Sat 4th and Mon 5th April

Well because we have been so busy, we have not updated the blog for the past 2 days. For those 8 keen followers, i appologise.....well on Mel's behalf anyway...kidding. Well lets see, Sunday was our last day with the Mt Airy host families and our new friends. It began with most of us (If not all of us) going to various churchs for Easter Sunday Mass. Afterwards, Mel, Helen and I went for a picknick at Ravons Knob, a large scout facility not far out of Mt Airy. After lunch we had a nice hike around the large lake, named Sobota Lake. This lake is named after Mr Sobota who built the beautiful house where i spent the past 4 days living with Robin and over indulging in her unbelieveable breakfasts at Sobota Manor.

After the hike we met the rest of the team for our transfer to Winston-Salem. This was a sad time when we all had to say goodbye to our host families and also to Doug and Amanda. Doug and Amanda have been amazing and have done so much for us, so to them and to all our new friends in Mt Airy, thank you so much. YOu have all been so fantastic.

We arrived at Winston-Salem about 4pm and we met by our respective host families. After transfering all the luggage into the new vehicles (Even Helen's 500 kilo super-bag), we split up and went to our new homes.

Jo and I got a sightseeing tour of Winston with my hosts Jenny and Sherel. We had a lovley dinner at a nice restaurant, though i cant recall the name. For dinner, Jo ate Bambi (Well she ate Deer). She liked it too. One of the photos i am about to post is her meal.

Monday began early again with Jo apparantly going for a run again, she has so much energy its amazing. We all met nice and early again and had a tour of the Childrens Home. This is a large home for children who are in trouble with the law, or abandoned for what ever reason by their family. The home has a small farm with Horses, Goats, Cattle, and all sorts of other animals and crops. There are heaps of different programs to try and help these kids and the place was amazing.

After this we had luch together and had a tour of the Winston-Salem Jail. This is a newer facility than High Point and can house up to 1100 inmates from minor offenders to Pre-trial murders and sex offenders. Again we were allowed access to the general hosuing unit, but did not get into the Max Security Unit or segregation units this time.

At 2pm, we listened to a domestic violence hearing in the Winston-Salem DV Court. The hearing was heard by Judge Larry FINE, a Rotarian. I think we all found this very intersting and it was great to see how different our two judicial systems are, but see that there are the same stupid people telling the same stupid stories in courts across the world.

After the hearing, Judge Fine along with the district Attorny and a Court Sherrif spoke to us for at least an hour, answering our questions and were all very nice and very knowledgable. It was a great afternoon.

This was our first day in Winston but again, it has set the bar high. We have a new appearance for Misadventure of the day this time, i will again leave it to Mel to do.