And We're Off...

Day Three:

Today the five of us embarked out into two of the villages SAM has been working in to check out the progress in our gardens. Colin also wanted to show us all the things SAM has been doing in the past year and teach us the things we will be doing in our three week stay.

Our first stop was in Macenje (ma-chen-jay) Village. We met with one of the workers, Anna, who has been maintaining the garden. It was incredible to see what SAM has been doing instead of just reading about it. After meeting the members of the Macenje garden we drove over to the next village, Ngandu (nan-doo). We stopped beside one of the schools there and were greeted by a bunch of school kids aswell as Howard, one of the members of the Ngandu garden. We spent a few hours in the villages getting familiarized with the gardens before we started working in them in the next few days.

Colin thought it'd be a good idea to then take us to a crocodile farm. The crocodiles that were in the farm were brought there because they had eaten to many people or have been to harmful in the wild. We had our tour with a large group, looking at different sized and kinds of crocodiles and snakes. After the tour the guide came up to us five and asked if we would like to go back and hold some of the baby crocodiles. Obviously! The baby crocs didn't have any teeth so we were up for it. At first I was a little nervous but it was pretty cool. They're quite strong! After that the guide then asked us if we would like to go stand in the croc cage. I laughed, yeah right, like hell I would be doing that. I don't usually say no to things, and I think everyone should try everything once, but there has got to be a limit. But when you're with Colin 'no' isn't a word we use. So, in he goes, then Nigel, then... me. I quickly got my picture then just as quickly I got out of there.

After the croc farm Colin brought us to a restaurant called The Waterfront, which was right along side the Zambezi River. And there it was, the first baboon... and then the second, and third, and fourth. The place was infested with them. After we had finished our cool beverages we then went back to the base.

I'm having a really good day today, I'm loving all the new people I'm meeting and I'm really having an excellent time with the sam project team. Being around Nigel reminds me a lot of Sam and it's bringing back a lot of great memories. I'm never going to want to leave this place.