Students experience the Bush
Every week a group of volunteers jumped on the truck and headed to Diputhi Primary School in township community near Karongwe Private Game Reserve. They spent the next 2 hours of teaching a small group of local students English and computer skills. The school was small and dusty with lines of classrooms packed with little eager faces waving frantically to us as we arrived every week. The place was never shy of smiling kids and staring little eyes filled with curiosity. The twelve children attended three classes thru the second, third and fourth weeks of the expedition as part of an outreach program by GVI to help with community development. In the fourth week, after a short presentation by the students, the volunteers selected the students who had grown most in their reading and writing skills over the preceding three weeks. On the fifth week of the expedition, one staff member collected the students who had presented best at the school and brought them to Karongwe.
The students arrived on the reserve for their game drive on our last Wednesday of the expedition. They were all excited and dressed in their most formal uniforms, blazers and jerseys. The poor things must have been boiling hot as it was no less than 35 degrees Celsius. We packed up the truck with sandwiches and drinks, 5 students and 3 Expedition Members in the back for an hour game drive around Karongwe Private Game Reserve. Our game drive started out well with a few pointers on how to avoid bouncing off the seat and how to dodge Acacia trees and overhanging branches laden with thorns. This proved to be interesting with 4 students packed into the back seat and not much room for dodging. The day was hot and we saw nothing off the start but open dry shrub lands. To our relief the animals finally started showing themselves about 10 minutes into the drive. We drove past Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsicero), Impala and Warthog, all the while telling the kids about the animals. They were shy and did not say much but we soon got them talking and they could no longer hide their excitement when we went to see Shiloweni, our leopard (Panthera pardus). Shiloweni wasn’t keen to play the game and stayed relatively hidden with only the top of his head and ears showing out of the cool cement water pond. The students did not seem to mind and loved seeing a leopard in the flesh. We also saw a large male Giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis) on the side of the road. It was amazing seeing the students stare in awe, pointing with mouths open at this animal and it made me realize how we had begun to take for granted seeing these animals everyday. We saw Crocodile, Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops) and Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) and it was probably one of the better drives we had for animal sightings on the whole trip. We stopped for sandwiches and drinks by the dam and asked the students how they enjoyed their drive. They seemed happy and went away with new stories and smiles on their faces.
Nicola-Anne Jack, Volunteer, NZ
The students arrived on the reserve for their game drive on our last Wednesday of the expedition. They were all excited and dressed in their most formal uniforms, blazers and jerseys. The poor things must have been boiling hot as it was no less than 35 degrees Celsius. We packed up the truck with sandwiches and drinks, 5 students and 3 Expedition Members in the back for an hour game drive around Karongwe Private Game Reserve. Our game drive started out well with a few pointers on how to avoid bouncing off the seat and how to dodge Acacia trees and overhanging branches laden with thorns. This proved to be interesting with 4 students packed into the back seat and not much room for dodging. The day was hot and we saw nothing off the start but open dry shrub lands. To our relief the animals finally started showing themselves about 10 minutes into the drive. We drove past Kudu (Tragelaphus strepsicero), Impala and Warthog, all the while telling the kids about the animals. They were shy and did not say much but we soon got them talking and they could no longer hide their excitement when we went to see Shiloweni, our leopard (Panthera pardus). Shiloweni wasn’t keen to play the game and stayed relatively hidden with only the top of his head and ears showing out of the cool cement water pond. The students did not seem to mind and loved seeing a leopard in the flesh. We also saw a large male Giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis) on the side of the road. It was amazing seeing the students stare in awe, pointing with mouths open at this animal and it made me realize how we had begun to take for granted seeing these animals everyday. We saw Crocodile, Vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops) and Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) and it was probably one of the better drives we had for animal sightings on the whole trip. We stopped for sandwiches and drinks by the dam and asked the students how they enjoyed their drive. They seemed happy and went away with new stories and smiles on their faces.
Nicola-Anne Jack, Volunteer, NZ
0 comments:
Post a Comment