ursday, November 11, 2010
If there is one thing I say over and over again in my yoga classes it is "don't take any part of your body for granted." Our bodies are amazing and so many of us know so little about them. It never ceases to amaze me, for example, that the average adult human has 20-30 trillion red blood cells at any given time and produces 46 billion daily. That is amazing. There are approximately 100,000 miles of blood vessels in the human body. Our kidneys filter over 400 gallons of blood every day. Human bone is as strong as granite in supporting weight. A block of bone the size of a matchbox can support 9 tonnes - that is four times as much as concrete can support. The lungs contain over 300,000 million capillaries (tiny blood vessels). If they were laid end to end, they would stretch 2400km (1500 miles). There are as many as 35 million digestive glands in the stomach that all go to work every time I eat a Strawberry. We are all incredibly complex and hard working machines.
There are lots of great things that happen in our community that I know I often take for granted. The Rotary Club of Haliburton is one of those things. The members of that club have worked so hard for many years doing local, national and international work. They quietly work away on many projects all year round. They give a lot. One of their projects that I really appreciate is the exchange student program. Our Rotary Club has been sending students on exchange to far away places like India, Austria, France, Italy etc etc. for more than 40 years. In order to send a student out (there are currently 8000 students on exchange around the world through the Rotary Program) our club must accept a student and host them for the year. We've had students come into our community from all over the world. This year the club is hosting Steffy Ramos from Ecuador, and from Haliburton is spending the year in Ecuador. Both young women are having the time of their lives and are being excellent ambassadors for their countries. Both women are interacting with families, friends, Rotarians, community members and other exchange students. They are learning about the world, and teaching about the world they come from. I have often thought that if everyone could do a Rotary Exchange there would be no more wars. It is such a good program to build international understanding. The challenge for this program is that it requires host families to accept a young person into their family for 2-3 months. 4 host families are needed for every student that comes here to Haliburton. The Rotary Club members do most of the hosting, but always need extra help. We don't want to take this program for granted and loose it..... so if you can ever help out with it I hope you do.
Your life will be enriched.