We had a great crowd to kick off the New Year! Matt Link was our speaker and he did a fabulous job telling us all about Ghana! His pictures were amazing, and he also played Ghanaian music to get us all in the mood. Matt truly immersed us in the country and its people, who are peace loving and warm. Some highlights: Ghana is 30% Muslim, and they are very pro-American. They spoke sadly of the 9/11 attacks. Ghanaians place huge importance on education, for boys and girls. Everything gets carried on their heads, even a refrigerator!! Matt showed us highlights from villages, mosques and a real voodoo ceremony!
The 2nd of February's speaker will be Helga Smith, who will be speaking and presenting a slide show to us about SERVAS. SERVAS began more than 50 years ago, and has expanded worldwide. It is now a network of over 14,000 hosts and travellers, present in 132 countries. Helga will briefly cover the history of SERVAS, its international status as an UN accredited NGO, and explain how SERVAS works. Helga has been a host in New York for more than 15 years and a traveler for at least 10 years as well as participant at national and international conferences. She has met hundreds of SERVAS people and will talk about what the SERVAS experience means to her. Helga grew up in what used to be East Germany and left that country after the Berlin Wall was built. She has been in NYC for the last 35 years.
New York meetings are held at The Wings Theater, 154 Christopher Street (btw Greenwich St and Washington St), to the right of Crunch Fitness, in the Archive on the first Saturday of each month at 4 pm.