Africa is My Calling

Today was my last day in Zimbabwe. I was supposed to be here for 3 weeks, but I am coming home a week early. Long story. My time here has been full of ups and downs, as with any experience, but at the end of the day… I got what I came for. Pictures. Lots and lots and lots of pictures that I will be able to use in my graphic design studies. Being here has solidified what I want to do with my life—graphic design and/or photography wildlife conservation. With changing schools one more time, I now know that I am on the right path. I always knew I wanted to do something art related, then I knew I wanted to do graphic design, but now I know WHAT I want to do with graphic design. I know what I want to make people feel and I know that I want to make people more aware of the world around them as opposed to living in their bubbles. I was hoping this trip would make me 100% certain that this is what I want to do with my studies, and now I am 1,000% sure that this is what I want to do. And I am relieved.

Most of my day was spent catching up on some much needed sleep. I’ve been waking up at 5am and doing activities until about 6pm. With the hot African sun and the hard labor, you get tired easily (and I think I’ve had enough of shoveling elephant poo for a while!!!)  In the afternoon, I went on one last research drive. See some of my last photos below.

Going on research drives has been my favorite activity here. It is the most natural setting for this release pride, but I have also gotten to know the lead researcher. In doing so, I have learned so much about lion prides, their social structures, behavior, what to look for, how to document their behavior, and more. Most people come here for the lion walks, but I personally do not like those. For starters, I didn’t learn anything about lions on the walk. When guests were on the lion walks, all they did was take pictures with the lions. Little did anyone tell us, the lions on the walks can’t be released into the wild one day due to the human interaction… Only their wild-born cubs will. For this reason, I disagree with some of the methods here. It saddens me seeing so many lions in so many small enclosures that many people besides me think are too small. The lion-breeding program here is understandable to some extent, but now there are no more enclosures left for the lions.

The whole point of the breeding program is to introduce new genes into the wild. A major problem with wild lions is that they interbreed, so there are no new genes being added into the wild. This combined with high cub mortality rates lowers the chances of survival. If this Ngamo release pride is successful, this model of breeding can be adapted to other countries and other species besides lion. For this reason, it is incredibly important what ALERT does here, though many find it controversial. It is not black and white in this case. There are negatives, but there are also positives.

Not many people get to travel to Africa as frequently as I have. Over the years, it has become a second home for me. I’ll miss stepping on the car tires to hop on to the back of a pick up truck… I’ll miss the wind blowing through my hair in the early morning as I stand on the top of the flatbed truck on the way to see the elephants… I’ll miss the sound the tall savannah grass makes as the wind blows through it… I’ll miss waking up to African sunrises and watching the African sunset as birds fly off into the distance… Africa is a magical place. You can’t truly know what it’s like until you come here. And I encourage everyone to at some point in time. You won’t regret it.