Well, I'm finally back in Africa, on a fellowship in Zambia from August through early December. I've been fascinated with Africa for as long as I can remember. I went for the first time in the winter of 1994 on a family vacation to Kenya. That summer I went back and taught at a secondary school in Monduli, Tanzania, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro with a group of students from my high school in Dusseldorf, Germany. In the spring of 1998 I made it to Botswana, with the School for International Training's study abroad program to learn about Conservation and Ecology in the Kalahari Desert and Okavango Delta. For an independent study project I carried out a vegetation assessment to determine the health of grasses and trees at Mokolodi Nature Reserve outside Gaborone, Botswana, which allowed us to determine carrying capacities of herbivores on the 10,000 hectare fenced preserve. After graduating from Tufts University in 1999 I returned to Mokolodi and ran the vegetation assessment for a second time, teaching the methodology to local rangers which has since allowed them to carry out the annual study without outside help. During this trip I also served as Senior Environmental Educator at the Mokolodi Env. Ed. Center, teaching ecology, conservation, and the importance of Botswana's amazing natural heritage to local students from kindergarten through college. Since that time I've dreamed of doing real conservation work in Southern Africa, which The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have finally made a reality. Thanks for staying posted!

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Flatdogs - 9/29/09

Flew back to Lusaka on Saturday morning after a wonderful meeting with my TNC Africa advisor, Patrick McCarthy in Mfuwe (pr: mmm-phoooey). Wasn’t thrilled to be here all weekend but had to pick up my temporary permit from Immigration. The mosquitoes in Lusaka are horrendous, and all I can do in the evening is ! I tried to get to Livingstone for the weekend but flights were all booked. Ended up meeting a couple of guys from the States - John and Sam - who are doing PhD research with COMACO and had a good time when I wasn’t working. John is starting a project on Climate Change in Africa out of University of Cape Town, and Sam is studying Economics out of Cornell. We caught the South African Breweries Beer Festival in town on Sunday afternoon, which was a good time. Yesterday I picked up my temporary permit from Immigration, and I will move on to Nyimba at 6am tomorrow.

Mfuwe was amazing. We lodged at the Flatdogs Game Camp on the banks of the Luangwa River, which was an incredible deal at $70/night per person for a nice chalet. Patrick expressed his comfort with my fellowship progress to date and we developed a plan of which we’re awaiting feedback and direction from Dale Lewis before I move ahead with the next phase of field work. I organized a tour of the COMACO facilities and some farming activities for Patrick, and Kristen and Danny who are also visiting from TNC’s Africa Program for a Zambezi River Restoration Conference. It was good for them to see how the project works on the ground, and I actually learned quite a bit myself - constant reminders that many things are happening that I have not been told about. For instance, I was unaware that COMACO is working with conservation farmers in Mfuwe to plant a million trees in the coming year. In Lundazi I was told that COMACO was not currently involved in reforestation programs. In Chama I found out that Zambia’s Department of Forestry does indeed have native tree nurseries that COMACO may or may not be involved with or utilizing. So I refine my previous insight to reflect need not only to “ask the questions” but to “ask them over and over and over again.”

The highlight of the Mfuwe foray was undoubtedly our game drive into South Luangwa National Park on Friday evening. We had a great guide named Robbie, who gave us amazing sightings of a male lion (gazing out over the Luangwa), a leopard (gearing up for the nights hunt), as well as giraffe, elephant, hippo, crocs, and a score of smaller stuff including a civet. The Park has one of the highest concentrations of leopards anywhere, and an amazing assortment of endemnic faunal sub-species that, for habitat-related reasons, tend to be slightly smaller than their cousins elsewhere. The Thornicroft giraffe, and Crawshay's zebra to name just two…… the only two I know.

Back in the real world, I have realized how much my lack of internet access as of late has started to wear on me. Before Saturday I had only two days of contact with you all in three weeks. Unfortunately, I just found out that Nyimba, the town I head to tomorrow for the rest of my field work, has little if any connection. While I am aware that this is what I signed up for and should expect and accept, there is no reason why I have to embrace it and my plan for Nyimba is to bust through the field work, and move somewhere with access to the world, for the report writing and the remainder of my fellowship. In the meantime, I’ll be looking for travel partners from November 21 – Dec 2.

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