Thank you D6040!!

Our farewell dinner was held with mixed feelings; it was fantastic to see so many of our friends and "family" but it was also with a sad and heavy heart as we knew it was time to go. DG Elizabeth gave us some excellent words of advice(as per usual) and said "Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened".

So a big thank you to everyone who came to the Hilton hotel and every single one of you who made our trip so special. Your hospitality will never be forgotten and a thank you is actually completely inadequate to express our gratitude. We have all be touched personally and changed by the Rotarian's of this wonderful district.

GSE is such a wonderful programme to broaden horizons and open brand new worlds and I know that we will never be able to be the same again. Nothing was too much effort and I want to thank each and every person who ensured that our visit was brilliant.

Please accept our invitation to our district D9250 and be sure to know that we are all looking forward to your visit! You "betcha!!!"

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank the Rotarians of D9250 for giving us the opportunity to experience this wonderful adventure!

You all "made our dreams real"

Goodbye Liberty

With our last weekend before, we prepare to leave, we were eager to make the best of this time, by spending as much time with our host families and th Rotarians of the Liberty club, as possible.

The weekend was primarily spent with our host families and on the evening of Saturday, 9 May 2009, we attended a Goodbye ge-together at the Rotary Plaze, in Liberty. The food was so good, we all ate so much and not forgetting those wonderful desserts, everybody wanted to have some dessert, some even had a second helping.
At the end of the evening, we all said our goodbyes and even sang "Shosholoza" and a thank you song, that we compiled.

Off to Kearney and Liberty

With a wonderful breakfast and warmest of hugs, we said goodbey to our host families from Parkville, this morning. We were able to experience a beautiful day, as the sun was shinning and we were ready to have some outdoor fun.

We went to the Jesse James Farm, and go to leant a so much more about the James family. The house of the James family and the grave site of Jesse are situated on the farm and we had the opportunity of going on a guided tour through the house and seeing the tombstone of Jessy James, which is situated outside the house.

Off to experience some outdoor fun and get exposure to Kearney entertainment, we went to the Amphitheater, which is a wonderful place for hosting of concerts and other on-stage events. We were entertained by rock and counrty music that was played for us and pretended that we were the Stars of the show. We had so much fun, dancing and singing, and course took several photos, which I will post later.

Later in the evening, we attended a Welcome Dinner in Liberty, that was also attended by the Rotary clubs of Liberty, East Clay, Kearney, Smithville, North Kansas City and Excelsior Springs. This was the last meeting at which we conducted our team presentation and once again, we recieved compliments for how well co-ordinated and entertaining our presentaion was.

Tours

Yesterday each of us went on his vocational day (except me - Euridice - had a free afternoon and later dinner with Rotarians.. interesting we'll were splitted in different houses.

Candice and I went on Harley Davidson tours with our hosts... Oh was GOOOOOD, My host drove me for 60 miles.... I couldn't feel the cold... just the happens and Adrenaline.... Gosh the

sound of a Harley Davidson is amazing.

My vocational day was today and I had such a wonderful exposure on EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the rest of the group went to a a Tour on GMC Plant. At noon we made a presentation on KCI Rotary Club. Our team was complimented for a very nice & funny presentation...

This afternoon we went to Harley-Davidson Plant for a tour... I don't have words... just see the pictures and see our faces ( foi maravilhoso nao tenho palavras para descrever a emocao que senti pelo facto de poder sentar em diferentes Harleys, ver todos os acessorios disponiveis, os funcionarios que estao na linha de montagem sao todos tatuados, tem cabelos longos... mesmo ao estilo dos motoqueiros ) Sorry I needed to express at least once my emotions in my language... its hard to write in english when portuguese is coming to my brain when I am writting...

Perhaps one of the team members will add something on this post.. their english will be able to express...

