Dinner with DG Ann Lee

Thanks to DG Ann Lee's warm hospitality, we spent a night having dinner at a Chinese Restaurant in Sanford. It was a reunion with the GSE Team and some other Rotarians from RI District 7780. We had an enjoyable dinner & we were delighted to have the time for fellowship. We ought to say the lobsters cooked in the Chinese way in this restaurant was at par!!

 

On this day, we were transferred to York. Mary & Margaret from the Rotary Club of Brunswick Coastal brought us to a floating restaurant for lunch! The food there was amazing!!!!!! We love Maine Lobster!!! Thank you!

Vocational day

We made a presentation at the Damariscotta-Newcastle Rotary Club in the morning and we met DGE
Gary Speers. It so happened that his wife Judy is the president of this club. We were in the news of the
local paper and the report is extremely detailed.

We then visited the Mid Coastal Hospital in Brunswick and, some of us (Cheryl & Louise) had a tour in the Miles Hospital.

For the Mid Coastal Hospital, like all other hospitals, it is a kind of non-profit making community hospital, sees patients who are under Federal Medicare (citizens above 65), State Medicaid (poor or disabled) and patients under group insurance or self insurance. All rooms are either private or semi-private which is equivalent to the first class and second class rooms in Hong Kong. No wonder people are paying a very high insurance premium if not protected by the Medicare or the Medicaid. It is about US$ 260 per month for a family. After their presentation of the hospital and its 2020 vision, we made a presentation only on the healthcare side. They were surprised to learn how HK government can cope with it.

Each member is assigned to meet personnel according to his/her field; Jennifer had a chance to observe eye operations, Ganzorig abdominal operations and Michelle to stay with acupuncturist. On the other side at Miles, Cheryl and Louise visited different departments, such as the ERs, pharmacy, labs, and learned about the IT facilities and protocols that facilitate clinical staff's management of patients. Louise was also fascinated by the water birth facilities.  It is really a superb arrangement as far as vocational exchange is concerned.

As seen on TV! It's plane? It's Superman? It's a BIRD!!!!!!!!

 

It's a plane?  It's Superman?  It's a BIRD!!!!!!!!  We actually have the chance to stay "inside" of the bird to act as a pilot!  Amazing visit indeed!  Really I will say, it is an "As seen on TV" trip for us!

Middle of no where... we found Maple Syrups!

 

In the middle of no where... we visited the maple syrups boiling plant!  It was an amazing experience and Paul (a Rotarian) has been really nice to tell us in details on the production process!  We actually have the "lecture" taped!

Gee...... We love Maple Syrups and we love MAINE!!!!!!!!!

Happy Easter!!!!!!!!!

 

Happy Easter to everyone!  Guess what?  I (Michelle) am being invited to sing with the church choir in Rumford on Easter Sunday mass!  I guess this is really something that was not expected!

May I take this opportunity to thank all the hosts, GSE helpers, coordinators, GSE chair-Grace and DG Ann Lee for their great work to make our GSE a terrific one!  

May God bless you all!

Snowing wasn't bad, was it?

The weather today was aweful. it was cold, raining and snowing at times. However, it turned out to be one our highlights so far. We went to the Grafton Notch State Park and the Step Falls. Although most of us have seen snow we never really had a chance to hike on the snow and played snow balls.

 (standing on a frozen lake!!!)

Later in the day, we visited a local maple syrup factory. It is interesting to witness how the sap from the maple tree become maple syrup. During the evening, we had a cook out meal in the house of a Rotarian of RC of Bethel.
We were surprised to see two deers go by not too far away from the house saving us going to a zoo for that.

Rumford Hospital visit

Today we had wonderful  vocational visit day to Rumford  Hospital We had guided tour with  Jonh  Welsh, Becky Hall, Jane Aube and  Dr . Aniel.  For such small hospital with 25 beds it has amazing quality service .We have visited  various departments of hospital and were surprised with such capable emergency services here. After lunch at this hospital we have visited Elsemore Dixfield Family Practice as well guiding by Becky Hall, who is a Nurse Manager at Rumford Hospital. 

Fun experience

Happy face of Ganzorig

Time with our hosts

After visiting Hospice of Southern Maine and Veteran’s Administration; and a lunch presentation at Biddeford-Saco Rotary Club, we all returned to our host families’ homes to have a warm gathering!

Louise and Jennifer had an awesome lobster dinner with their hosts David and Lynn Jourdan. Philothee- a Belgian girl, who is a friend of an exchange student who stayed with David’s family before for one whole year, was also present. They had a wonderful time chatting around the fireplace before dinner. David was the chef that night, while all others were busy taking photos of the pop star David! It was the first time that Louise and Jennifer had a large lobster served as one whole piece. It took them a while to figure out how to “dissect” the lobsters, with the help of David. Lynn made everyone some nice crispy cookies. They had such a warm gathering that night. It was amazing how we came to know each other from all different places around the world!

