December 2015
Contents: •TOP SHOT WINNER– Heinz Maier •Photography reflections by Tim Feherty •Photography focus by Kirtana Kumar •Photography focus by heinz maier •Photography focus by jamie myer •Photography focus by yoram lavon •Research update by Tom McDonough •Research focus by Tiphaine Briand •Volunteer encounter by Lisa Rivera •Community focus – Corne Interview •cover shot winner – allanna skeels
Editor: Allanna Skeels Hi! I am Allanna and I am a Britstralian ( British and Australian)!! The photography team this month has been very small and only had three lovely ladies! We have all had an incredible month and have not only improved our photography skills, our wildlife knowledge and our conservation understanding… we have all fallen even more in love with this beautiful country and its incredible and varied environment.
“Travel is the only thing you can buy that makes you richer”
This month’s Warthog post is again packed with excellent updates from our volunteers and staff. The articles show the variety of skills and experience the volunteers bring to the research and photography projects here at Dumela lodge.
Heinz Maier, AUSTRIA This is a beautiful image by Heinz of a Green Mamba at the Khamai reptile park.
With the first rains of summer comes an unique time when animals begin to give birth to their young, landscapes are changed by the influx of water, the night sky is lit by ferocious lightening storms and the environment moves swiftly into the summer months.
Tim Feherty, Photographic Coordinator, Northern Ireland I've been here almost a full year now, and it's amazing how your perception can change in such a short space of time. There's the obvious differences between South Africa and Northern Ireland, like the infrastructure - back home, water and electricity (and by default, internet) are a right, not a privilege, yet here if you have a constant supply of both, you can consider yourself very, very lucky. At the moment, the whole country is going through a drought - Victoria falls is hardly falling, and the animals and plants are very, very thirsty. Back home it's a different story - the Emerald Isle is called such because it is very, very green, and it's very, very green because it's very, very wet. Average rainfall figures suggest that two out of every three days it rains, and in Ireland many curse this - yet in South Africa, every drop of rain is a blessing. It's not just these big differences that stand out though. The longer you're in Africa (although I can only speak for myself in the miniscule area I've experienced), the more the little differences stand out. People laugh louder, and for longer. Smiles seem to come easier. A common phrase we use at the lodge is 'T.I.A.' - 'This Is Africa'. Internet slow/non existent? T.I.A. Food taking an age in the restaurant? T.I.A. Waiting around for someone to pick you up when they're invariably late? T.I.A.
Once you get a hold of this phrase, it's fantastically hard to let go. Thorn in your shoe? T.I.A. Sweating like a criminal in confession mere moments after you've dried off post shower? T.I.A. Animals constantly behind bushes, never emerging for you to get that one shot you've been looking for? T.I.A. And yet, something wonderful happens at the same time. Through repeated frustration, these obstacles then become opportunities. The meal that took an hour and a half to arrive allowed you to better get to know your dinner companion - because the electricity was off at the time, you couldn't hide behind your mobile phone, and the light was really quite romantic as they brought out candles and it was nearly a disappointment when the meal actually arrived.
The same happens when out in the bush or on drive. Instead of finding discomfort in the baking hot sunshine, you find joy when you find shade. When a Rhino decides to hide behind a twig using the 'I can't see you so you can't see me' method, I see it as comical rather than frustrating. When a giraffe refuses to drink at a watering hole because it's not 100% sure there's nothing to leap out from the shadows, it would be easy to get annoyed, but if I put myself in the animals shoes (hooves), I'd die of dehydration, forever looking over my shoulder.
Indeed, it's being out of the food chain that allows us this unique opportunity to step into the caretaker role for these animals. As a photographer, this is clearly mutually beneficial; I get to take photos of these amazing creatures, and they hopefully benefit when people see their stunning natural beauty, their personality, and their individual quirks and unusual behaviour. Don't forget, animals don't read textbooks, so every interaction presents us with a chance to 'capture' them when they present themselves. And that's why many photographers and I disagree. As I've mentioned before, photographers are a peculiar breed - myself included - and they tend to be creatures of habit and somewhat secretive. This by no means applies to all, but many photographers, when they say 'capture', they mean it. They want to keep those moments, to hoard them all together and admire them like a morbid treasure trove of past 'hunts'. It's one of the main reasons why I detest the term 'capture' itself. It suggests to me something caught, imprisoned, kept - the opposite of what we teach here and work towards. These animals are for everyone to enjoy, but only as long as there is no cost to the animals themselves. Everyone here is encouraged to share, to give of themselves freely, their time, their energy, so that we can work towards our common goals, and have a damn good time along the way. I think this is the biggest difference of all. In many other places I've experienced, the desire is the same to be bigger, better, stronger, and there's absolutely no harm in that at all. It's just that it's so much harder when you're trying to do it on your own...
