Week # 2: Conservation and Community work

 Since our first week was full on photography, this week was a lot more conservation and community work, which is another main purpose for my trip. 
 

On Tuesday morning we all (photography and research groups) went to help the manager of Thanda Wildlife and his workers to do a controlled burn.  They will burn each block (which I’m not sure the size of as they all vary) about every 3 or 4 years which helps to get rid of the long grass that doesn’t offer much nutrients and have all that nutrients go back into the ground so new grass can grow that provides more nutrients for the animals to eat.  We split into 2 groups although the side I went with was considerably less people.  We started at a corner and headed in parallel directions.  Some people were lighting the fire and the rest would come along with fire beaters (made of sheets of rubber with some slits cut in it on a broom stick) and put out any fires that were going the wrong direction.  The wind wasn’t cooperating so the smoke was really bad so my eyes were watering the whole time.  It was a long morning with some pretty good hiking/walking over some big hills and will little to no water but it felt good to look back and see all the burning we had done.

On Wednesday we headed to a community school about 1.5 hour away to spend some time with the kids and teach them about the animals of South Africa.  I know it seems weird that we come in from all over the world and have to teach them about animals in their country, but these kids don’t have the means to learn about them and never travel to see them.  So we taught them about the kudu, dung beetle and oxpecker bird.  We made posters and activities to go along with them and the teacher had to translate for them.  Afterwards we got to go outside and play with them.  We had taken along a bunch of balloons for the kids and they just loved it.  At one point I had probably 30 kids around me pushing and shoving and grabbing for the balloons.  Thankfully the teacher came along and made them behave and we got them handed out.  They all had such a great time with them, it was so fun.  A few of them were pretty sad when their balloons were popped.  We took a box of apples for them so we halved them and handed them out to them to go with their lunch of beans.  Then afterwards the kids did some singing and dancing for us which was great.  It is definitely a big part of the Zulu culture.

Then Thursday morning we did some more conservation work at the Thanda base camp.  Right now their grey water leaks outside the fence and the animals are drinking it.  So they are creating a wetland where the water can go through and be cleaned and oxidized and then put outside the fence for the animals to drink.  Previous groups had already dug the big hole (a small swimming pool type hole).  So our job was to lay plastic down in the hole and line the edges with a bunch of rocks and to carry away all the dirt from the hole.  It was a fairly big job to do all by hand but with a big group of us we got a lot done in a short amount of time.  There’s still a lot to be done before the ‘wetlands’ is ready for water, but it is getting there.  It is one of those things that remind you that you are in Africa.  Things get done when they get done, no real rush and it’s all by hand.  I look forward to hearing updates on it though and how it turns out.

We have a few more community and conservation projects going on this week that I am definitely looking forward to!