Sunday, July 22, 2012

The Agriculture and livestock show


This week I was contacted by Zawa to attend the Agriculture and livestock show in Mansa. They desperately needed me for my animals that I keep. Mainly my snakes! So I spent a few days constructing 2 cages that would hold my 4 Gaboon Vipers and 3 Savanna Monitor lizards that I would obtain for the show.
  I had to make it strong enough to withstand the sharp claws of the lizards along with their whipping tail.
After I finished I managed to load them up in my car and travel 2 hours away to the town of Mansa. There, I got a hotel for 3 days for the duration of the show.
On friday, I unloaded the cages and other things and placed them at a perfect viewing height.


This made our booth very interesting for all those who would pass by.


On top of the cages I placed my collection of preserved snakes with their identification both in Latin and English.


Only after a few minutes of putting everything up, we had scores of people crowding our booth. All pointing at the snakes and lizards. Most of these kids have never seen such animals and were amazed as there is no zoo in the province.

 
For the next 3 days, I stood out front of our booth explaining to all the people the answers to their questions.


The highlight of the show is when the guest of honor, (the provincial minister) came to view our booth and to learn what we have to say. He was very impressed with our knowledge and thanked us for our efforts in educating the public.


At the end of the show, 6 judges went around with clipboards filling out questions about the booths. And we won first prize in the category of law-enforcement. A certificate was awarded with zk.500,000 ($100)
To me this was a very beneficial 3 days spent educating the public.