Carmi Rotary Club meeting
The Carmi Rotary club had a busy meeting on Thursday as they discussed two upcoming events on the Rotary calendar.
First up will be the Rotary Fall Trivia contest. This year’s event takes place on Saturday, November 3rd, at the American Legion in Carmi. The first question will be asked at 6:00pm, and the night should wrap up around 8:00. As in year’s past, there will be four rounds of ten questions each, from such diverse topics as: history, pop culture, the Bible, food, language, geography, and maybe even a few surprises. The entry fee for a team of four is only forty dollars, and prize money will more than cover that fee for the three top teams. There will be plenty of food on hand as well, and spectators are more than welcome to come watch the evening unfold.
Shortly after the trivia, on Friday, November 16th, the Rotarians will be hosting their annual chili supper. This year’s event will be held at the Lion’s Den in Carmi, and will kick off at 5:00, and wrap up at 7:00. The cost of a ticket is only $7 per person.
Moving on to the day’s program, Rotarian Morris McCall told the club about his recent trip to Morocco, Spain and Portugal. Morris started his talk by reading a couple of quotes from the September issue of the Rotarian magazine. He read, “Use travel as a force for peace in the world.” And a second quote, “Learn more about other corners of the world.”
The author of those quotes spoke about how fears of other peoples and other cultures tend to disappear when you actually meet those people and experience their worlds.
Morris told of how the people of Morocco were extremely open and friendly. He also told how their homes were very basic on the outside, but beautiful on the inside. He stated that the Muslim culture does not allow people to show off their wealth.
He gave a brief history of the country as well. Like most African countries, Morocco has gone through several changes throughout the centuries, ruled by Phoenicians, Romans, Spaniards, and French. Finally, in 1956 Spain and France gave up all claims to the country as it became an independent nation.
In 1492, Queen Isabella of Spain forced all the Jews and Muslims out of her country. In fact, she gave them three options: Leave, convert to Catholicism, or be tortured and killed. This sent a lot of these two groups to Morocco.
