Water works

We went to the ABC Agricultural Show Grounds and were able to see how the church is teaching people to farm in different ways and to conserve water. When you consider the resources that these people have it is absolutely astonishing to see what they can do. If even half the people in Calgary followed the water saving techniques we saw I would bet our ecological footprint would take a massive cut. They also showed us some amazing tiered gardens that were made out of old potato bags, each garden only took up about three feet in diameter at the base but was more than four feet high. You can imagine how much that increased their square footage. For people who have little or no space to begin with this really increases the amount they can produce for their families, its unbelievable!

After the Show Grounds we did a little shopping and then went to a wood carving place. When you walk in to the store it totally overwhelms you. There are soooooo many carvings, layers and layers and layers of carvings. There are carvings of every animal in Africa, nativity scenes, spoons, bowls, masks, you name it, they have it. It's quite amazing that all of these things come from this one cooperative of carvers who are basically out in the middle of nowhere. Eric spent a lot of time talking to the men and discussing their techniques. A few of them tried to convince him that the chisel method he uses for carving is useless. It's interesting how two people can do the same work in such different ways. I still think Eric's work is better but maybe I'm biased.

Lisa