Kirtana Kumar – New Zealand Jason’s Epic Tracking Walk We started the first day with a two and a half hour tracking walk from Klaserie camp, which ended just before sunset. The first thing we saw was a giraffe drinking water. We were lucky to see that, as giraffes are extremely vulnerable and keep extra alert when they drink, but she trusted us enough to have a few decent sips. It was an odd but beautiful sight.
We also came a across a rock monitor who was desperately digging a hole in the bank to lay her eggs. She was aware of the eight pairs of eyes watching her, however she didn’t seem to be bothered by us and carried on digging. I felt very privileged to have witnessed this. A rock monitor is not the “typical” thing you would come across so it was a treat for all of us.
The night ended with the most delicious braai around the camp fire. Once we all got into our tents with full bellies ready to sleep, a hyena came wandering in sniffing out the meat. I have never seen a hyena so close in my life, she came right up to the tent sniffing it out. I watched in awe with only the mosquito mesh separating our faces. She was only a metre or less away. I must have been smiling for ten minutes straight after that. It was an exhilarating experience.
The next day we walked to Bateleur’s nest dam. Just before we approached the dam, Jason had to check and see which was the best and safest route to take. The atmosphere was intense and exciting while we waited for Jason’s signal. Once he signalled we trod quietly towards the dam. We could here the bellows of the hippos before we could see them. We eventually found a good spot to sit down and watch the hippos. There was also a rhino lying down near the bank. Not long after, we heard a rustling in the bushes behind us. It was a huge herd of buffalos not even ten metres away making their way to the water hole.
We had to get out of the way quickly, the situation became very tense fast. We walked as fast as we could, but the rhino was in our way, and it was our only escape route. We had to wake him up from his relaxation, he got up suddenly and just stood and stared at us. Jason was making loud noises to shoo him off, lucky for us he decided to cooperate and eventually ran into the bushes. We made our way to the other side of the dam and watched the buffalos emerging from the bush one by one, until there were around 200 buffalos surrounding the water hole. I thought to myself ‘this is nature at its finest’.
Unpredictable and wild.
We walked a total of four and a half hours that day. I couldn’t pick just one highlight of the trip, the whole thing was a highlight. This has been my favourite experience with African Impact. The feeling of walking on the land and being level with the animals in their territory is unique. It is completely different to being in a vehicle. You come out feeling the utmost respect for nature.
Heinz Maier, AUSTRIA Elephants are very intelligent animals. They live in herds with 20 to 30 members and are lead by old females. This old experienced female brings the herd to places with food and water. They are very social and all of them protect the babies and younger ones. They have an extraordinary mind. so they remember what other species (like other animals or men) did in the past to them. The trunk consists of many thousands of muscles. It is used for grabbing, drinking etc. They also flap their ears to get rid of the heat. Male elephants go alone. They only join the females for maFng. When they are in musth, they are very aggressive and dangerous. When they have made the females pregnant they become more quiet and not so aggressive anymore. The gestaFon is approx. 2 years and new born babies weigh around 100 kg. AKer their birth they can stand up and run within 2 to 3 hours. When they are 2 years old they change from mother milk food to plants. AKer 12 years they are adults.
