Our first week!!

Wow!!

What a week!  We have been so busy travelling around from place to place that we have not had the opportunity to update you on what we have been doing!  Since our last post we have been hosted by a number of Rotarian families and looked after by assistant district governors Dave Matthews (Herrin) and Martin Rowe (Harrisburg).  We travelled from Cahokia (Monday 18th) down to Herrin where we did our presentation for the first time at the Rotary Club of Herrin - the food was sensational!  The presentation went down well thankfully and later in the afternoon we had a tour of the local hospital in Herrin before meeting our host families - I stayed with Hannah at the home of Ken and Denise Crews where we were made to feel incredibly welcome.  We stayed with Ken and Denise for two nights where we were treated to some great hospitality and our first tornado experience - sheltering in the local Holiday Inn!!!  We each enjoyed our first vocational day on 19th April.  Roberta and I spent the day with George Trammel of Marion Chamber of Commerce where we met Jerry Crouse (REDCO - a local regional development corporation), Gail West (City Administrator) and Major of Marion Bob Butler.  We also met Kathy Lively of Man-tra-con, a local business helping to support people back into work.  Later on our vocational day we visited the home of the minor league baseball team the Miners and learnt about how community sports support the local community before heading to the Pepsi Cola bottle plant where we met Jim Brandt.

We were due to do our presentation for the second time on 20th April but due to power cuts it was cancelled as was our trip to John A. Logan Community College.  We travelled further east to Harrisburg where we were met by our second hosts, Ghada and Samir before visiting the Shawnee National Forest for a beautiful hike!  We later had a evening function at the home of Michael and Gloria Tison before drinks at Morellos.  Thursday morning started with an amazing Lebanese omlette for breakfast courtesy of Ghada.  We then travelled south to visit one of Illinois' largest coal mines and later one of it's largest quarrys.  We stopped at Cave-In-Rock for lunch before heading to Kentucky to visit Amish country!  We spent the evening with Martin and his wife Angie and son Garret at the incredible lake house on Lake Kentucky enjoying an evening cruise and cocktails!

We had an early start on Friday (22nd) where we travelled back to Illinois to Carbondale where we have spent our Easter weekend!  Good Friday was spent doing our second day of vocational activities, Roberta and I spent the day the local research park learning about the economy of Carbondale and its relationship with SIU (Southern Illinois University).  Because the city is a university city it has quite a different feel to those we have visited thus far!  We met with City Manager Allen Gill and Assistant City Manager Kevin Baity and learnt about Carbondale's strategic plan for the next 20 years and discovered there are actually many similarities with the work we do in the UK!!  We had an incredible lunch at a local Italian restaurant before spending the afternoon with Emily and Kyle learning more about SIU.  Later in the evening we went to the Spring Game where SIU football team were playing and we had a great time in one of the Stadiums suites before heading into town for some drinks. 

I have been hosted by the lovely Ella and have spent the weekend with her and her family.  Unfortunately the weather hampered plans for yesterday but we still enjoyed the farmers market and a picnic where we met a couple of the GSE team which will be coming to the UK in the autumn!!  We also had drinks at Joyce's where we had to do an impromptu presentation - we are all definitely brushing up on our skills!! 

Today we went to a local Gospel church which was just incredible before visiting one of Southern Illinois' wineries!

What a whirlwind!!  Hope I haven't missed anything!!  We have been made to feel so welcome here in Southern Illinois and looking forward to the rest of our trip!

Until next time.......................

Ellen