Ajmal Teaches English to Raise Funds for Rotaract Children's Hospital Program

Greetings from Saint Petersburg,

I hope you are doing great and have started a wonderful new year with other Rotarians and friends. Saint Petersburg is getting colder each day and I have been told that this year the weather has been nicer to us than the previous years this time of the year. We have just finished the semester at the university and now have sometime to perhaps do some sightseeing finally. Rotary Club Saint Petersburg International celebrated Christmas and I had the pleasure to be part of it.

Russians are very much interested to learn English, and during one of my meetings with the Rotaract Saint Petersburg International I suggested several ideas for fund raising for the community projects we wanted to accomplish. One of which was to give gifts for children at the local hospital for Christmas who couldn't be home. I offered to teach English once a week in return for donations to Rotaract Saint Petersburg International club. The project was successful enough that we were able to provide gifts for the children for the hospital. One of the Rotarians offered a room in the back of her restaurant for us to hold our English lesson sessions, and we had several students attending, some of them being other Rotaract members or Rotarians interested in improving or learning English. The Rotaract Club Saint Petersburg International collected enough donations through my English lessons project to buy gifts for Christmas for the local children's hospital who could not celebrate it at home. It was a great experience to be part of and to see one of our community project came to a fruitful ending.

Attached please find some pictures. I will keep in touch as things progress.

Warm Regards, Ajmal Kohi

Greetings again from the beautiful city of Saint Petersburg, Russia!

After two weeks things seem to be almost settled down with me finally. University has started and I got to meet some of my classmates. The weather has been

 very kind to us so far and the locals say it is unusual this year. I am going to write a mini report here, hopefully it will not take too much of your time.

I met my host Rotarian, Valeria Yakovleva on 25th of August and she has been very kind to me. She is in real estate and tourism business. On August 31st, she took me to the host rotary club, Rotary Club Saint Petersburg, and I got to meet many other Rotarians, including Mr. Pavel Sergevich who was recently initiated at the rotary club. He kindly invited me to his hometown of Pushkin on the weekend and I got to meet his wonderful family and see the beautiful city of Pushkin. In Saint Petersburg there are four rotary clubs, my host rotary club being the most active and the biggest with about 30 members. They meet on Wednesdays at 7:30pm at the restaurant by the Nevski River.

The rotary gatherings are a little different than the ones I attended in Seattle. Rotarians usually order their own food if they want and the conversations are less formal. If somebody stands up and speaks, it is common to see others starting their own little conversations around the table with one another. Valeria, my host Rotarian had asked what I wanted to achieve in Saint Petersburg and one of the things I told her was that if possible I wanted to shadow and possibly intern for a lawyer in Saint Petersburg. I was surprised to see how hard she was trying to get me an internship with a Rotarian who is a lawyer.

There are also four rotract clubs in Saint Petersburg. I have met with White Night Rotract club. Unfortunately, they are not active, but Kcenia Kormech, a club member gave me contact information for two other rotract clubs. I have contacted one of them so far and we are meeting on September 19.

Last Wednesday, I met Dr. Stephen Miller, from Rotary Club of Fidalgo Island in Anacortes, Washington during our regular club meetings. It was a nice surprise. It just showed how active Rotarians are around the world. He was in St. Petersburg to check on the hospital project his club had worked on. I asked him if I could be of any help for their project. He said not at the present, but will keep me in mind. He had done some humanitarian work in Afghanistan too, so we had a lot to talk about.

I will stay in touch as things progress. And please feel free to edit my letters for content and grammar.

Warm Regards, Ajmal Kohi

Greetings Lee,

I arrived in Saint Petersburg on Sunday night and it is very pretty here.  I am trying to enjoy the semi dry weather here before it gets very cold and wet.

I haven't met my host rotary club here because my host Rotarian is on a trip.  She will be back in a couple of days.  But I have met her husband and her mother-in-law. They are very kind and helpful.

Things are not as easily accessible as it is in Seattle.  Still I am looking for a permanent place and figuring things out here.  Internet is not easily accessible so far.  Maybe later I will find something better.

I will stay in touch and will let you know as things progress.

Warm Regards, Ajmal Kohi

Lee,

This opportunity is by far more than I thought and was told about. Very few people speak English (not like any other country I have been in Europe), therefore a very efficient and practical way to learn Russian language.

Today I finally met my host Rotarian. She is straight forward and once a while smiles, but that seems to be the case with most people here. She is very helpful and said she will take me to the rotary club on Wednesday. I am excited because I am going to meet other Rotarians who came from different walks of life ( doctors, engineers, politicians, lawyers..). No other scholarship or educational opportunity exposes one to such an experience. Thank you!

This evening I will meet up with Ksenia, a Rotract in Saint Petersburg and hopefully she will introduce me to some local projects they are working on.

Please forward my thoughts to other Rotarians and friends.

Warm Regards, Ajmal