JAMIE MYER - USA Houston, Texas, the town in which I live, has two fine art museums, the Jung Museum, and two universiFes that offer photography lessons; all within a mile of my home. However, I decided to fly to South Africa and learn photography from African Impact when I finally, and I do mean finally, decided to begin my learning journey. How would I take the way I see the world and transform it into a photograph? I didn’t have a clue. My main methodology in the past had been to take 100 pictures and hope five would turn out looking great. I now know that they weren’t as great as I thought. That, too, has been part of the journey. Aperture, ISO, Metering Mode, AF Points, White Balance, Image Recovery Quality, ShooFng Mode -‐ are you kidding me? I am suppose to know all of that and more. Needless to say, I spent 99.9% of my Fme playing catch up while never actually catching up. There was only one opFon, improvement. SCORE! What I didn’t anFcipate was falling in love with South Africa. The people and their passions are intoxicaFng. AKer one of our community service Fridays a teacher looked at me and said, “Don’t forget me.” How could I forget someone who has devoted her life to helping children learn. Then there was the stark and seemingly endless landscape that is doced with the unforgecable and tortuous sickle bush. During conservaFon I invariably ended up clearing this maddening bush. It and I seemed to have developed a special and personal relaFonship. Whenever I was anywhere in its vicinity, it would grad ahold of me and dare me to fight. Of course, I obliged, and it won without excepFon and always with an unanimous decision. During one of our forays into town I had my first taste of white chocolate pepper ice cream. The taste was so delicious I am sure all the other flavors I love will never taste the same again. During the weekend acFviFes I went up, up and away in a hot air ballon, I flew without wings down a zipline, and I went to Kruger twice in order to see all the animals I could possibly see during my Fme in South Africa. I had no idea there would be so many adventures outside of photography class, although they always included taking a bazillion pictures.
Driving through AM or Buffalo Land and being Jasonized and Simonized was always an adventure -‐ a dazzle, registering, ruminaFng, leopard prints vs. Prospect prints, conservaFon and poaching -‐ all of this and more was taught to me by either Simon or Jason during drives, conversaFons and informaFon sessions. During our drives there would always be at least one giraffe hiding behind a tree peering out at us with his huge beauFful eyes. I am convinced the giraffe believed we couldn’t see him. Once on a evening drive a truck was spoced with someone signg on the truck beaming a spotlight on a leopard as both slowly made their way toward our truck. We all watched as she glided toward us intent on reaching her desFnaFon. Her kill was hanging in the tree not too far from our locaFon. She made my heart beat so fast I thought I was going to pass out. On our last drive through Klaserrie I managed to hear a loud noise coming from the right side of the road, specifically, the noise was emanaFng from a big tree. I turned around just in Fme see a huge black mamba slithering down the tree and in an opposite direcFon away from us. AcempFng to capture all the moments and all the beauty with my camera has been a challenge. Learning how to use my camera has been a nightmare at Fmes, hilarious at Fmes, and outright foot stomping frustraFng at Fmes. Mastering the use of a camera isn’t going to happen anyFme in the near future for me, perhaps never, but what I have accomplished is learning enough of what that has been passed on to me by the instructors, Julie and Tim, that I am going to conFnue my journey into the world of photography when I return home. I would be remiss in my obligaFon to the other photography class members if I didn’t tell you how much they taught me as well. “Check your shucer speed.” “What is your aperture segng?” Don’t forget your: jacket, camera, brain…” “Don’t forget they are your pictures, show what you see.” “I was almost like you when I first started. Don’t worry, you will be fine.” “Jacques, Jamie’s hat flew off. AGAIN!” It would be impossible for me to name all of the animals I have seen for the first Fme. It would be impossible for me to tell you about all I have learned and all I have experienced. The totality of all that has happened has allowed South Africa to slowly and inevitably find its way into my being and leK me feeling rooted to the ground. Living for four weeks in South Africa has been a giK.
