My Fifth Host Family at Scotland – GSE Program of Rotary Foundation

Note: I was selected by Rotary Foundation for its exchange program called Group Study Exchange(GSE) for Scotland. I visited West of Scotland for tenure of one month, i.e. from September 8 to October 8, 2012. We were total five members, one team-leader and four team-members. All my posts regarding my experiences of this program are posted here on SpeakBindas under the category of GSE Scotland. Read on..

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George & Morag Willis, Govan Rotary Club, Scotland

The most noticeable thing about their home was that it was located in the midst of a hilly area. The next close house was barely visible from their home. It was a surprise to know that they do live in such a remote place. But their home was simply superb in terms of its size & interiors. Two cars were parked outside when we reached there. Myself and our team-leader Himal Pandya were both hosted by the Willis family. Family consisted of George, his wife Morag and their dog. George is the President of the club. I felt freedom to its best during being hosted with them. The house was really big with huge dining rooms – two of them and bedrooms.

On the last day of our stay with Govan Rotary Club, they had organized for a dinner party at their home where they had invited all other host families too with our team. But this time, we – the team from INDIA – were in control of kitchen for we were to prepare Indian food for them. Collectively, it was decided to prepare Pau-Bhaji. We went to an Indian shop in Glasgow to buy required vegetables as well spices. It was a two-day preparation for us for Pau-Bhaji 🙂 First day, we did cutting of the vegetables for one or two hours in the evening. Next day, we prepared it. Because of cold weather, cut vegetables remained as fresh as they were. Of course, we did put them in fridge.

Our team after preparation of Pau-Bhaji & Pulao: L to R - Tejal Rajput, Dr. Snehal Lokhandwala, Himal Pandya, Mirani Patel, Devang Vibhakar

Myself and our team-leader Himal Pandya are not that good at cooking so we mostly did cutting of vegetables and other common help (other than eating them in between:)). Our other team members Dr. Snehal Lokhandwala, Mirani Patel and Tejal Rajput were good with cooking so they were in-charge of the same. Pulao was also prepared. Ultimately, with collective effort we prepared delicious Pau-Bhaji, which everyone enjoyed very much that the quantity of bowls we had prepared were finished to its depth. Danny Chundoo – team-leader of inbound team from Scotland had also attended this eve with his wife June.

The evening was spent with us singing Indian songs, they singing Scottish songs and Mrs. Duncan did some magic tricks.

Me doing Scottish Country Dancing with host-mother Morag Willis.

I still remember the place they live at. It was very peaceful. You can just feel the nature so close. I could see a beautiful green hill from the window of room I was allotted. Both George & Morag were easy to stay with. Always ready to help. In fact, they both had landed hands on first day of cutting vegetables as we were not aware about management of their kitchen.

Thank you for hosting, indeed.