Africa - Part 2

By Jim Smith

 

Africa Part 2

After a wonderful two weeks in Botswana and Zambia the tour moved on to South Africa. After the 3rd flight of the day the group arrived in East London for the South African AGM. The few days spent here included a wonderful “Braii” at the local 41ers clubhouse and then the Friday was spent with some meetings with friends followed by the traditional Nations Night. Lots of the recent YAPS were there that night which livened up the dancing.


Saturday saw the AGM which was well chaired by Nico as President Ben had gone down with food poisoning although he did get back later in the day to complete the celebrations. 41 Club in South Africa is facing similar issues to many associations around the world with the transfer from Table to 41 club being at a low level. Many people will have read or heard about the tragic accident at the time of the AGM when Moffat Nyirenda’s (Zambian 41 clubber and past RTI President), 2 year old son was run over by a car and sadly died. The thoughts of all of us go to Moffat and Matilda.


The whistle stop tour of Africa continued on the next day when the party moved on to Capetown for the RTI AGM. This is where Rachel left for home to get back to work, well someone has to pay for Barry’s beer money! Before the meetings there was time for a bit of sight-seeing. Barry managed to squeeze in a photo opportunity with two other Presidents (De Klerk and Mandela) as well as visiting Table Mountain and Robben Island. He was delighted to take a message to all Tablers that 41 Club are ready for them when they move up as we are going “Full Steam Ahead”.

So the end came to a tremendous African tour with 4 AGM’s in Botswana, Zambia, South Africa and the RTI meeting. Some three and a half weeks since leaving home it was time for a change of continents and we leave Barry on a flight to Mumbai to take greetings to Indian 41 clubs.

See part 3 of the Grand tour to follow shortly.

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