So, if you are a beginner like me, even if you are not as much of a beginner as me, take a deep breath, smile, and keep on keeping on. I promise you, despite whatever tough Fmes you may feel you are experiencing with your camera, your pictures, the way the sun is beaming down on your subject or not beaming down on your subject, each and everyone of these experiences will take you to a new and becer understanding of photography and to a higher level of experFse. I am thrilled that I dared myself to learn about photography from Julie, Tim and my classmates while in South Africa. During my Fme at Dumela with African Impact and with the incomparable and irreplaceable Lorna and other staff members: I have fallen in love with photography, and I have fallen in love with a world so different from my own. Just in case someone needs some encouragement, most of my early submissions leK a lot to be desired, but here is one of my final ones. I’ve come a LONG way J
Yoram lavon. Israel. What makes a good photo? While travelling around the world, I always ask myself: Should I take that photo? And later: Is that a good photo? Most of us are not photographers and we will never make money out of our photos, so why bother? And now with the digital age, most of us will never look at the photos we have saved in the computer. To get some answer on that we must ask ourselves: Why are we taking photos at all? First I think we want, a way of keeping our memories in a more material way so we can reconstruct our memories again and again and, we want to be able to share our memories with others. For me, when I remember the Elephant that charged me in Namibia, this memory is connected to the date, the season of the year, the people I was with, all the "reports" from my senses – the smell, the noise, the heat, the sand under my feet, the elephant, my emoFons when I saw the Elephant running toward me, my thoughts , what happened aKer and so on. But how can you transfer that context and memory to other person? A good photo might help, I hope. If you are able to take a photo or a short series of photos that tells the story in one glimpse of a stranger's eye, it is a good photo. If the photo can tell the whole story: What happened?, To whom? Feeling…It's a great photo. So, If a photo creates memory and helps us transfer the most of the memory to others I think that's a good photo.
Good photos are also photos with best Fming. You just were lucky to be at the right place at the right Fme and take the photo. If you are an amateur photographer there is a big chance that the segngs of the camera won't be the best. So what? You will perhaps get a grainy photo, but sFll it's there. The whole story is sFll told by the photo. And of course those great beauFful photos like the wolf howling to the full moon that floats over the forest. Those sharp and exactly exposed photos. Those are really good technical photos that the photographer spent some Fme to be able to take that photo. Finally, my opinion is that first of all a good photo is a photo that enables you to have a vivid memory with all the story and context, it will also enable you to tell the story to someone else in few words and or few photos. And if those photos have great Fming and high technical quality…. You got it! You got the best photo!
My "good photo": Leopard's dinner at Klaseri game reserve
Tom McDonough, United Kingdom Since my arrival on October 10th I have become more and more curious about all things concerning Leopards, the fact that they are such elusive creatures creates an air of mystery around them that has motivated me to fully immerse myself in the analysing of any data we have presented to us by the wild. And the wild has delivered. To put it plainly we’ve been happily busy on the Leopard front, with many exciting discoveries. Upon my arrival, it was a hot topic of debate whether or not there were two male Leopards prowling around the Guernsey area and whether or not it was possible these two Leopards were competing for, or even sharing territory. If this turned out to be true, then it would completely change our perception of these animals in this area. We had our answer just days later following some brilliant work from an existing volunteer. This involved the meticulous (and sometimes frustrating) process of analysing our database of leopard photos - be they pictures from our volunteers or our camera traps – in an effort to compile leopard ID kits to finally settle the debate. The constructed ID kits were a success, and allowed us all to realise our excitement as it was confirmed there was a new male leopard in the area. It seemed that photos we believed to be all Makhulu Spoko (LEM1) were actually of Makhulu and a new male leopard. The difference was distinguished through careful analysis of the rosette and dot patterns before deciding that new male deserved his own title. LEM3, welcome to Guernsey.
When you are involved in leopard research, you really do relish these moments. As I said before, they are elusive creatures, which will leave you disappointed when there are no sightings and elated when there are. This was typified in the two weeks that followed our LEM3 discovery. During this fortnight we unfortunately had no visuals or camera trap activity to analyse, all we had were tracks of an unidentifiable male in the AM reserve, and a possible near miss of seeing a leopard in the flesh in Buffaloland, as whilst on one of our research drives, we smelled the unmistakable popcorn scent from leopard urine. In hindsight, this period was the calm before the storm, as in the first few days of November a camera trap in Buffaloland provided us with a fresh sighting dated October 20th. We were back in business! Upon the discovery of this obvious male leopard, I sat down and prepared myself for it to be either LEM1 or LEM3, and began analysing the very indistinguishable features from the camera trap photo against the existing ID kits. After two days of working on this and numerous times consulting with Sarah, all signs were pointing to the unexpected and unlikely outcome that we had discovered a third male Leopard in the Guernsey area! So there we had it, another research revelation with the ability to make us feel excited and baffled. Exciffled, that’s a new word, to be used only in the context of Leopard research J
What made this discovery all the more special was that Makhulu Spoko was spotted by our camera traps during early November after a long visual absence, confirming that previously discovered leopards have not left the area. However the discovery of LEM3 has taught us that patience and persistence are required in this area of research. Currently we believe to have found LEM6, and this could very well be proved right or wrong in the weeks and months that follow. .
