19 April 2010

Another glorious blue sky day in Charlottesville - Lynda has gone to the University of Virginia to conduct three interviews today.I am back at the hotel updating the blog and doing some work before I head out to explore this historic town further.

Our weekend was lovely - very restful and enjoyable. It is nice to have a small break from the constant travelling and moving on.We have enjoyed the historic downtown district with all its fab cafes, bars and restaurants.Saturday night we had the most wonderful meal - salad, crab cake and southern fried chicken, washed down with a Californian Zinfandel Red wine. The salad dressing was just awesome - a secret recipe that the chef doesn't share with anyone - never had one so good before!

Yesterday afternoon we went to listen to a few community choirs as they were fundraising for the African American Teaching Fellowship - a non-for-profit organisation that promotes and supports African Americans to become teachers. It was amazing as they talked about the lack of black teachers and the importance of promoting diversity and unity within the education system and the broader society.They talked about the separation between whites and blacks that exists today and how community choirs can help bridge these gaps.We have uploaded brief videos of the choir performance when all the different choirs got on stage to sing together with the audience. The song they are singing is: "Come and go to that land". It was so uplifting - it actually felt like we were at a YWCA World council with the diversity of people singing together in the beautiful Paramount Theatre!

We have had a bit of time to reflect on our time in Washington DC - I forgot to write about a stunning moment that we had at the Lincoln Memorial. Each day the National Park rangers play the speech of Martin Luther King "I have a dream" which he gave at the civil rights protest on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.It was deeply moving to be sitting in the space where this historic moment occurred 47 years ago.How much and how little has changed for Americans.As we were sitting there we could see the White House and Capitol Hill, which is now led by a black American man and his family. Amazing and wonderful!

As expected many people cannot understand our accents and this provides much humour for us (and them, I suspect)! Let alone some of the cultural misunderstandings that take place - hard to believe that we speak the same language!!

Anyway, that's it for today…off to enjoy the sunshine!