Discovering a new attraction

I hesitate to write another blog about the "non-missionary" activities we are involved in, but you already know that that is exactly what I'm going to do.  I have several blogs that need to be written so I hope I can get a couple done today.

Last Monday we took Elders and Sisters Flake and Herbert over to see the Eighth Wonder of the World. We had been there before (see July 11 post) so they wanted to go.  Its a little exercise for the old folks so its a good outing.  Enough about that.  On the way home we stopped at a water diversion dam in Bog Walk Gorge just above Spanish Town.  This is a place we get a glimpse of as we travel up the canyon.  The dam is used to raise the level of the water to divert it down an irrigation canal and we have seen a security guard there so we assumed that we could not get too close to it. 



People walking across the river to Spanish Town



We parked a way below the dam and walked down  a steep hill where we found a small bridge to take us over the canal and a path that lead up to the diversion dam.  We quickly realized that that people living on the other side of the river had to walk across the river at the foot of the dam to get to town.  We spoke to a woman who was going to work, carrying her shoes and she walked.  As we walked across the river we passed two very young girls who were walking home from school together holding hands so they wouldn't fall down in the shallow but swift water.

There were  hundreds of Black-Fish swimming right at my feet

It turns out that the guard was responsible for adjusting and maintaining the flow of water in the canal and not for keeping people off the dam.  I asked him if anyone ever slid down with the water on the face of the dam and was told that yes, it happens all the time.  We then saw several young boys who said that they were going to slide but they had to wait until their food digested (somethings are the same all around the world).  They waited a good two minutes and then pulled off their pants and climbed up the stairs to the top of the dam.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IteRG50I7s 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfyrTxgj5bI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KCNiUt3hUI

When I spoke of sliding, I pictured sitting down and sliding.  Sliding on their feet totally took me by surprise.  As much fun as it looked, I couldn't quite convince myself to take off my pants and follow suit (or suit-less) but I'm sure I'll have video of me one of these days.