With the potential arrival of a third male leopard in the area, more and more questions are added to the mix. Is this third male definitely LEM6? Have there been major shifts in the dominance of territory in the Guernsey area? Or are these three large males all sharing territory, with or without conflict? All we will do is stay patient, and keep all our senses aware, to discover what is yet to unfold in the world of leopards. For me, this period of work will end soon and I hope the answers reveal themselves to African Impact soon enough. All I can say is that in the five weeks I have spent here so far it has been pleasure to be involved with working on these fascinating animals
Tiphaine Briand - FRANCE
With African Impact we are trying to have a better impact by multiplying our actions. It is not only about doing more, it’s about using the skills or ideas that volunteers bring. Basically, we adapt our impact with what we have, to make it more efficient. Last month there were a good number of people with artistic skills. We had a meeting and started to think of a way to put our ability to draw to help Conservation. A visual way to share not only our experience here, but also our knowledge about wildlife. Many ideas came out and we focused on two of them. The first project that we have been working on is to create drawings for post cards. They would be sold by African Impact and the proceeds will go to The Happy Africa Foundation. The Happy Africa Foundation is a non-profit organization, dedicated to sustainable change and progress for underprivileged communities. They support community projects in Eastern and Southern Africa. These post cards will travel around the world spreading a bit more of our experience and actions here in South Africa. The second idea was to have an educational impact. That what Sarah Heuzeroth did by writing and illustrating an awesome children book all about a little Rhino who learns why he needs his horns. As Rhino poaching is a big issue, this book is an excellent way to educate the children about it. The book is also interactive because kids can colour it in.
Besides using our skills for Conservation we have also started to decorate our lodge with paintings. So far we have painted animal tracks prints, human prints, animals and arches… I will talk a bit more about the arch as I painted one; I wanted it to be a way to express my experience here. I have been mostly inspired by our game drives, as they brought me new emotions and unique sensations. I enjoyed every part of my volunteering actions here, but these drives were completely new for me and just amazing. For my drawings themselves, I have been inspired by an African paint. More precisely a lizard picture from one of Sarah’s presentations! I like street art and I wanted to work as if it was one. It was great fun for me to try something new. I’m very happy that African Impact gave me this opportunity. After 8 weeks, I have come to the end of my time here. Volunteering and traveling brought me much more than I expected. It truly gave me directions I wanted to follow in life. I learned so much through these experiences. Just through the artwork I have done here, it has given me the courage and the final boost I needed to finally follow my wish of starting my own business! Experience built myself!!
Lisa Rivera - USA Did you know that gap years aren't just for university students? They're for adults too. I came to this conclusion after 12 years in the working world. I had an important, well-paying job but for the past few years I no longer felt satisfaction in my work and my level of motivation declined. I came to the conclusion that I needed to make a career change. However, after working the same job the entire time after college, I had no idea what I wanted to do and doubted that I was even qualified to do anything else. After much contemplation, I made the decision to quit my job all-together and take an undetermined amount of time off to exercise my mind and body, travel, think, write, and volunteer. Call it a sabbatical, gap year, or temporary mid-life retirement. Either way, it has been the BEST decision that I have ever made. I began my time off by traveling to Cusco, Peru, for four weeks of Spanish language study and volunteering with children. This was a fantastic experience and it reinvigorated me. I came back from that trip with a thirst to learn more about indigenous cultures, native plants, and wildlife. I did a lot of reading and became fascinated with the topic of conservation. I knew that I wanted to do another volunteering project abroad, but it was extremely difficult to narrow down the choices because so many sounded worthwhile. I had never travelled to Africa before and ultimately I felt that a conservation volunteering project in South Africa would be the perfect way to get introduced to the African continent and its amazing animals.
