Down By The River...

Day Two:

Hello world, I don't know what you're up too but I just hiked down the gorge and spent the day along the Zambeize River. Nigel, Nav, Aryn, Colin and I went down with a few of the missionaries to check out a dead crocodile. A 12 foot crocodile I should mention. I'm not even going to descibe the smell but I'm sure you can imagine. The boys thought it would be a good idea to then heave the large crocodile into the river and use it for bait so they could hopefully catch some fish. That moment was probably one of the most entertaining things I have seen in a long time and yes I took many, many pictures. Since we were down there we decided to adventure for a bit. A few of us started scaling the side of the gorge until one of the missionaries found a few scorpions where we were, so we got out of there pretty quick.

Along the river there were a lot of chuck of meat so I asked Colin what they were and he said, "they're washed up hippos that fall over the Victoria Falls and villagers come down here and cut them up for food". So that was what that delicious smell was... gross.

So after a couple hours along the river we hiked back up the gorge. Now, this isn't an easy hike for someone who neglected to work out prior to this trip to Africa. Finally, after a good half hour in the blistering heat I reached the top and got myself a warm... thick... cup of water! Definitely does the trick.

Tonight everyone at camp is going to have a volleyball game. Nigel build a court last year while he was here in Zambia with his family so I'm really excited to go play. There's about 30 plus people here at camp, so hopefully everyone will come out and play until the sunsets.

Tomorrow we're heading out into the villages to meet all the people who've been working in our SAM project gardens throughout the year when we've been back in Canada. In the first season of operations, SAM has established gardens in 3 villages in the Mukuni Chiefdom of southern Zambia : Ngandu, Macenje, and Machinga. SAM financed site preparation, the installation of goat-proof fencing, and the building of reservoirs that collect waste-water from the village wells. The SAM Project also installed water-efficient drip irrigation in all three gardens, and arranged for International Development Enterprises (IDE), an international NGO, to provide agricultural extension services in order to train local gardeners in conservation farming techniques such as composting and fallow cropping. This program also provides valuable knowledge on crop selection and market access.