Hospice care

This morning we paid a visit to the Hospice of Southern Maine. Essentially, hospice provides 'quality of life at the end of life'. They have about eighteen rooms. All rooms are for one person, pretty much like those in all hospitals, general or rural. Each room has a good view of the beautiful scenery. Quite impressed.

a picture in front of the tree signifying "life" -- all leaves are showing the names of donors

First day of vocational visit

We have our first club presentation at Kennebunk Portside Club in the morning. We were so glad that all members were very interested in Hong Kong and Mongolia. We hope they have learnt more about our district after our presentation.

We then had a visit to Southern Maine Medical Centre (SMMC). We were taken to various departments there and had a better understanding of a typical American hospital setting.

After lunch at SMMC, we had different vocational visits according to our own interest.

Jennifer visited the ophthalmologist Dr. Edward Jaccoma in Sanford. She was so surprised and glad that she was allowed to examine all patients at the clinic. She has never seen so many blue irises and hypo-pigmented retina before! There is quite a different spectrum of eye diseases as well, as compared to our Chinese population. She managed to see some cases that she has read in textbooks only before!

At night, we had a casual barbecue dinner with Saco-Bay Rotary Club. We were so glad that we could share our experience on our vocational visits with the club.

Day 1 visit

In the morning we paid a visit to the Landing Boat School which teaches students from all parts of the world to build pleasure boat with cedar wood and some with fibre glass. Students build the boat in groups of three or more once the design has been set. After a short tour of the school, we paid a visit to Houston & Co, a company of only four, who manufactures fine furniture from cherry, maple, oak, walnut and ash of their own design. They received orders from a few famous universities in the States, such as Harvard, etc to make furniture for reception and the library.

In the afternoon, we had a chance to visit University of New England, College of Medicine. There are two kinds of medical training, namely, osteopathic and allopathic. Osteopathic will produce DO and allopathic MD. DO practice a ‘whole person ‘approach to health care. Instead of just treating specific symptoms, DO concentrates on treating patient as a whole. 10 % of all practicing physicians in the State of Maine’s are DO graduated from UNE College of Medicine. We visited also the College of Marine Biology of the University. The most interesting thing would be the rehabilitation of wounded seals and turtles which are reported by citizens and the State government would determine where these animals go. Once they recover from their wounds and found fit to return to ocean, they will be sent back to ocean.

Before we call it a day, we visited Biddeford Free Clinic. This clinic provides free medical services to people who are not covered by insurance. All doctors, paramedical staffs and administrative staffs are volunteers. There are only two evening sessions each week. Last year they had 3562 visits and generated value of service of about 4.7 millions. All expenditures are covered by donations or funds raised.

We are in Kennebunkport, Maine!

We departed HK on 16 April 2011 (Sat) morning. Here comes a picture of our full team:

left to right: Jennifer, Louise, Michelle, Vito, Cheryl, Ganzorig, DGN Kenneth Wong

We were told to expect the unexpected before our trip. & we can already tell you that it's true with few surprises we've already encountered...

We ran into the GSE team from Rotary International District 3310 (Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei) in the HK airport before we boarded. We actually took the same flight to Chicago! How did we recognize them? They were in their Rotary uniforms, making them easily spotted ;) Their team was going to Pennsylvania for exchange. Here is a picture of us all:

After a 14+ hr flight, we got in Chicago, where we transferred in another 2.5-hr flight to Portland, Maine. We were very honored to have the US team giving us a warm welcome, including DG of RI District 7780 Ann Lee Hussey. It was also very nice to meet some of the US GSE team members again in their country!

Soon after taking this picture... we learned that our luggages were still in Chicago... Fortunately, we managed to get the "survival kit" (i.e. toothbrush & the basic necessities) from the airline, & with the assistance provided by Rotarians/GSE team members in the US, this hasn't been a big problem.

After a night of rest, we walked around where we stayed during the day on Sunday. We saw the great waves of the Atlantic Ocean!

We had our orientation with District 7780 GSE Chair Grace Connolly, DG Ann Lee in the afternoon, followed by a Cocktail Reception:

& this is pretty much for now.
Outside of where we live, it looked like this at night:

You may not be able to see here, but the moon was very big & bright! & last but not least, we must thank David & Paula Reid for providing us with amazing accommodation at Fontenay Terrace Inn these 2 days! We rested well, & are looking forward to more & more upcoming exciting activities!