Home Hosting 2: A Tale of Two Ubers and Six Rotarians  

Posted by Lawrence Reddaway on Jun 12, 2023
In the darkness of night, along the leafy streets of Hawthorn, two Ubers slipped away, taking their passengers to their hotels in Central Melbourne. One Uber contained an Indian man, a Hindu by birth, and his Iranian partner, a Muslim by birth. In the second Uber were two Indonesian women. One was Chinese by birth and instinctively Catholic in outlook, whilst her friend was Buddhist. Of the couple waving them goodbye into the night, one was, by upbringing, English and Anglican and the other, by upbringing, Australian and Catholic.  
Whilst waiting for their Ubers, the group’s conversation was animated, cheerful, and full of good will. It had been thus since earlier in the evening when, as perfect strangers, they had met for dinner. Any observer might have speculated whether they were plotting an outbreak of world peace, or finally ending of Polio, or the expansion of goodwill around the world.  
 
In reality, this happened during the recent Rotary International Convention that saw some 14,000 people of goodwill descend on Melbourne, and set Rod Laver Arena and “Jeff’s Shed” (formally known as the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre) alight with throbbing cheerful – sometimes inspirational – activity.
 
A part of the Convention was the dinner in the Hawthorn apartment of Ginia and Lawrence Reddaway, under the boring moniker “Home & Club Hospitality”. A better title for the ‘home’ part of this would have been “International Dining at Home and Having Fun”. 

Before Interpol investigates this eclectic Hawthorn gathering, we can reveal that the first Uber contained: 

Prince Kumar, an engineer, the Immediate Past President of the Rotary Club of Toronto and Chair of its District's Strategic Planning. His professional life has led him to serve in a management consulting firm that does engineering and strategic planning, along with another two social enterprises, one focused on a healthy lifestyle and another all about home and lifestyle automation. During the evening he explained that his father had been an Indian diplomat and spy before being assassinated in Myanmar.  

Sarah Safaei, (according to her partner Prince!) is a meditation and transformational life coach and the Public Image Chair for the Rotary Club of Toronto Eglinton. Her initial education in Iran was Masters in Economics, she continued her higher education in International Business Management in Canada and thereafter left the corporate world to start a new journey in which she supports people to get to know themselves better, love themselves deeper and have a mindful lifestyle. 

In the second Uber were: 

Suzana Chandra who is Indonesian-born Chinese.  She lived in Sydney for almost 14 years, before deciding to return home to Indonesia. Now, she and her partner live  in Bali with their two adult daughters. The youngest one is studying business at the RMIT, Melbourne. She received her Master’s degree in Finance from UNSW, thanks to a scholarship from the Australian government; and now she run her own businesses mainly in real estate and as a general contractor. I have been a Rotarian for almost 15 years, and in the year 2024-2025 I will have the privilege to be the District Governor of D3420 (Eastern part of Indonesia).”  

Jayanti Eni Arini ‘Enny’ who graduated from Computer Information System, Michigan, USA but most of her career is in management consultant and property agency. Currently she is the principal of L.J. Hooker (various locations) in Bali. She has been a Rotarian for almost 15 years, but due to her hectic schedules, only recently she had the courage to say “yes” to be the Club President of RC Bali Denpasar. 

In the true meaning of the internationality of Rotary, we all so enjoyed learning of each other’s backgrounds and lifestyles. It resulted in a truly wonderful evening