Wednesday 11 March

Vocational Day #1:

We all split up and visited our respective locations. We admitted later to suffering from separation anxiety, a good sign, hopefully we'll still feel the same in a few weeks time!

Lawyers jokes, the world over, are all the same. PJ had an amazing morning learning about Legal Aid and then visiting a Large law firm in downtown Roanoke. Although the Countries may differ we have the same problems and aspects of the Law to deal with. It was interesting to listen to how similar our approaches are in dealing with matters. From the Law-firm we headed off to the Roanoke Rescue Mission-WOW is all that can be said for what Mary Ellen and her team do. Lunch with those in need was a wonderful experience The facility is multi-faceted and privately funded feeding up to 900 people a day. The care for the homeless, the abused and for those in need with addictions, all centred around a Christian base, was an eye opener.

Anna visited Balzer & Associates Inc (a company complete with Land surveyors, architects, landscape architects, civil and structural engineers). She was introduced to the team and taken to various projects. The company developed a Mall called Keagy Village. Construction methods are totally different to those used in SA - no brick and mortar buildings are built due to price and labour. It is quicker to construct timber frame homes that are clad. Anna then had lunch with the Balxer employees and attended their "Lunch and Learn" - where a sales representative was doing a presentation on GEOTECH fabric. Anna also visited Timber Truss - a plant where timber frame homes are built; roof trusses, floor trusses and more are manufactured here too. Here one can choose a floor plan - have the house built and delivered to site, and choose windows, doors, kitchen and bathroom fittings under one roof - Very convenient - HOUSE IN A BOX! The highlight of the day though was the chance to drive heavy machinery!!! Mark Henricksen ( a local Rotarian) put Anna onto a Bobcat Scid Loader and a JCB Back Hoe - Contractors beware... Girl driver coming through!

Norah went shopping for her vocational day (as far as the boys were concerned) but Norah wishes to refute that rumour... Norah, in addition to doing Food safety management systems, is also a consultant in product labelling, hence she spent her vocational day in a Supermarket, Natural food store and speciality store doing research. The product range in the US is amazing and everything comes premade; from the chocolate milk (or any other flavour you desire) to pastry and biscuit cases (that is if you choose not to buy the tart ready made!). Even if you buy the pastry cases you are still not expected to make a filling: as you could buy that ready made too. The ice cream aisle would be most children (and adults) heaven, the Kroger Norah visited had aisle (about 100m long) full of ice cream, in every flavour imaginable- 5 weeks is just to little time in which to try it all. The biggest eye-opener has definitely been the convenience factor and the variety. Do not assume this is only a good thing as people do not know what goes into their food anymore. Another aspect of Norah's vocational day included visiting the Home depot- for those at home, this is like a Builders Warehouse on steroids. Home Depot is large! And fun! The point of the exercise was to look at what is happening in the kitchen market, which interestingly enough is skewed towards solid wood kitchens unlike South Africa's prefab melamine kitchens. Norah admits that the whole exercise did include shopping... but... with a purpose.

Grant visited Andrew Lewis Middle School and sat in on the Social Studies classes offered by Grade 6 teacher, Deborah Turner. The day begins with admin and the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, after which he was introduced. Grant came away filled with enthusiasm; Deborah Turner's style and passion had been inspiring, and the pupils' questions had been insightful. What a wonderful school. He said that he felt like a sponge that had been saturated. It is experiences like these that make GSE worthwhile!

After seeing Grant off at Andrew Lewis Middle School, Trevor was taken to Salem High School. One of the premier high schools in the region. Principal John Hall and Assistant Principal Scott Beleeb made him most welcome. Trevor started off with a grade 12 English class, where he shared some of the distinguishing features of South African schools with some very intelligent students. The rest of the day proceeded in a similiar vain with visits to various grade and subject classes and opportunities to talk about South Africa and South African Education. The Facilities of the school made Trevor drool and dream: Resources are wonderful but it was the people, the faculty (staff) and the students who really impressed, ultimately enthusiastic people trump advanced technology everytime. Below can be seen a picture of some school buses from Trevor's visit to Salem High School.

The day was topped off by sharing in a outreach program at Maryanne's (PJ's host) former church where the whole team went out in Church vans to load up the kids, share a meal with them and work with them in their groups. This church program operates 3 times a week and is supported by volunteers so that it can help these kids, from difficult circumstances, to do homework and receive a decent meal. We had fun and many of us lost our hearts to these precious kids!