A Member of Rotaract Club of NUM & Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Visits Two Clubs in a Row

It has been a while since I have spoken at a Rotary Club. I guess it was because there were holidays like, Christmas and New Year etc.

One thing that I find most of the time is that most of Americans or western world thinks that Mongolians are Chinese -- hehe which sort of makes all Mongolians uncomfortable. So, as an Ambassadorial Scholar, whose mission is to create cultural understanding and world peace, I tell them the real story - that we cannot use chopsticks and our nomadic lifestyle is very unique comparing to other Asian countries. We are different in a way that any other Asian country pursued. Again I still could be wrong - I am saying this based on my knowledge that I acquired from readings and researches. All those history books are perceptions of a person like us who’s from our generation. So we never know...

Anyways, the first club that I visited was called Rotary Club of Ballston Spa. It's located about half an hour north from where I live. They meet in former factory building that's called A Factory. And in their meeting room they have Michael Corleone's (The Godfather) portraits all over (refer the photos). Everybody was quite pleased with the presentation and now they have learned that Mongolians are not Chinese and it's Chinggis Khaan, not Genghis Khan.

The second club was morning breakfast club called Rotary Club of Mechanicville in town of Mechanicville, NY. They meet at 7:45am every Wednesday - wow that was NOT easy at all! The DG Bill Nathan picked me up from my house. We left at 6:45am from Albany, NY - very early!

It was relatively small club compared to other clubs that I have visited, I have presented directly from my laptop screen - which was even better. It was almost like a small round table discussion.

I have done four clubs speech so far now I am getting ready for the next one this Thursday. I do hope that you will enjoy the photos, but there is more coming, stay tuned...

Miss you guys, yours in Rotaract!

Batuk