The other day we had a Shangaan lesson with our community coordinator: Trico. We learned some basic phrases and simple sentences. This is how you greet an African that lives in this area!
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A few days ago, Jeannette was asked to contribute an article to the project news paper, the Warthog Post. In the article she described what motivated her to sign up for this year’s project in Hoedspruit. She wrote a very eloquent piece which is featured below. My name is Jeannette Yen, I am 17 years old and I come from Taiwan.
Coming from Taiwan, the education I received was a fairly hard going. Waking up and going to school at 6am, enduring seven periods with all kinds of different subjects and then doing a load of homework defined much of my life. All it seemed we did was cram data and information into our heads. Most importantly, most of the students did not know when, where or how to use this information. Our minds would go blank right after each quiz, each test, each midterm exam. Luckily, my mother was always able to see that I needed a broader world view. Every summer I was able to join a program called BWE (BigByte Worldwide Education). This program is run by BigByte, a private learning institute based in Taiwan. With this program, I have been on adventure trips to Australia, Hawaii, New York and Holland. We learned many things about different cultures and had a lot of fun, but the focus was always on adventure rather than learning. Recently though, BWE has added a new dimension—volunteering. Last year, BWE came across an organization called African Impact. This was something they were looking for—to give participants a volunteering experience that would inspire them. A group of four students and one counselor joined the two week program in July 2014, participating in Research & Conservation and Community projects at Thanda. It was an experience that changed their lives. Once they came back they held a presentation for parents and students. They talked about their volunteering experience, their growth as an individual, and the impact their contribution was making on conserving the environment and uplifting communities. They truly inspired me, and I wanted to have the same experience they did. This year I came along with two of my fellow students. One of the teachers at the school came along as well. We joined the three week Research & Conservation project at the new location in Hoedspruit. Though it is only the start of the first week, for everything we do, African Impact tells us the purpose, the goal, and the impact. With these three things in mind, we can concentrate our efforts and do everything with a passion knowing that it will make a difference. After having been on two game drives so far, I know more about the lives of animals than what I learnt at high school. By listening to the conversation of the guides and some of the more experienced volunteers I learned how to recognize different species, how to recognize the animal’s gender, and behavior patterns. I have also done some conservation work by participating in a brush clearing effort at a neighboring reserve. It was incredibly hard work, but a lot of fun. What is education? Is it sitting in a classroom listening to a lecture for hours, trying to memorize everything? Or is it driving through a reserve and learning from the environment itself with experts that go through the place everyday? I look forward to my next few weeks here, and I am excited about what I will learn, what difference I can make, and how big of an impact my presence will have. On Sunday, we went on a zip line adventure on Africa's longest zip line. It consisted of 9 stages that totaled 1,2 kms in length. Luckily, we all survived with our bodies intact. No broken bones or bruised egos. The instructors were real pros and made sure we were always clipped in and safe. Below is a video of what it is like to slide down a 200 meter long zip line. And here is Michael descending the mountain at speed. Rhino poaching is currently one of the most serious problems South Africa is facing. Though people know that it is a current problem, most people do not understand the situation nor the seriousness of the problem. Each year the estimated number of rhino poached has been rising. According to anti-poaching units with inside information, the numbers of rhino poached have increased 8000% since 2007. So far over 500 rhinos have been poached this year. Numbers can only be an estimation because more and more game reserves are unwilling to give the exact numbers; most are afraid that if the numbers were revealed it would draw attention to rhino-poaching hotspots and actually aid poachers. Rhino horn is composed entirely of keratin, the same substance as your hair and nails. It has absolutely no use for people whatsoever; however, the demand is there mainly because of the traditional belief that it has medicinal value as well as it being status symbol. Over the years the demand has increased mainly from China and Vietnam. As demand rises, the price rises as well. It has become a business, with huge amounts of money involved. More and more money has been offered by crime syndicates to local people to poach rhino horns. Many people are against rhino poaching; they blame the poachers (mostly local people) for engaging in such an activity, but there are always two sides to every story. One of the problems in South Africa is high unemployment. African families are often quite large. With no job, the man of the house usually lives under the pressure of having to feed many mouths. The money from one rhino horn can allow him to feed his family for months. It might even be enough to build a house. These local poachers have never had any interaction with these animals in their whole life. They have no love for these animals; they see it not as a living thing, but as a paycheck. Having no money, living under extremely poor conditions, if picking up a gun to shoot an animal can change everything, why not do so?