Flash forward to today. I just ďŹ nished my second week of volunteering and I am astonished by how much I have learned, seen, and done so far. Every day has such a variety of activities, from game drives, to hacking down invasive plants with machetes, to visiting a local school to weed their garden beds. I also have thoroughly enjoyed all of the seminars and documentaries that we have watched, and now I know what fascinating creatures termites are! This experience has been full of plenty of surprises also. For example, I had no idea that our research tasks included camping overnight once a week inside a Big 5 wildlife reserve. I was nervous about it at ďŹ rst, but it quickly became my favorite part of our volunteering agenda. Even if we don't see many animals on our game drives, just being able to sit under the stars of the Southern Hemisphere is an enchanting experience. It has been incredible to view wildlife up-close. I have seen now that there is such a stark contrast to how animals in zoos act versus how animals are in the wild. All of the animals here seem so vibrant and peaceful. I am glad that I am doing my part to help conserve their natural habitat and their livelihood. (I have also decided that giraes are my favorite animal.) I have one more week to go and even if I left today, it has already been a truly rewarding experience to volunteer with African Impact. Even in such a short time, I know that I have grown as a person and am even more passionate about conservation. I hope to do another conservation volunteering project elsewhere in the world early next year, perhaps in Costa Rica, and I know that the skills that I learned here will be invaluable in my future endeavours.
Eco Kids, an Interview with Corné HAVENGA How did CET come about? What sparked it in the start - did you volunteer? CET is an initiative by Klaserie Private Nature Reserve. 10 years ago Sandy Works founded the organisation. She worked at a Lodge in Klaserie, and saw the need of so many of the farm workers and their families being in Acornhoek, but never being allowed to actually come into the reserve to see the animals and experience nature first hand. She approached our now Chairperson, Deon Huysame, and asked about the possibility of starting an initiative for the children of the reserve. Initially they did not take to the idea, but then they decided to give it a shot, and that’s where the holiday workshops came from. She got all the farm workers together, and explained that she would be sending invites to all their staff to invite their children in, and they would host quarterly workshops. They brought the kids in and had 20 – 30 kids for the first Holiday Workshop on grasses or butterflies. In 2007 they formalised the organisation as a Non Profit Organisation, so they appointed the first CEO, Zani Kutz, who managed the organisation up until 2012. They mostly focussed on environmental education, so they hosted the holiday workshops and then Matikinya came on board. They adopted another school, Mavwane, though this school came off the programme. Then they adopted Seganyani as well.
In 2010 (I think) when the teachers went in strike in South Africa, they could not get the children into the reserve for the workshops. This was the first time they went out and actually visited the schools and saw what dire straits they were in. That was when they thought a presence in the area was necessary. Seeing the children on a quarterly basis was not enough. They needed to be with the kids all the time, and develop a programme. They started vegetable gardens with the kids at the schools. In 2012 we appointed a Project Manager and we developed the Eco Villages with the Make A Difference leadership foundation. This was the year that I came on board from 2012. My background is education and educational psychology. I taught in Johannesburg and my other half was moving to Hoedspruit to manage a construction company there, so I decided that if there was something beneficial for me to do in terms of giving back, then I would also move. I actually that day got an email saying that there was a non profit looking for a manager that works in education and would I want to apply? So it fell into place. I moved here and managed the organisation. At the start we focussed on environmental education, but I’ve taken it to whole school development, using environmental education as a vehicle. Knowing that so many of these kids live in such extreme poverty, for us to come and teach them about the environment and not see to their basic needs just doesn’t seem fair. How are we going to empower the children in the area to better their lives if we don’t look at the education system as a whole. If we can’t uplift the school as a whole, we can’t just supplement the schools feeding programme with these sustainable gardens and teach the kids key agricultural methods on how to plant their own veggies and propagate seedlings if we don’t look at the core which is their education. Most of the schools in the area have dilapidated buildings, classrooms, desks etc. Most of the schools don’t have water, and sanitation isn’t great. At this stage, CET is taking the Eco Village as the entry point. When we adopt a school, we establish the eco village and a relationship with the community, and use our environmental education programme to establish that relationship. Once that relationship is solid and we have the community buy-in, (because essentially the community manages the eco village) they have to look after the crops. This is because if CET ever pulls out, they must be able to continue as a sustainable programme.
