7:30 am: Breakfast
8:00- 9:30 am: Common ground through sport - Football match between Envirovet 2010 and Ruaha Management Team
We got a chance for some exercise in this team-building activity for Evet and Ruaha staff. It was a fairly competitive match but the other team had quite a bit more talent than the E-vets. In the end we lost 1-0. Still it was great to run around and get some exercise.
9:30 am: Tea
10.00 am - 11.00am: Environmental Education Program for primary schools pupils
Leaders: Education/Outreach warden and teachers. Presenters: Msembe Primary School Pupils (Standard 5-7 grades)
Students presented poster presentation on Wild animals, Water and Forests management and related challenges in and around Ruaha National Park. We got to discuss the park’s education program for its residents and neighboring communities.
11:15am- 12:00pm: Traditional dance by Msembe primary school students
The children preformed a beautiful dance and some of our female envirovets joined them in the festivities.
12:30 pm: Lunch
1:30 – 2:50 pm: Engaging communities to improve conservation
Leader: Charles Ngendo, Outreach Warden & John Nyamhanga, Protection Warden, Ruaha NP, TANAPA
Ngendo and Nyamhanga provided an overview of the community engagement, Park outreach programs to benefit neighboring communities and the law enforcement program to prevent poaching in the park. We discussed Tanzanian policy in regards to poaching and law enforcement challenges.
3:00 pm- 3:40 pm: Threats from Unmanaged Fire in the Ruaha Ecosystem
Presenter: Ole Meing’ataki, TANAPA
Meing’ataki described the impact of fire on the health of the Ruaha ecosystem, and detailed efforts to research the effects of fire and create a fire management regime.
4:00 – 6:15 pm: Evening Game Drive
The highlight of the game drive was a massive pride of lions. There must have been about 30 of them lounging about. Of course we also saw impala, giraffe, elephant, baboon, and a variety of birds. Also of interest was a dead giraffe on the side of the road on the way home that was being scavenged by a few jackals (sorry they asked me not to post pics of the dead animal).
7:15 pm: Closing Dinner/campfire and celebration with park personnel
After our fantastic dinner around the campfire we were invite to a local wedding for one of the park rangers. Apparently the program helped to provide a DJ in exchange for allowing us to take part in the cultural experience.
It was the strangest wedding I have ever been to. There were male strippers and clowns. Val, Alex, and Meing’ataki all gave speeches even though Im not sure they knew any of the participants. Once dancing broke out I had to rescue many of the female envirovets from over aggressive locals. Ohh and the bride seemed to be pregnant and not at all happy about the proceedings…In all it was a surreal experience that is very difficult to explain.
No comments:
Post a Comment