After that Anelize and I went to visit a Firefight Station (my host Nelson Hopper is a Fire Comissioner). Oh I used the poll to go down... it is so so nice & cool... first the Captain did a demonstration...otherwise I would fall and wouldnt be funny to see me upside down eheheh... Really nice people....

Now he his driving Anelize on his Harley Davidson... while I am here writting... humn

Off to Parkville

Today we left for Parkville. Prior to our departure we ate Mexican food, which was great and yet again, I (Candice) was overwhelmed by the size of the portions. As I was not that hungry, I ordered a salad, however to my suprise, the salad was so huge that I could have fed the entire team and the entire purpose of ordering somehting 'light' was defeated. I still enjoyed it though.

We went to the Museum of the Steamboat Arabia, which is situated at the City Market Area in Kansas City. This museum was wonderful, as it houses and displays various items that were on the Steamboat, which sunk about 132 years ago in the Missouri river and which were dug-up in the late 1980's. We later met up with our host families, who drove us off to their homes, to get us settled in.

Later in the evening, we attended a 'Welcome picnic' that was hosted by the Parkville Rotary club at the beautiful Weatherly lake and we were also very fortunate to go on a boat cruise around the lake. The Rotarians as well as the guests gave us a very warm welcome and made sure that we experienced another variation of a very delicious American barbeque.

Blue Springs

Some pictures from our first official Baseball game

Welcome to Blue Springs Hometown of David Cook - American Idol 2008 - we saw that sign while entering the city. Each of us went to meet our new families and I had the wonderful surprise of being received by a couple, Sonja & Eric Johnson with 3 wonderful kids, Emily (8), Collin (5) & Haley (3) - the kids called me Miss E; Emily wrote the welcome that immediately made me fall for all of them. Sonja's father is from South Africa and Mark, her brother is currently in SA with the GSE Team from Missouri.

On friday morning we went to Lee Summit for another presentation and after that we went to our vocational day... In the afternoon we had such a nice experience... we went to The Blue Springs Police Departament, we were enterviwed by the local newspaped (Saturday front page - cool) and each of us went out on duty with one police officer. Guess what was my first request?? Can you turn on the syrenes (don't know if well written, but I mean the lights and the sound)... Officer Matt just laughed and turn it on ehehhe. Anelize really had some action... they arrested someone...

Private Yssel was considered missed in action from 9h00 until 18h00.

(Because I went with Ken on a tour through much of Kansas City. The highlight of this was our visit to the TWA Aviation museum. Can some of you remember who that was??? Yes, Trans World Airlines founded by Howard Hughes. I got to climb in and walk around in a Connie (Constelation) which is fully restored and will be flying later this year. Any aviator knows how rare this aircraft has become.)

As young people we all went out at night to a local Bar with live music, were they annouced that a Southern Africa team was visiting.... coool we got free drinks hehhehe

Saturday was our free day with our host family. Yssel went to a kids baseball game and a barbeque. Candice was missing, not heard a thing from her... she was ate the Lake House...humn fency girl. Anelize & I, went bowling, we had fun.. yes because with our performance, can't say we played...duh..

After that we met John and Kent (his host) and drove to Olathe, Kansas, to race on Nascart...how cool you think it was??? No no think higher... cooooooool... sad and funny part, I am such a short person for US standard that had to change car for a smaller and slower, so had to drive on the left side so that everybody could pass me...HUMPF... even thou I wasnt the last on both races ahahahah

Sunday was another day with our host families, and Candy girl went to fish for the first time in her life... pretty neat, she caught 3 fishes... I wonder if the lake has so many fishes or she is that good??? She was great according to Pat (both are legal advisers...)
In the afternoon we had another hard time.... goodbye dinner... oh boy this is the hardest part from our trip... we did a presentation for the Blue Springs Rotary club and DG Elizabeth watched... again...and she laughed from our jokes...again.... I wonder how she does it? Pretty neat lady (new sentence in my life hhehe) This afternoon we will depart to Parkville for more adventures.

