We love sharing our tales of lions, elephants and beautiful Betty Baboon. Despite these very tangible reminders that we are in the heart of an African wilderness area, we have not lost sight of the reason we are here! We are in the South Luangwa to support and to volunteer assistance for Chipembele Wildlife Education Trust. Especially, to help celebrate their tenth anniversary of the opening of the Wildlife Education Centre. Education of the local children and young people in conservation and environmental stewardship is their main mission.
The South Luangwa is home to endemic populations of Cookson’s wildebeest, Thronicroft’s giraffe as well as elephant, lion, wild dog, leopard, golden baboon, puku and many other species and important biomes. The Luangwa River is one of the last great un-dammed rivers in all of Africa that still maintains it’s seasonal flows, providing diverse habitats for abundant wildlife. Human encroachment and the attendant human wildlife conflict is a major problem and Chipembele’s Mission is “to teach Zambian children the importance of their wildlife and environment so it may be conserved for present and future generations”.
Our primary purpose here is to organise two events – one, an Open Day at the Chipembele Centre on May 28th, is well on its way. Invitations were sent a few months ago. The organisation of speakers, guests and the Senior Conservation Club quiz are well in hand.
The other event is a Community Event to celebrate both ten years of Chipembele’s conservation education and World Environment Day (WED). To this end we have been visiting the Conservation Clubs (Senior pupils) and Chongololo* Clubs (Primary pupils) at their schools with Rochelle James, the Chipembele Conservation Outreach in Schools Manager - to start talking to the children and young people about the upcoming WED event.
The theme and message for the Event is ‘Hands Up for Conservation!’. We have visited three clubs so far and run 30 minute sessions to involve the Conservation and Chongololo Club members in early preparation for the event.  |
A talk and Q&A session about World Environment Day and exploring the theme is followed by an activity where every child participates by creating a special ‘Hands Up for Conservation’ sign to be used on the walk down the main Mfuwe Road on June 4th. The cards are pre-printed with the words and using different coloured paint for each club – the children or young people place a brightly coloured hand print on the card. “Hands Up for Conservation!”. There are 12 clubs altogether each with about 30 to 40 children so we have our work cut out for us visiting each club and running the activity.
Really encouraging is that in each of the schools visited so far the Head Teacher (Principal) and the Conservation Club Patrons or class teacher have also participated and added their hand print to the message cards to support the activity, the message and the children. Pictured above is the Head Teacher of Chiwawatala Basic School, Mr Zulu encourages his pupils by taking part in the "Hands Up for Conservation" activity at the Conservation and Chongololo Club.
The children and young people have been most responsive and all have agreed to put their hands up for conservation and help carry that message to the wider community.
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| Chiwawatala Basic School |
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| Chiwawatala Basic School |
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| Chiwawatala Basic School |
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| Kawaza Basic School |
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| Mfuwe Basic School on a visit to Chipembele Centre |
In addition, a local tailor prepared a 4 metre ‘banner’ of calico – and a local sign-writer, Paddy Chilwa, is painting the theme message on it to be carried at the front of the walk.
A well-renowned theatre group SEKA Educational Theatre will be performing a play in the heart of the community at the end of the walk for all the participants and others who come along to join in the fun. Local conservation and community based organisations will have displays about their work. A Junior Quiz will take place with one boy and one girl representing each Chongololo Club, they will be assisted by a young man and woman from the Senior Conservation Clubs. The latter selected by their Club Patron and peers, their role on the day is to assist the younger children in the Quiz, to be mentors and encouragers of environmental stewardship with the younger kids.
Chipembele …Giving children hope and wildlife a chance…
Getting Fuel On Tuesday morning we left Chipembele early so we could stop to fill up the Landy with fuel. The sole petrol station in Mfuwe had been out of diesel for weeks. Ordered before Easter – the truck finally arrived Monday afternoon, we were informed Diesel would be available from 7.30 am. We left Chipembele early as we had a 9.00 am appointment with the Conservation Club at a far flung village school – Kawaza Basic School. Arriving at the Petrol Station at 7.30 – we were second in line at the pump. However, this being Africa – the tanker had only just started to unload. An hour-by-hour update to Rochelle – saw the Kawaza meeting re-arranged three times! By the time the fuel was unloaded there were 15 or so vehicles lined up, many with 44 gallon drums, or multiple jerry cans waiting to be filled on the back, we were told the diesel supply would last only two days and then there would be more weeks of no fuel at the only BP! Finally fuelled up at 10.30 – we travelled the 15 km’s to Kawaza, crossing two rivers and taking the vehicle-width track twisting and turning through fields of elephant grass and food crops… arriving at the school at 11.30!
Wildlife Fix for Wildlife Junkies…
You know you are NOT in a city anymore when there are no traffic lights, you are crossing dry rivers and gullies and red billed hornbills swoop across the track in front of you.
Getting to ‘work’ is an adventure, a bit different than suburban Adelaide (South Australia) where the most exciting thing you see on the way to work might be a moggie sitting on a fence post. We started our day on Monday morning watching a lioness walk across the open area opposite our Bush House while having our first coffee!
Driving to Mfuwe at 7.00 am – we turned out of Chipembele towards town and onto the 16km rutted and gullied track. We wished a sedate young bull elephant good morning. A bachelor group of impala, in their usual high-jinx first thing – were chasing each other backwards and forwards across the road a few kilometres on (They were still chasing one another 7 hours later on our return!). Then the troop of about 30 Golden baboons from the local troop, the big male, many females, adolescents and babies crossed in front of us. Sweet!
Squirrels darted from the safety of the side of the road across in front of us, to run up a tree on the opposite side… begging the question… “Why did the squirrel cross the road?”.
A small family group of elephant browsed peaceably near a cut-away, the youngest member of the family was about 5 months old. A big crocodile sat sunning herself on the Dambo bank on the way to and from town, seemingly not having moved or closed her jaws all day – perhaps she was passively waiting for some tasty antelope to fall in to her gaping maw!
Waves and love from the beautiful Luangwa
Jude and Kaye
PS: At sundowners Tuesday night a sole elephant came to drink at the river, silhouetted against a pink blush sky. Wednesday, a rare sighting of a group of 5 Spoon Bills fished in the shallows while the lilac and blue streaked sky darkened to indigo. Magic!
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