In exactly one month I will leave the bush. It feels like I have been here forever… the many new impressions and the challenging & rewarding work has made the time go so fast and so slow at the same time.
I am now at my penultimate lodge – Sasakwa Lodge – this is the largest lodge of the portfolio here in Tanzania and I will for the first time not be living in guest accommodation. Instead I am in the nearby staff village which houses all the managers/senior staff as well as all the game drive guides and the staff from the Grumeti Fund (will talk about that organisation at a different time).
At this staff village there is a restaurant and a bar to socialise, and although I have missed a social setting from time to time, it is of course the same people as you work with so still not really a place to be ‘free’… but it is certainly an advantage to be able to buy a bottle of wine to drink with the rather dull report-writing duties.
I will stay here for the remainder of the time except when I do re-visits to a couple of the other camps later this month / early April.
I am also in the process of designing the final workshop with the 10 participants for the 4-5 April, but before then I have been asked to do a workshop with the lodge managers on how they can now support these middle managers with their PDPs and development in general when I am not here. Even though this was not in the original scope, I am very proud to be asked, so will work hard to fit it in to my schedule and do a great job of it.
Quick health check – haven’t done one of those for a while:
– Daily mosquito bites (argh!) – itch, itch, itch
– Seeing the beginnings of a cold – sniffle & sneeze
– Missing my cod liver oil & calcium tablets (stolen!), so the arthritis in my fingers is playing up a bit
– Fatigue (too many consecutive days of work)
Am otherwise feeling good! The pleasure I get from the work is by far outweighing the little issues along the way. But next time (if there is one), I will certainly make sure that I build in some rest days on a regular basis!
But when I can jump on a quick game drive to enjoy the nature here, everything else is forgotten… pics below are from this past weekend, when I was lucky enough to do so! Even though it was incredible and wonderful, it was also a little sad.
The hyena den was so cool – this poor mama had NINE babies of different ages – hope she was babysitting some of them otherwise she has been very busy! And who knew that hyena babies were so cute!
But here’s the sad part… The even cuter baby lion you see in the pictures is very unlikely to survive… ☹ None of the females in that pride was its mother, so unless the mother will be back to find it (if she is not dead of course), it will most likely die very soon… and even though that is the way things are here – ‘circle of life’ and all that jazz – it is still super sad. I just wanted to jump out of the car and take it home!
Have a wonderful week everyone! Missing you all and love hearing from you!
BETINA IN AFRICA 