SI MONTHLY NEWS JUNE 2005 Countries
From SI Exco News
Greetings: First from the Area Coordinator for Anglophone Africa:
1. A group of people in Sierra Leone would like to revive Servas there. Gambia is active but so far Ghana and Nigeria are silent.
2. We are not sure what has happened to Servas in Kenya. The lists for there and Tanzania are many years old.
Servas is alive in Uganda, Zambia, Malawi, Botswana and South Africa.
Travellers with old lists with phone numbers — we would appreciate it greatly if you could contact a number of the people on them and let us know what is happening in dormant Servas countries. So any assistance you can give would be most appreciated.
If anyone is travelling south from Kenya? There are now buses between East Africa and Gaborone and trains go from Dar es Salaam to Lusaka.
Servas is now strongest in Malawi and Servas travellers are welcome there.
In peace,Sheldon
Second, from Botswana.
Servas Lunch in Tlokweng Botswana
A lunch was held for Servas members and people who had applied to become members to be interviewed. Regrets were received from old five members in the area south eastern Botswana. Three old members came and four prospective new members. People talked about themselves, their interest in Botswana, their other activities, life and travels. The four new members were interviewed and accepted with pleasure. We began at noon and the last person left at five p.m. It was a pleasant afternoon.
Greetings from Iceland!
I am Canadian and have lived in Reykjavik for six years. I kept coming to Iceland as a tourist and fell in love with the country, culture and language so decided to move here. I work at a nursing home and am completing a three degree in Icelandic. I took over as national secretary last year from the woman who started Servas here over ten years ago. We have very few hosts and almost no travellers. A few hosts in Reykjavik and three around the country. For some reason hosting or staying with strangers seems very alien to the Icelandic mentality so it is an uphill struggle trying to develope Servas. But we keep trying!
Quite a few travellers come here - many stopping over with Icelandair while travelling between Europe and America or visa versa. Visiting Iceland is not cheap but camping or hostelling and coming with the new discount airline Iceland Express (from London, Copenhagen, Frankfurt-Hahn) makes it less expensive. Nature is the big attraction here of course but the cultural life is amazing. The weather is totally unpredictable and one has to be prepared for the possibility of lots of rain and wind and cool or even cold temperatures. It is 8 to 12 degrees now in June and seldom goes above 20 in July and August. Off-season tourism is growing as people discover that it can be fun to be here in the winter too! Swimming in the outdoor pools while snow falls and the northern lights swirl overhead is really amazing! I will be happy to answer anyone´s questions about travelling here.
Christopher Morden
Brazil
1) The Servas group in the state of São Paulo (Brazil) has recently issued its local newsletter (issue nr. 5), in Portuguese.
2)Pedro Puente, from Peru, is about to finish editing a South American newsletter, with news from each of the 10 South American countries. We think it will be ready in one or two weeks (in Spanish). We intend to send it by e-mail to the members of all South American countries.
Roberto Borenstein, Area Coordinator - South America
