The spirit of the Outreach

The spirit of the Outreach

Chamunorwa Rambanapasi was one of the ex-students that were supposed to meet with Theresa in Hwange. He is a very diligent senior wildlife officer and waited patiently for his station commander to arrive at the station before he could leave. He would not leave it unmanned.

Unfortunately his station master got held up due to circumstances out of his control and in the end Chamunorwa left too late. By the time he got to Hwange, we have already been gone for a few hours. He knew our destination was Mushandike Campsite near Masvingo and drove through the night to catch us.

He arrived at three in the morning and patiently waited outside the camp while we all slept. When he realized the students at Mushandike had their training the previous day and we were basically packing up to go on to Gonarezhou, he was prepared to come with us. That is how valuable a meeting with SAWC is to them and their career. Theresa then said no, she will have a special one-on-one meeting with him. He gothis update and she got her information and he happily drove back to his station in Hwange, 550 kilometres away. That is the spirit of the Outreach.

Another interesting fact is the amount of women in conservation. At Mushandike alone, we had three men (including Chamunorwa) and four women. A lot of people say it is because women want to prove
themselves in a man's world. They are just as capable to be field rangers. To walk patrols. To apprehend poachers. I believe they are, but I personally think it is because all women are
instinctively mothers. And mothers are caregivers. They want to protect, conserve and ensure a brighter world for what is theirs. The concept of conservation comes naturally to them. It is part of their make-up.

Be that as it may, we'll take that debate further later. After Chamunorwa and Theresa finished their discussions, we drove via Masvingo to Gonarezhou and set up camp at Chipinda Pools on the river.
Tomorrow we'll tackle an other chapter of the Outreach.

This is Buddy barking off.

NEWS FLASH!! NEWS FLASH!! Returning to Hwange, Chamunorwa found out
that he is the only advanced student selected by the Zimbabwe Wildlife
Authority to attend the Transfrontier Conservation Management
qualification at SAWC in 2010.

Woof, I say to that!

Download GPS Tracks for today: Google Earth Format & GPX Format