Day 5 - by Claire

We all got up relatively early this morning and went for a morning paddle. Before we got on the river though our host, John Clark, talked to us for a little while about being good stewards and honorable members of our community. He is a very insightful man and his talk this morning was just a small precursor of what he shared with us this evening. After talking with John we put on around 9:00 am. We explored the Black Marsh which is actually upstream from where we are camped, so we had to paddle slightly harder to make it there but fortunately the tide was with us so we made it up river smoothly. After exploring the marsh we returned to camp for a brunch of fresh watermelon, some cheesy grits, and sausage. After a meal like we all lazed around in a food coma by the tents soaking up the elusive sunshine and warm weather.

In the classroom today we learned about amputations and surgeries that were performed by both confederate and union doctors during the Civil war. It was really interesting and at times gruesome.

Well it wouldn’t be a normal day on this trip if it didn’t rain, the weather stuck to its usual routine and dumped on us yet again. Its been really beautiful to watch the storms roll in across the corn field, the lighting was bad enough though that we had to pile into the vans again for shelter. After the storm subsided we sat down to a superb BBQ provided by John. While we feasted he shared with the group his vision for a sustainable town that he wants to build on his land. He plans to develop this town throughout the acres of corn fields that he owns, the very ones that we are camped on now. He has a pretty amazing dream and is very passionate about making it become a reality.

John Clark said something today that really stuck me; he said “the real natural resource that any country possesses is the intellectual ability and education of its children.” I thought that was very profound and that it really ties into our trip. Because although we are here to paddle this river; we are also here to learn from the individuals we meet and from those we already know. We are here to remember and learn about our countries past. And we are here to experience a different part of country. We’re not children any more but we do need to educate ourselves continually through school and adventures like this so that we can be the next leaders and “resources” to our community locally and around the world.