Thursday 19 March

We have reached the end of our visit to Danville and the surrounding area. As we prepare to leave after our second week in the USA and Rotary District 7570 we look back with appreciation at the GSE Co-ordinators, the Rotarians and our hosts who have made the trip so special thus far.

It was great to be back together today as we were taken to the Danville Community College were we the guest lecturers for an Economics class. Then we moved onto Averett College where our charming guide Megan showed us around before a sumptuous meal in the Averett dining hall. It was a lovely surprise to meet up with Dean Loock from Grahamstown who is at Averett College on a Tennis Scholarship. That was followed by a walk along the Dan river on a trail developed by the resources and labour of the Rotary Club of Danville-Riverview.

The GSE experience has shown us how our hosts and guides put their lives on hold to fetch and carry us and to show us around. We are surely experiencing the famous Southern Hospitality at its best!

Wednesday 18 March: Annelize

Vocational Day #2:

Anna visited Danville Community College's Draughting and Engineering Department, there she toured the new Medical Facility - designed by Dewberry Architects. She found it inspiring to see the amount of new technology being applied in new buildings - all the buildings (especially educational institutions) have high level technology. A huge drive is being made to educate and retrain a population that was previously a labour force. Grants are being made available to people so that they can take time off and study (paid for by the scholarships) and Anna met many draughting students on these programs.

After a good Southern meal of fried chicken, corn, creamed potatoes and biscuits, Anna visted Dewberry & Davis Inc. A company of land surveyors, architects, landscape architects and civil and structural engineers, all working together under one roof. Dewberry & Davis focuses on economic, industrial and commercial development. Anna sat in on a technical meeting where plans were being overviewed for a tender process. Thereafter she was shown around historical Danville -Anna met her match- someone else more passionate about oohing and aahing and photographing beams, windows, buildings and bricks...

Wednesday 18 March: Grant

Vocational Day #2:

Grant visited Bonner Middle School today and was once again very pleasantly surprised by the creative approach to dealing with multiple intelligences within one school.

Pupils who prove gifted, academically, are grouped in an enrichment class and stimulated through more challenging content that far exceeds the Standards of Learning (SOL's).

A Grade 7 class that Grant visited, as an example, was dealing with Frankenstein, and Mr Salamon, the English Arts teacher for this gifted programme, was using the text to stimulate lively debate over ethical issues as controversial as genetic engineering. By playing 'devil's advocate' he was able to challenge the students to think more deeply and express their opinions more convincingly.

At the same time, Ms Ross, a gifted teacher in her own right, worked in an upstairs classroom with a teacher's aid and a therapist, with a group of students of very diverse academic ability.

Grant was made to feel very welcome at this incredible school and what struck him most was how interested Dr Cocran and the staff were about his own experiences in education in South Africa.

Wednesday 18 March: Norah-Ann

Norah- Ann had the privilege of being allowed into the Nestle factory today- what a treat. The plant at Danville produces fresh pasta (plain and filled ravioli's and tortellinis), pasta sauces as well as Tollhouse cookie dough. For somebody that had never seen a bucket of cookie dough for sale the latter was a real treat.

The controls in place were all familiar territory, but it is always interesting to see them implemented in another facility. Not to get distracted in the technicalities, this is every kids dream: seeing enough cookie dough go by to last a life time and hoppers of chocolate drops big enough to swim in! A big thank you to Lacey, Jennifer and the rest of the Nestle team for organizing a well structured tour with an excellent tasting session at the end. (and for the couple of wine chats in between!)

After a great lunch at the Bronx boys bagels with Peter and the family it was off to the more serious stuff of Environmental health inspections. Linda Jones took Norah around for the afternoon to some of the restaurants the local department is responsible for. Although the department is over loaded with work, it is good to see a system actually working- hopefully it will eventually get to this level back home.

Norah's evening was spent with Bob and Wanda Vaughn in the nearby town of South Boston where they treated her to a wonderful dinner at Bistro 1881. A lovely little restaurant with great food.

So to all the rumor mills, Norah does in fact not spend her day shopping, but eating…

Wednesday 18 March: Trevor

Vocational Day #2:

Trevor went to George Washington High School in Danville today and they really made him feel like a celebrity. He was given a tour of the school which included welcoming banners placed at the entrance to welcome him. He was then invited to lunch with the principal and assistant principals and Heads of Department. George Washington is a large school (1400 students and 140 teachers). It is very racially integrated and has a huge campus on which it offers a considerable variety of courses including: hairdressing, EMT, dentistry, car mechanics, robotics as well as the more traditional school subjects. Trevor had the opportunity to address a few classes of well-behaved, intelligent students. At the end of the school day a reception was held in Trevor's honour which was attended by a number of the staff and students of GW (as it is affectionately known). This was a fantastic opportunity for Trevor to share about South Africa, and it left Trevor feeling both humbled and grateful for the experience.

