Full marks at halftime

Photo 1: A day visitor in the camp

Photo 2: Norman Monks addressing the Outreach

Photo 3: Theresa doing training needs analysis with ex-students, now Park Managers

Photo 4: Richard and Naphtal Dube in discussion

Photo 5: Learning about the Enviroment through the Enviro Picture Game

Photo 6: Environmental Education with local community

Photo 7: Cobus at midday

Photo 8: Midzi at midday

Photo 9: Theresa Sowry

Photo 10: Hendrik Melk with one of the solar panels to charge the National Luna Fridges

Photo 11: Francis Davies collecting WESSA resources for Lower Zambezi Environmental Education in Zambia

If this was a rugby match, the coaches and all the players would have been very happy. It’s halftime and there are no injuries. More importantly, there are loads of points on the board. But this is much bigger than a rugby match. Even bigger than the World Cup in the long run. This is about the survival of Africa. And the coaches and players are all very happy.

I chatted to Richard Sowry, one of the coaches. He is on board as a wildlife manager. Back home he is a section ranger at Kingfisherspruit in the Kruger National Park and also vice chairman of the Game Rangers Association of Africa.

His biggest take on the Outreach thus far is that everybody, including South Africa, in essence has the same problems. Sometimes you feel you are alone, but then when you get together with key people in other parks, you realize it is the same pudding, just a different sauce. The advantage of the Outreach is that by getting together, everybody rather starts thinking solutions.

The problem in essence is a lack of resources. The chief warden of Mana Pools, Norman Monks mentioned today that their top working vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser, is seriously in need of new suspension but there is no budget for it. He is now trying to modify shocks from his own personal car to get the Cruiser going. That’s when Richard stopped him and said he’s got a spare set in his garage at home. He’ll make a plan to get it up to Norman. That is the kind of thing the Outreach does.

That’s when Theresa joined us next to the fire and I asked her how the Outreach has worked for her so far. She ruffled my ears and smiled. No wonder her students love her so much.

In total, she had 21 students visiting so far. The great news is that they all are better off since their time spent at SAWC. Most of them have been promoted to senior posts and are coping well. She did an assessment on all of them and this valuable information will be fed back to the SAWC and the Director Generals of the countries visited. Her reports will state that all of them should come back to SAWC for advanced training. It will then be up to the DG’s to allocate funds.

She has identified that the main training needs are advanced law enforcement (including crime scene investigation), geographic information systems (GIS) and country based natural resource management. In addition the students indicated that they need more training on how to deal with conflict issues in communities, including human/wildlife conflict and also getting involved with management decisions in parks.

She is so grateful for the opportunity to talk to old students and rekindle relationships. Thanks to the Toyota Outreach she has seen and heard wonderful things. Like Paston Simkoko from Malawi said: After SAWC I was promoted to assistant Park Manager, heading up the Northern section of Nyika National Park in Malawi. I would sincerely like to thank the SAWC for the training and assistance to me and all the other students.

Well that’s the good news so far. Oh yes, one last thing, Stephen Midzi found some lion spoor in the camp this morning. Apparently the king of the bush visited at three last night. Boy, can he be glad I’m such a sound sleeper...

This is Buddy the blogger, barking off.