Blue Springs

Sadly, us the vagrant Team Capulana had to yet again say goodbye to fantastic friends made. Everyone in St Joe’s went to so much effort to keep us busy and entertained and we’d like to give them a big Thanks!!

So we were dropped off in Kansas City for our one and only well deserved “day off”. The team made the most of this. Candice going off to get “lost” in the city, Euridice wondering for miles in the rain in the hot pursuit of the perfect fountain and John and Yssel keeping poor DG Elizabeth busy for lunch. I was lucky enough to spend the day with host mom Cassy. Everyone went separate ways again the evening, expect for grandma E looking after Yssel. This is probably not the correct forum to mention the antics that went on, so I’ll leave it at the whole team had fun!

Thursday a very eager group of Blue Springs Rotarians fetched us. And what a day!!! We got to watch a baseball match at the newly renovated Kauffman Stadium. Toronto Blue Jays vs Kansas City Royals. It was almost too much fun. The game is a bit slow but all the side shows make it brilliant. Just the BIG screen cost $50million. Yes!!! This was a most definite highlight in our program. The weather has not been great but somehow the heavens cleared for the whole match.

What a great day!!

Firstly, on behalf of the Tourist team mates, who absolutely love to take photos, I wish to add the following pictures from the Conference, which took place over the past weekend.




GSE team with future RI president Mr. Ray Kliningsmith.



More about today- Most of the people around here have told us "If you don't like the weather, just hold on for a while because it will certainly change soon". That is indeed what we experienced today, Missouri weather, in its full glory. It was a bit cool today (and hopefully that is not an understatement). Back to the reason why this day was so great- If you have have never visited great Museums and been surrounded by the hospitality of the people of Missouri, then "You ain't seen nothing yet". We visited four museums, namely; the St Joseph Nature Centre (and also saw the beautiful park of St Joseph), the Pony Express Museum, the Jesse James Museum and the Psychiatric Museum. We learnt alot about St Joseph and I am sure that we probaly hold a record for the amount of knowledge that we gained in one day. We also visited the Missouri Western State University, what a great experience it was to see this institution. Yssel, Anelize and Euridice even had the opportunity of holding a snake at the University, I supported them from a distance and had 911 on speed-dial in case one of them fainted from excitement. We ended the day off with dinner at the home of Carlos and Carol Moya, who wonderfully hosted the GSE team, host families, rotarians and friends. The food was great and so was the company.

Conference

From there we went to St. Joseph for the annual District Conference. We booked into the Holiday Inn on Friday (24th of April) and there was no time for a nap:)
We started having lunch with a fairly large group of Rotarians and also the GSE-team from this district going to South-Africa to our district.

We were introduced to the conference by DG Elizabeth Usovics and again......we felt like VIP's.
In the evening we had a light dinner at the Kemper Art Museum and went back to the hotel for
Martini's. We also got to meet and get to know the International President for 2009/2010, Mr. Ray Kliningsmith. What a wonderful person. He has a soft spot for South-Africa and Southern Africa as he goes there often after he studied at UCT in the 60's. I am sure that we'll see him in our part of the world soon.

Saturday we gave our presentation to the conference after we had breakfast. We got really good feedback afterwards, and even hear some saying it was the best they ever had from a GSE team!!! How's that! We did make a lot of changes since our first presentation...and I am proud of our end product. Although we start to sound boring to ourselves, is seems that the audience always enjoy it.

The district here participate in a program called "Shoes for Orphan Souls". Clubs collect shoes and socks to be send all over the world to children in need. This was really touching for us and we could see that a lot of passion, time and energy is going into this. This district collected over 12000 pairs of shoes!

The evening was a formal dinner with a great speech by Ray Kliningsmith.
Some of us also went to a real Country Bar/Club after the formalities.....we needed to see some young people too! haha!! (This was the real thing...cowboy hats, boots, jeans and slow dancing on the tunes of a fantastic band!)