The other school Trevor visited was Galileo Magnet High School, an International Baccalaureate school. Funded and established in the last 10 years using a grant from NASA. The school is extremely advanced in terms of technology with each class equipped with a set of laptops as well as data projectors, smart boards etc. What we couldn't achieve with a little South African enthusiasm and a lot of American Technology!

Wednesday 18 March: PJ

Vocational day #2:

PJ travelled out with Bob Vaughan, the President of the Rotary Club of Danville and a local attorney, to Rocky Mountain, where they attended the Circuit Court in Franklin County. While waiting for Bob's case to be called PJ observed the Local District Court in session on a matter of an assault in a barroom and then saw presiding Judge William Alexander send an accused away for 5 years for eluding the police! That seemed a bit harsh just for running from the cops until you heard his previous convictions. The moral of the story is: do not run from the cops in the United States of America.

Bob received a favourable judgment in his matter and to celebrate PJ and Bob enjoyed diner cuisine in the heartland of Southside Virginia at Carl's Diner. The day was rounded off by a visit to the Chatham Courthouse where the court room is kept locked when not in session so Pj was given a tour of the clerks office. It was interesting as all deeds and documents are kept at each County or City Courthouse and not at a central Deeds Office as is the case in South Africa. A most enjopyable day was made extra special by a knowledgeable and gracious host and guide. Thanks Bob!

Tuesday 17 March

Today we did our Rotary Presentations. Firstly, to the Danville clubs, around 100 people. Secondly, to the Martinsville clubs: where someone forgot to organise a projector so we had to do our presentation without powerpoint slides-I think it went off quite well under the circumstances.

We also visited the house where Lady Astor grew up (the first female parliamentarian in the UK.) that was followed up by a visit to the Danville Museum in the Sutherlin Mansion and a walk down Millionaire's row to look at the architecture of houses built in the late 1800's. In the afternoon after our presentation to the Danville clubs, we explored the Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville and for a relatively small town of about 40 000 people it was fascinating to see the extent and technological resources of the museum. You wouldn't find anything like it in SA outside of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. The interactivity was enough to keep, even Trevor, out of mischief!

After our stressful evening of pictureless presentations some "horseing around" and ice-cream was much needed and received to put us in a good mood before going home to our hosts after another full day.

Monday 16 March

We all met at the institute for advanced learning and Research for a tour of this state-of-the-art facility conducted by Julie Brown. What impressed us most (other than the fact that the architecture creates the impression of standing on the flight deck of Star Treks USS Enterprise) was that the centre draws pupils from the surrounding areas' high schools every day to 'fast-track' their development in areas such as Mathematics and Science. This progressive model is recognised and accredited by local colleges, too. These young Einsteins are then bussed back to their own High Schools for the rest of the day's academic, cultural and sporting programme.

We were then driven to RCATT, the Regional Center for Advanced Technology and Training, which offers manufacturing technical career studies. We liked the 'growing machine' which can produce 3D objects from digital images.

After enjoying lunch at a diner called Short Sugar's and, because we heard that this was where President Obama dined when he was in Danville not so long ago, we thought, "Yes, we can!"

The afternoon was spent at the Tank Museum and, other than seeing a vast variety of war machinery, artillery as well as many different uniforms, we also learned that tanks need to be kept in a refrigerator after opening, because it was absolutely freezing in the museum.

We were then rushed through to Reidsville where we were to appear on live TV! Having had to get changed on the pavement because the station is really no more than a shop window, we impressed the one Rotarian that happened to be watching at the time.

Sunday 15 March

It's STILL raining (three days straight, now). The team have decided that, when we get back to South Africa, we are going to tour drought-stricken areas for money - Angus Buchan x5 - because it rains whenever we are together.

PJ's sermon was warmly received by the congregation of Trinity United Methodist Church of Danville, and after lunch we made our way to VIR, Virginia's International Raceway. Because of the inclement weather, races were cancelled for the day, and although we were disappointed not to experience the rush of adrenalin that NASCAR is said to cause, the good people of VIPER had something even better in store for us. We were taken to their very technologically advanced centre at VIR and given the opportunity to "play" on their simulator that replicates the sensation of driving a real race car.

Three thing we learned: (1) High speed racing is even more difficult than it looks on ESPN, (2) If you ever race with Trevor in an off-road event as a navigator, you WILL die, and (3) Driving with Norah is your safest bet - even if it takes a little longer and you don't mind the sound that a high performance engine makes in first gear.

Saturday 14 March

The drive from Salem to Danville seems long for most, we are told, but not when travelling with people like the Orndorffs. Their to-and-fro commentary on their two way radios had us laughing all the way, and we will miss them like family! We met with our new hosts, with whom we will be staying until Friday, and after settling in, all met for supper at Bob and Wanda Vaughan's. It was a most enjoyable evening and we left knowing that this will be another good week.