After getting a positive response from them, we then looked at the whole school development and infrastructure upgrades. At this point we’ve started 2 libraries. It was shocking to find out that less than 5% of the schools in this area have functioning libraries. The other very basic one is pit toilets. How many of the school actually have proper sanitary facilities? We really want to put enviro loos at all the schools. Last year in Limpopo, a grade 1 learner actually fell down the pit toilet and was killed, so it’s really important to fix the basics. So do the kids actually see the vegetables going to the kitchen? Yes, they harvest them and send them to the kitchen. The idea is for them to propagate the seedlings, plant them, grow and then harvest the vegetables, and then see them go straight into the kitchen to be cooked for them. In addition, a great percentage of vegetables gets donated to vulnerable children in the area. Is there a business side to this? Do the children see the produce sold and then put back into seedlings? That’s managed by the greening committee, not the children as such. They do talk to the children about it, but I think there could be a lot more lessons implemented, such as more emphasis on how much it costs to run. All the schools have their own greening bank account, and they manage the funds in that account. This ensures it doesn’t go into the school’s budget, but is run as a separate business.
Tell me the Leopard story When I first came here, I was a little bit of a city girl. Growing up in SA you’re used to the bush – you go camping , but it’s always a temporary situation. You’re never going to stay there permanently and be surrounded by this beauty. During my first AGM I drove into the reserve as I had to have my first board meeting. All of a sudden, a leopard just went across the road. I stopped and I was just in absolute awe. My window was down and it just stopped next to my window and looked at me – it was so calm but it was this 2 second glare and then it just ran off. And I just thought ‘there is where I am meant to be’. Where else do you get a leopard crossing the road, staring at you in the face? In that moment I realised how privileged I am. We sometimes focus on all the other things like logistics and the stress of trying to get finances together, but you realise ‘ok, I’m in the right space – I’m here to make a difference, and I can do it.’
What would you say are the main focal points of CET at the moment? Whole school development. Take a rural school and turn it into a model school. Use that as a springboard to elevate talented learners into bursary programmes. The main thing is taking the school and working with all the elements of that school, so I’m very much identifying where the teachers need help. I’ve come to realise that most of the teachers in the area have been given learning areas or subjects that they’re not necessarily experts in, but because there’s a big need for teachers to be here they are given the curriculum and simply told to teach. They approached us asking for assistance in the key learning areas like English and Mathematics. We do not go in and say ‘we know how to do it better’ but we learn from each other. We also look at infrastructure; the environment of these schools must be safe and conducive to learning. These kids go home to one room, and then they come to school in a dark and dreary classroom – I want to make it a happy and vibrant place for them. A place that they want to come to school. That’s really important to me. I also want to add libraries, computer centres, sporting facilities. And then management – helping to build capacity amongst the community and link with the community. So the way we’ve structured it now is that the Eco Village is the entry point. The main focus is sustainable vegetable gardens, with environmental education as a core. We establish that, then let the community understand that it’s a give and take process. Its not just an NGO coming and saying ‘here you go’, and then retracting. We work together – a little bit from you, a little bit from us, and that working together is what we are basing our organisation on. Then we need to do a needs analysis with the teachers – ‘what do we need to do to improve your school?’.
We also look for talented kids within the system and try to get them bursaries. Right now we have 7 kids on the bursary programme and they will go to a private environmentally based school in Hoedspruit. Afterwards they can go to University. Empowerment through education is our biggest thing. We cannot say we are just a bursary programme or just an environmental education programme – it’s a more holistic approach, and that’s where the whole school development comes in. Is the bursary programme what Trico went through? Trico was one of our holiday workshop kids, so was not identified through the school, but through the workshops. He kept on attending, then came back as a trainer and we saw potential in him. He then did a gap year with CET, and we assisted him with everything he needed to complete his tourism diploma. At the holiday workshops I am always trying to do this, so now I have 4 or 5 kids who have come back to be trainers. I will keep monitoring and mentoring them and see what they can achieve after school. Queen, who is one of our trainers, also came through our holiday workshops. She did a gap year with CET, then she wanted to go study, although she wasn’t sure what. So now we are going to help her with her Conservation and Environmental education through the Wildlife College. Rulani was one of the kids at the first workshops and now she has come to work for CET. She wants to stay us so we will send her onto a computer course amongst others, so she’ll benefit the organisation and herself. We are trying to constantly take the kids and employ them within the organisation, and the main goal for me is for our beneficiaries to eventually run it.