Well...so here we are. Live and kicking in St. Joseph...home of the Pony Express! Today is Sunday and we all went to our new host families for the next four days.
I just had a fantastic Sunday lunch with my hosts, Ken and Sandy. And you know whats next.....yeah, the Sunday afternoon nap!!!
I'll have a talk with my Chinese Tourist team mates to not let this happen again...to forget about our followers and not updating our blog regularly!! (I call them that because when a picture is taken it has to be on all three their cameras.....we can't just download each other's pictures..haha!!)

We are still here...just very busy!!!

This is my turn to update our blog today. As you can see, we have missed a couple of days and I, Private Yssel, will save the future of our blog! (I had a haircut in a real barber shop in Kirksville....looks like I am joining the marines or something)

So what happened since we left Kansas City? I shall give you a short version of the past week since we last made an entry.

From Kansas City we moved to the north eastern part of the district. This is more "country" area with smaller towns (about the size of Middelburg/Polokwane). Towns we visited includes Moberly, Marceline (the home of Walt Disney), Macon and Kirksville..... I shouldn't forget Clifton Hill (not at all the Clifton we know back in SA). We saw and learned al lot. Museums, schools, universities..you name it....we saw it.

This is farming country and we saw some "big-ass" tractors and implements. I even got to ride in one...thanks Dan! It is the planting season for corn around here.....and everywhere we went farmers were working their fields. Amazing to see how farmers here do everything and run huge operations with only one or to helpers on the farm.....we can learn allot here.

Again, we met great people! In fear of missing someone, I do not want to name anybody... Everyone that were involved with our team, went out of their way to make us feel special and important. To say we appreciate what they did for us would be a major understatement!!! You know who you are and again: Thank you very much!

I have to mention one thing. I saw Bisons during my stay with hosts Dan & Jan Shepard. Dan breeds them and has around 200 on his farm. I saw these animals only on western movies as a kid and never thought I would ever see a live bison in my life. What an experience!

Myself and Bison!!!

Night @ KC Missouri

The pics will talk for us...

Saturday in KC

Our first saturday we went to Nelson-Atkins Museum and after that we spent time with our host families.

We the girls went shopping all afternoon... Yssel & John, of course they did not go shopping, but to a Bar to watch a Basebol game and recieve lessons...

Another day in KC Missouri

I had to put that tittle because I am always being corrected since on the other side of the River is KC Kansas ehehe

This morning we had the first presentation to a Rotary Club - Kansas City Plaza - it is a breakfast club.... which means that the meeting started before 8:00 am!!!!! This club has nearly 70 members, with young and not so young members. We did impress them with our truly african presentation, and each of us with a particular style. I enjoyed this meeting, it was a new experience about how things can be done in a different ways with the same objective.


After that lovely experience, we went to our vocational day... and for what I can say we all enjoyed... we all learned and exchange experiences. I will be more detailed about my experience, because my mentor- Shannon- and I work for the same company... yessss and what are the odds????? I was able to check that we may be in different continents but it runs nearly the same way, but of course that I learned something, that perhaps may be implemented in Moz. I visited two different sites, I heard a conference call with people from other cities from the US(Shannon introduced me to her co-workers which was really nice).

After that amazing morning we went to have a lunch at the Braai house.... where when we return Candice will make a small performance on "Hi can I help you" - they scream to attend you....

The afternoon was totaly dedicated to Museum visits... the first was the World War I Museum, AMAZING UAU WOW MARAVILHOSO... it's a audio, visual and physical museum, if I can say that, butI have never ever seen a museum like that; it tells the story like you are there, and you can not think that is a museum with only things form USA, its is from all over the world, and our tour guides were just increadeble, catived us

The next museum was Jazz Museum, were we can listen to jazz musicians and see how an orchestra runs... they also have a bar with live music, and Candice just went crazy and told everybody that it was her birthday.... heheheheh free champaign for her....

Again the team enjoyed a wonderful day... days that arent to be forgotten. And shows what a family Rotary is.