SI MONTHLY NEWS May 2006 Editorial
From SI Exco News
Editorial
Sharing
Some ago, when living in Botswana, my Zimbabwean neighbour told me a saying he learnt when studying in East Germany. 'Was ist deine ist meine, aber was is meine ist nicht deine'. ('what is yours is mine but what is mine is not yours') We laughed about it but still discussed how so many people and countries live by that idea. They are ready to 'share' somebody else's items but not ready to share their own. It has been going on throughout history and continues today.
On the other hand, again some time ago, I was given another saying, this time from one of the Gandhis in India: 'If everyone shared enough and everyone cared enough, then everyone would have enough'.
I know which saying I prefer to follow. And in Servas that idea of sharing is one of our aims. We offer to share our homes and a bit of our lives to other Servas members. I hope we are ready to and automatically do so with non-Servas people as well.
In this issue we share a number of items: web sites that might interest us; the work Exco has been doing; ways of meeting others; a language; what other countries have been doing; peoples travel and comments. Keep sharing it opens the world to all.
Contact
We welcome articles coming to SI Monthly News. We do not guarantee that the article will be published. This depends on any theme for the month along with what other articles also available for publication.
Preferred method of contact is email at: newsletter [at]servas.org or jgiffould [at ]aol.com
Please make sure that Servas: Monthly News is part of the subject heading. If the email address is not recognised it may well get deleted before being read.
The postal address is:
Jane Giffould, SI Monthly News Editor 20 Weavers Row, Halstead, Essex, CO9 2JX, England
Contacts with other organizations:
From time to time other organisations contact us and suggest we read their web sites and get involved with them and share ideas. Similarly many of us have organisations that interest us with views that link with Servas, and we would like to share these with everyone else in Servas. The Monthly News is one way of doing it. Please send ideas in.
1) This organisation has been sending me details of their news. Admittedly I have not got round to following it up. But the title indicates that it could be of interest to Servas members. Hence I am including it here.
MAHATMA GANDHI NEWS DIGEST, Select News on Mahatma Gandhi, Peace and Nonviolence
Read this week's issue: http://www.gandhiserve.org/news/news.html
2) And from someone interested in travel stories and offering a prize, passed on by Mary Jane Mikuriya:
A Travel Story Contest
(http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) that invites our readers to contribute their travel stories of how travel opened their minds and broadened their horizons.
Of course we also have some fabulous prizes:
- our grand prize is a 2-week (15 day) Greek Sailing Adventure for 2, sponsored by G.A.P Adventures, Canada's adventure travel leader and a socially and environmentally responsible company
- first prize is a 1-week stay in a vacation suite for 4 to 8 people in a multitude of locations across the world
- second prize is a 2-night 3-day weekend in a B&B in Toronto complete with a city tour in an amphibious vehicle and a culinary tour of the St. Lawrence market
- third prize is a $150 merchandise gift certificate from the Mountain Equipment Coop, another socially and environmentally conscious enterprise
- we also have a variety of magazine prizes for our honourable mentions.
The stories that we are most interested in are stories of learning experiences, of cross-cultural encounters and ultimately stories of human understanding through travel which Servas stands for. I am very sure that Servas members would have some amazing stories to share...
Best regards, Susanne Pacher.
