Posted by Katherine P on November 17th, 2009
Dumellang
I am sitting outside the hut I live in; today the skies are blessed with clouds, giving me a cold day amongst glaringly hot days. Its been just over 2 months in Botswana, and I am still learning and growing.
My job is extremely varied; lately I have been part of a project to set up a solar system to a well pump. I found it very interesting to put the solar panels together, as I am very interested in alternate forms of energy, and there is a plethora of sun here. I am happy to gain the experience installing and maintaining a solar system. After the solar system was installed, and working I have been working to repair 5km of piping, which has been challenging.
Before that Katie and I were working on getting Cheetah Spoor (prints) for a database. The database needs to be created with known Cheetahs, in order to create a system that can identify wild Cheetahs. This would enable researchers to be able to have a more accurate prediction of the numbers of Cheetahs in the wild. In order to do this, we took many (failing) steps. The first day we took Duma and Letotse’s food around the park, hoping they would tread on some of the sandier parts, that did not work. The next day we brought dirt and ashes, hoping that we would get better tracks, the ash was a failure, and we needed more dirt. The next few days we tried more and more dirt, and wetting it. We finally drove to the dam, shoveled up a carload of sand, and made an area that would surely not fail. For those of you who own cats, you must know it is difficult to get them to do what you want, Cheetahs are no different. We have about 15 good photos of each Cheetah, and have sent them off. I suspect we will be chasing those boys around and taking pictures of them again. I quite enjoyed this project; hanging out with Cheetahs is never a bad thing, as far as I am concerned.
I have been accompanying Lincoln (the Conservation Officer) on his daily activities. Participating in the Giraffe count is a great way for me to learn how a conservation business is maintained. My totem animal I have been given is the Giraffe, and I like to believe I am akin to them. Cleaning and maintaining is large and necessary part of my volunteering here at Mokolodi.
The hut is always full of people, I live with 3 Batswana, 4 Zimbabweans, 1 British, 1 Spanish, and 1 other Canadian. I get bits of every culture. The Batswana certainly love their music, from every hut I can hear music blasting, and my house is no different. Which means I have a lot of opportunity to learn local music and dance. I have been able to learn how to make some traditional dishes from the Zimbabweans, which is very similar to Botswana dishes. The fly tape I put up to try to control the amount of bugs in the house, fills up in two days. We figure the fly tape has got thousands of bugs since a month ago.
My experience here is continuing to be challenging, and giving me insights that I could not have gained otherwise. I believe I am constantly character building, and learning what I take for granted at home. Botswana is a beautiful place, with great people and culture, and I am glad I have had this opportunity.
