Tuesday 24 March

Vocational day #3:

PJ CLOETE:

We broke away for our vocational visits on Tuesday following the previous days hike to Cascade falls. Waldon Kerns was PJ's guide for the day and together they observed the Local goverment in action and they learnt about Land usage and Zoning. PJ also spent some time with Marc Verniel the Town manager of Blacksburg. Marc was able to show PJ how the local town was run and the varying functions of his role. It is interesting that they have 7 Councillors instead of our 54! From there PJ went to the Virginia Tech Campus to meet with Leon Geyer and Jesse Richardson who both lecture law subjects to the Agri-Economics department. A valuable insight into land usage and land transfers was gained. Lunch was a date with Ron Rordan the Mayor of Blacksburg it was both interesting and insightful to see the political workings at play on both a local, state and national level. To top the day off, PJ then headed out to Montgomery county to meet with the County attorney and with Dan Berenato, of the Montgomery county School system. The manner in which Town, County, State and School Board all interact and interface was interesting. Waldon was a great guide and was a source of much information especially as he had served as a Councillor before. A wonderful, thought-provoking day was enjoyed by PJ.

NORAH-ANN HAYES

Norah spent her vocational day with her host, Janet Johnson. The day started with breakfast at Our Daily Bread in Blacksburg, breakfast included a tour of the restaurant kitchens, so it did count as a vocational visit (who's being defensive now?) The remainder of the day was spent on the Virginia Tech campus visiting various departments; including the Human Nutrition, Food and Exercise, and Food science department. A lot of information was gleened regarding regulations in the USA and general information was gained about the food industry. The most striking difference was that third party audits of Food Safety systems by international companies is relatively rare and most companies rely on government inspections. The most interesting part of the day was the time spent in the High Pressure processing plant in the food science department, a field that Norah has been interested in and researched, but has never seen in reality. As in South Africa, the barrier to wide-scale use of this technology is still the cost but the possibilities are large! Lunch was spent at the West End Market, one of the "cafeterias" at Virginia Tech. This cafeteria is set up in a market style with various food service stations: a pizza and pasta station, a wrap & sandwich station, a soup & salad station, a sports bar (with big screen tv's) and a fine dining hall. It was amazing! Each little area is decorated accordingly, so the more cafe style areas, looked like diners and the high end looked like a fine dining restaurant, with chandeliers. One can order anything from the menu and there are daily specials. The most entertaining aspect of the menu was the live lobster. One can pick a lobster and have it cooked to your liking. A dietician is also availible to advise students on eating plans based around menu items served according to any dietary requirements. Norah's head feels slightly larger than when she arrived, but luckily all this information has now been recorded for future use.
Thanks to all concerned for making this a wonderful day.

ANNELIZE CLOETE

Anna had a very interesting vocational day with Peter Ozolins - he is world famous for Green Building Design. This was fascinating as everyone is making a move toward building in a more environmentally friendly manner. It all has to do with minimzing the use of timber, electricity, loss of heat, and maximizing the insulation through sealing as well as making use of solar panels for heating of water. There is a movement back to older building practices, like wider overhangs - to keep out hot sun and allow in sun during winter. Peter showed Anna a research building being built on Virgina Tech Campus and she was impressed at the way Virginia Tech is introducing more and more technology and the manner in which they plan in advance for future expansion. They visited with numerous architects and engineers (Civil and Structural Engineers seem to work very differently to back home). It is interesting to hear that you can build your own house here - without an architect or engineer - as long as you adhere to certain building codes.