When do you hope that the beneficiaries will take over the organisation? In 10 years time or so. The idea going forward for the next 2 years is to actually have 10 schools on our books and to know that we have looked at the whole area, the furthest being where we are now Manulete, all the way to green valley. I want to turn those schools into the model schools and then get those kids to the bursary scheme. So, that is the whole cycle, and by getting the beneficiaries to take ownership of the organisation they will be giving back. Take for example Mishulo, who comes from Matikinya . When we brought foreign volunteers to work on the programme he would take the lead and be organising everything. I thought ‘who is this kid?’ He’s always smiling, he’s always happy, he’s always taking initiative and he’s amazing. I then heard his story from his teacher Winky. (Winky is also the project manager of all Eco schools). His mum had him when she was a teenager, then they fled to Mozambique, and when they came back she dropped him with the grandparents, never to return again, so he doesn’t know his mother or his father. He lived with the grandparents here in the village and they sent him to school – he was already older because he didn’t go to school in Mozambique. Both his grandparent then got ill and passed away, so the community adopted him. I looked at his school report and he was getting 80s, 90s scores, and he was always smiling, always happy. He has nothing, absolutely nothing. I wanted to do something for this boy in his Grade 7 year when we do the bursary intakes. It’s quite a process – lots of interviews, psychometric testing etc. And he made it all the way to the final round, and then one of the panel said that they didn’t think this child would be able to cope in a private school.
I disagreed however. I just had a gut feel that they were wrong. So I secured a smaller bursary for him at the Acornhoek school. I wanted him to go to the best possible school in the rural area until I could secure a bigger bursary for him. We covered all his travelling costs l and arranged with a local person that he could stay there. We covered all his food costs and whatever else he needed just to get to the school. And all I kept saying to him was ‘just make sure you get good marks!’ . Within that year I was able to secure him a full 5 year bursary that also covered all his extras. So he stays in boarding which is close too me, I can keep an eye on him, and he goes home over the weekends. We will reassess when it’s time for him to go to University but this is now a real possibility. Meanwhile I’m still trying to get him into the first private school, because management has changed. As part of the interview, just as an ice breaker, we had different items on the table and he had to pick an item and then talk about it. He was the first person who picked up the flash light. I know he’s interested in mechanics so I thought he’d say that he he likes the mechanics of it, instead he says is that the flashlight symbolises the light CET has brought into his life. That he was in absolute darkness and the torch symbolises the light for him.
He didn’t know where he was going, what he was going to happen to him, and just one day we came and we brought the light and he now knows where he’s going. In that moment I realised the impact that we’ve had on this child’s life. He has no family and all of a sudden here comes an opportunity and he has taken this on so whole heartedly and with such positivity. He couldn’t speak a word of Afrikaans and I was moving him to a school where he had to take Afrikaans as a second language, he has to pass the matric for us to get him into the University. Since then I have spoken to his Afrikaans teacher and he’s passing better than others who’ve taken it for 7 years. He’s always studying, he’s always working – he’s got it in his mind he’s going to be an engineer or a pilot. He’s going to do it, and if you ask him what he is going to do with this qualification once he’s finished the answer is so rewarding. Most kids would say ‘I’m going to move to the city’, but no. For him, the main aim in his life is that he wants to make people feel like we made him feel that day when we created hope. What we’re doing here is wonderful, it’s sustainable, it helps the environment, but that was the “aha” moment for me. The other kids have a mum or a gogo or family members that are assisting and helping, but being so alone I cannot imagine how scary that would be. So if I can do that for another 10 or 20 or 30 kids in this area that’s what inspires me. Kids like Trico inspires me, knowing the adversities he’s faced in his life and seeing how he’s taking opportunities. Seeing these kids grow is the reward at the end of the day. That’s what makes CET. We’re not just an organisation, we are family. And everyone who comes on board with us and works with us becomes part of the family. Sometimes we’re not happy with our family and have fights, but most of all we never let them go, we look after them. That’s how I see our team.
Allanna Skeels, BritSralian (British and Australian) This moment was captured at the reptile centre. The image seems to show a chameleon attempting to catch an insect, however, the “insect� was in fact the eyelashes of one of the volunteers - Elysha. Elysha got more than she bargained for when posing for this shot, the tongue hit her square in the eye!