Thursday 7 May 2009 - Texarkana

The team took individual vocational visits in the morning.

Tilai spent some time at the "Runnin WJ Ranch" which helps mentally and physically disabled children and adults extend their confidence and skills by learning to ride horses. This is one of the worthwhile projects sponsored by the Rotary Club of Texarkana.

Lunch was spent at one of the country clubs presenting to the Texarkana Club - the largest Rotary Club in the district.

Fay J. Durrant took Nina and Tilai to the post office - which is also the site of the state line between Texas and Arkansas.

Here they are straddling the border :-)

The humble home of Fay J and Norma Durrant, whom are hosting Nina and Tilai.

Nina's bedroom and Tilai hard at work updating the blog. Yoo Hoo the sheep is helping.

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Wednesday 6 May 2009 - Marshall/Texarkana

Fond Farewells at Marshall (sniff sniff).



Lunch at a Catfish diner in Bowie (pronounced boo-eee) to enjoy the company of, and share our presentation with the local Rotary Club.


Touring the Bowie Court House

Red River Army Depot (we weren't allowed to take the camera in unfortunately).

Red River Army Depot is where they decomission and rebuild many of the army's combat vehicles. We got to see tanks, HumV and track based passenger vehicles in various states of construction and most excitingly we all were allowed to climb inside one of the transport vehicles that was at the testing track. They can travel up to 70 miles ph which is pretty fast for what looks like a tank! We got to look through the infrared vision, communicate with the driver via radio, use the joystick to spin around in the 'head' and target our guns etc. It brought out the child in many of us - we couldn't help but point at the others who were stood outside and make silly 'bang bang' noises. The poor guy giving the tour must have thought we were all a bit immature and silly really (and hey - he's probably right). It gave us all a new admiriation for people in the combat zone - those vehicles would not be comfortable to live in for half a day - let alone weeks on end.

Tuesday 5 May 2009 - Marshall

George and Susanne (Tilai and Nina's wonderful host family) were kind enough to have everyone over for an evening birthday party for Nikki.

We were introduced to a family delicacy of toasted marshmallow and melted Hershey chocolate on a cracker - the picture above is of George showing us the proper way to eat them hee hee hee

A wonderful evening of laughs with our families - thank you to everyone for their hospitality and friendship! Thank you also to George and Susanne for letting us gate-crash your home.

Nikki's Birthday Party at the cabin.

One of the long-time 'workers' at George's Insurance Company!!!

Sabine Coal Mine - they use a technique called a 'drag line' to remove the layers of dirt and coal. It was a great spot and we all approved of their land rehabilitation program.

Below is the team presenting to the Rotary Club of Marshall.

THE PET PLACE - Adoption Centre

Tilai, Nina and Gracie visited "The Pet Place" animal refuge centre. A privately owned and funded facility, they rehabilitate and work on adoptions for all their animals. For the girls it was a nice hour or so of cuddles (much needed for those of us missing our pets )...

Monday 4 May 2009 - Marshall

Good Shepherd Hospital Marhsall

The people at Good Shepherd were great hosts - providing individual career visits so we could spend time working specifically with people in our profession.

The visit was concluded with a DELUXE lunch created by the hospital's executive (and award winning) Chef who put on a special Cajun themed three course meal. Talk about spoilt rotten! Jay's culinary skills are reknowned -familes are known to queue at the hospital cafeteria to enjoy an after-church Sunday lunch!!

ho hum ... just another tornedo (NOT!!)

Sunday 3 May 2009 - Marshall

The cabin and surrounds at George & Susanne Carter's home. Tilai and Nina were lucky enough to enjoy the luxury of their own cabin - and be woken up by passing cows, donkeys (and tornedo warning sirens) at all hours :-)

CADDO LAKE - Texas' only natural lake.

An amazing and eerie place. Caddo Lake is really a HUGE swamp and the scenery is amazing for the mist and moss that hangs down off all the tree branches. We saw plenty of critters and it it is popular for filiming (e.g terminator / escaped convicts ploughing their way through the water / swamp). We ate and played horseshoes and a mini bean-bag version of baseball which was great fun.