Vocational Day in Oakhurst

Day 11 - Tuesday, 8th April, 2008

Today we were all up bright and early for our Morning Meeting with the Sunrise Oakhurst Rotary Club, and how people get up at this time of day is beyond me! Seriously though, it was good to be up and about so early. You can get a lot done in a day that starts at 5am! The meeting went well and they asked a few questions after the presentation which was great. After the meeting, we were picked up by our vocational mentors and put to work.

Sarah's Vocational Day:
I was picked up by Larry Rich, a detective for the Madera County Sheriffs Office here at Oakhurst. We drove to Madera and had a look around the station, sat in on a joint CIB Meeting (one every month) and got to check out the new surveilance van that the County had just recieved. The Cameras in the back save everything to Hard Disk, and the camera can be operated remotely. It was even suggested that with the right software, someone could operate it from another country. That would be freaky!

This Sherriff doesn't ride a horse any more

I had a quick look around the Jail, and yep, they aren't nice places! What worried me was that they have the correctional officer walking around amongst the inmates (60 or so) in the cell block while they were out of their cells. The officers desk is just against a wall and they all walk around it! There was a young female, who was fairly petite and she was in an area with guys who just towered over her. I don't think I would be comfortable with that but it seems to work well here I guess.

After lunch I met up with Darren McMacken and went to the Local Court and watched a Jury being selected for a trial, then we were summons to the Court next to it for a murder verdict, to help out with police numbers. The two co-defendants were brought in and the verdict of Guilty read out and these guys didn't even flinch, and there wasn't really anyone sitting there to support them or the victims. I thought they would've reacted some way!

We then drove back to Oakhurst via the back roads and I was introduced to the Deputy Sheriffs at the office - Michael, Ben and Joey. I headed out on patrol with Michael for a couple of hours who promptly showed me the AR15 that just sits in the back of the vehicle! I'm struggling to get use to the rifles and shotguns in the cars. I was shown around the area and filled in on all the stories of the residents - like the 18 yo married to the 50 yo something but seeing her daughter, Hilliarious Stuff!! Or the guy that found out his girlfriend was cheating on him, with HER brother! And you think Tassie has a bad rep for the neck scar...

Michael with his favourite toy

After a jobless night, I headed home, but not without being invited to see how a joint operation works the following day. Very excited! I had an awesome day and a big Thankyou goes out to Larry, Darren and Michael for showing me around.

Glen's Vocational Day:
Glen and Victor went to the Tavis Corporation who design and manufacture electronics components for NASA. I was shown around the electronics workshops which are generally parts for satelites rockets and bombs. They have 60 staff on the production floor. As it was all secret secret stuff, I wasn't alowed to take any photos and alot of their work is classified!

Michelle's Vocational Day:
I went to Fresno State University and met with Mike Summers who works in the Lyell Centre which is the Entrupenurial Heart of the University. I had a great day! Mike was fabulous and he was an incredably interseting man. He has invented alot of things including a flotation device that is being used by the SLSC in Australia and Europe. Although What he did was completely different to what I do at home, I was really impressed with the training and opportunities given to the students. I was lucky enough to meet a young girl who is working under Mike, who has developed her own jewellry line, and is now selling her products to celebrities. She had her own display stand at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in L.A recently.

We then had a tour of the campus and Mike shouted me lunch. He was a nice bloke.


Will's Vocational Day:
My hosts Harry and Kathy run a business that has an ICT support contract with the local support district. I spent the day as an auxillary employee of HammerTech. Harry's son Dan and I first headed to a local alternative high school (these are for students who struggle in the mainstream education system for some reason). Here we installed a SmartBoard. Well, actually Dan did most of it. I just helped move ceiling tiles so we could run cables in the cavity, and then vacuumed up afterward. I spent the rest of my time chatting to the staff and students. The two teachers (Larry and Tony I think...) were very friendly and very committed to their students. I get the impression that they'd have to be very patient, very responsive to needs int eh class and very flexible. They appeared to be doing a good job.

After visiting the school, we headed to a local Best Western hotel that is managed by a Rotarian. our mission was to install some equipment that connected the touch screen billing system in their restaurant to the server in the main part of the motel that runs the room billing system. This way a guest could charge a meal to their room account. For quite a while this almost worked. Unfortunately, 'almost' is very unsatisfying... One problem was that I'd never seen this sort of Ethernet to serial converter before, another was that we had two different software vendors to deal with, neither of whom were easy to reach. We kept phoning, leaving messages and waiting for them to call back. Eventually, in desperation, I found the manual on the internet and read it. Needless to day, we solved things soon after... As Harry would say, WTF-O? RTFL....