwind GSE tour was exhausting - but in a good way. Now at the end of our trip I feel the accomplishment of learning from our Aussie hosts and sharing of ourselves and our home. The future will include at least one project to support our new friends in Timor Leste. This is one of the outcomes of our trip - learning where else we can serve.
I did not know what all to expect on the trip. And I did not know what all to give. I decided to simply open my arms to our hosts and receive from their generosity. And in returned I tried to give as much of myself as possible. I feel nourished by my hosts' generosity and hope they gained from me as well.
Our hosts were our window to Australia.
Our hosts were our windows to personal courage we didn't know we had.
Our hosts were our mates on this voyage.
Our hosts have become our friends.
God bless our hosts and their (our) beloved Australia.
(Lodging hosts in Ingham, Queensland - Vincenzo and Monica.)
(GSE coordinator Asha and husband John (right).)
(Lodging host in Darwin, Northern Territory - Raquel.)
(Lodging host in Darwin, Northern Territory - Peter and Bronwyn.)
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