South Africa as a whole has been raising the awareness of this situation. More and more anti-poaching units have been popping up over the years. These armed rangers are trained to have the required bush knowledge to guard these animals. The rangers are then split into teams, and they live in the bush for 10-15 days. Then the team switches with the next, rotating all year round. The teams track potential poachers as well as patrol the area with real guns and the kind of equipment used in war, such as drones and helicopters. It very much resembles warfare — both groups have real guns, both risking their lives. Nevertheless, relying on anti-poaching units has its own consequences. Poaching animals has slowly become an industry with a lot of money involved. It has been creating jobs and increasing the flow of money in the economy. Both poachers and anti-poaching units have been making a lot of money. Then there comes the question of corruption. If a ranger were to send a text message with the coordinates of a rhino to a poacher, he could earn a lot of money without directly killing the animal. Though many of people truly see poaching as a serious problem, there are also people who deal with this just as another business. Providing security for game reserves and farms has made many people rich. One brutal truth of poaching: looking at all the money made and the jobs created, do the anti-poaching units truly want the poaching to stop? Many solutions have been suggested, but they all have their own set of consequences. Some people see anti-poaching units as the solution, but as you can see there are ways that it can go equally wrong as well. Scientists have also come forward with ideas: one being the creation of synthetic horns where it would be impossible to tell the difference between the fake and the real ones. The ideal scenario would be to produce large amounts of synthetic horns and flood the market with them, forcing the price to drop, and therefore the demand. But no one can guarantee whether this would cause a decrease in the demand, or even worse, an increase in the demand. African Impact’s approach is quite different. It focuses on an area that has been badly neglected, and that is education. All the demand for rhino horn originates overseas, but the poachers are local. If the local children could be brought to national parks or game reserves to actually see these animals; if the children have a chance to interact with these gentle creatures, understand them, and appreciate them starting from a young age, an impact will be made. In the future, if they are faced with the choice of whether to poach these animals or not, their consciences might force them to say no. Now that you are aware of the seriousness of the problem and its complicated nature, I’d like to pose a question. What would be your solution to the problem? African Impact not only works on conservation and research projects, but also help in the community as well. Two days ago, we helped on an eco-village project at a local public school in Bushbuckridge, a large black municipality. It was an absolutely amazing experience to contribute to a community. The way we helped was to build keyholes (circular vegetable gardens) that belong to the students at the school. Each class look after and maintain their own gardens.
Currently, the government only supports one meal a day (maize porridge and milk) at school, which is definitely not enough for the students’ needs. The eco-village project is a solution of this problem. Here, is where students grow their own food, such as spinach, onions, tomatoes, beetroots, etc. The purpose of this project is to solve the problem of a lack of nutritious food at school. The food the students grow is eaten at lunch-time and is a healthy supplement to their regular diet. Nevertheless, it is also about sustainability. The students will sell extra crops to the community, and the profit goes back to the project. Older students will also teach younger students how to plant seeds and look after the vegetable gardens. In addition, they will be able to apply this technique to their family. The influence of this project has no limitations. It serves as the foundation and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future. We visited the Nyani Cultural Village today for our third weekend trip. First, we were brought to an outdoor stage where singers and dancers entertained us with traditional music from several different tribes: Zulu, Pedi, Venda, Swazi, Tswana and Sotho. Through music and splendid dancing performances, they told us the history and stories of the different tribe. At the end, they even invited all the guests to join their dance on stage! We then visited a traditional Shangaan village. Due to the male-dominated society, the male guests were invited to sit on a log and the female guests were asked to sit on a straw mats to show respect. Here we learnt about the architecture, the agriculture, family duties and the customs of the Shangaan people. We also got a chance to experience some of their traditional customs; such as “ stick fighting” and how to blow a kudo horn. One of our volunteers even got a chance to hold a traditional wedding ceremony and married a local girl! This wonderful trip ended up with a delicious meal that has to be eaten with our bare hands.
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The Africa TeamStudents from BigByte are on an adventure in South Africa, and they're here to share all the marvelous things they've seen. ArchivesCategories |