Excitement at JCI!!!

The U.N. Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon visited JCI World Headquarters this afternoon. He had already visited Monsanto and will be giving a speech at SLU later today. JCI has had a relationship with the United Nations for over 50 years and in 2003 JCI adopted a resolution to support the U.N. Millennium Development Goals to eradicate extreme poverty & hunger, to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, global compact and corporate social responsibility. JCI has since developed a program called “Nothing but Nets” which provides bed nets sprayed with insecticide to prevent malaria in Africa. We have many local member organizations in Africa who can distribute the nets in an efficient & effective manner.

Our 2009 President, Jun Sup Shin is from South Korea and has made climate change his priority this year. Ban Ki-moon is also from South Korea and he is in the St. Louis area to discuss the issue of climate change, so from what I hear he said he wanted to stop at one non-profit while in town and JCI was chosen. A man from the State Department came to check out the office Tuesday. A few more men came from U.N. Security yesterday to let us know the rules-no media, no unauthorized guests, no fast moves, etc., etc., etc. We were all very excited; especially Edson who has visited the U.N. many times and has a framed picture of himself with the former U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan in his office. He called this a historical event in JCI history and is very proud.
We hired a professional photographer who took many pictures and we were able to get a group shot but I don’t have access to it yet so here are some pictures I took.

My Sister, The Traitor

(Encarta Dictionary – traitor – betrayer – somebody who is disloyal or treacherous)

I went by Mom’s after work yesterday to check on her, bring her some dinner and visit for a while. She is still somewhat insecure about taking a shower because she’s afraid she might fall or something as she still doesn’t have all her strength back. So while she was in the shower, I decided to check the plants on Mom’s porch to see if they needed watering. The plants that I potted were fine but when I checked the hanging plant that Barb bought for Mom, it was dry. It’s a beautiful plant. I think it’s called an angel-leaf begonia. It is lush and full with plenty of flowers. It’s so lush it looks like it should be at an exotic resort in the Caribbean or Mexican Riviera. Absolutely georgeous! In fact, it’s so full, I had a hard time getting the leaves out of the way to water it. As I was pushing the leaves aside I noticed the tag and decided to see where my ELDEST sister bought the beautiful plant. Lo & behold she bought it at Koenig’s Nursery!

Now, if you read my blog regularly, you should remember the problem I had with Koenig’s and reported on August 4, 2008 in “It’s the Principle”. The last sentence of my blog was, “I will NEVER go back to Koenig’s Nursery again and if you’re my family or friend, you won’t either!”

Just for that, Barb, I’m telling Ronnie & Matt that you shop at WalMart….