Adventure is out there.

I will still give you your post about daily life and what all is going on here that I promised, but first I have to tell you – I am in love. Love at first sight has a way of taking you off guard. You know it right away that it’s love, and it is so sudden that it takes a bit to really sink in, but then every night you find yourself falling in love all over again and you realize that this is it. This is the piece that has been missing. I had to travel halfway across the world for it.

I have lived in a decent number of places in the US – Maryland, West Virginia, Texas, North Dakota, Missouri, and Pennsylvania. And each place had its charm. Maryland with its rolling hills and farmlands, West Virginia with its mountains, North Dakota with it fast open prairies, and even Pittsburgh with its tall buildings and beautiful steel bridges. But none of those can even compare.

I am in love with Africa. I know that this is where I belong, my heart is happy here. Just driving around you see gemsbok, kudu, and warthogs all the time and then every few days you see giraffes and ostriches. Tonight we were less than an hour behind a rhino. We followed his tracks, but the big chubby unicorn managed to just keep out of sight. Every night the jackals sing me to sleep and every morning the yellow-billed hornbills come over to see if I have any scraps of breakfast to share with them. You cannot even begin to count the stars at night as they cluster together as the Milky Way crosses the sky. There has not been a single night that I haven’t seen multiple shoot stars cascading down to earth. Even as I am sitting on my front porch writing this I am joined by two duikers who hang out every evening with me.

This place is magical. I have loved all the places I have lived, and home will always be with my family back in Maryland. But this place… this is it. It’s such an incredible feeling that I have in my heart. And I wish I could truly put to words what this place is, but I don’t think you can fully understand until you have felt it too. My heart belongs to Africa.

Photos in this post stolen from Tamara Schenekar

Well I had a running blog entry up on my computer describing my first few days at CCF, but that seems to have ran away to never never land. It looks like I have to start over again. Bummer. Well instead of all the fun details you are going to get a recap of my first week and half.  Johannesburg Airport was a huge disappointment after spending 12 hours at Heathrow. It’s a very shabby and super-duper confusing airport, but I made my way through and out and landed in Namibia! I met up with a research student from Brazil, Samara (Sam), at the Windhoek Airport and we shared a cab ride (driven by Cappe, the standard CCF cab driver) the 4 hour trek to CCF which is just outside (40 min drive) of Otjiwarongo. We arrived around 1800 and were instructed on where we could put our things. They set us up in one of the dorm rooms. Being staff I later received my own house, but the first weekend I shared a dorm room with Sam and Ana, another Brazilian intern. Dinner is at 1830 at the “Hot Spot” which is a pavilion of picnic tables and a conjoined kitchen and serving room where we eat all our meals buffet style. This is where we met our new family. Everyone was super welcoming and very nice, even when randomly prompted to “tell me an African story,” one of the guys, Nick, jumped right to the task and told a funny story about how zebra got his stripes and why baboon’s bum is so red.

The next few days were a whirlwind of trying to figure out where exactly I fit in to everything and what my actual job description is going to be. After some back and forth with Dr. Laurie Marker (CCF Director) we have decided my title is Assistant Operations Manager and Intern/Volunteer Supervisor. Woot, sounds like a big task and I am definitely up to the challenge! There is a huge staff turnover going on right now. Eli and Kate have been CCF superstars and have worked here for 3 years and both have left this week to go back to school to earn their Masters at universities in the UK, then the current intern supervisor, Karin also was leaving. So the breakdown of most of the Namibia staff is (so you can refer to this when I just throw out names) and also where they’re from:

• Laurie Marker, DPhil (USA) – Founder and Executive Director
• Bruce Brewer, PhD (USA) – General Manager
• Tess Robitschko (Germany) – Personal Assistant to the Director
• Bart Bali (France) – Research Assistant – I haven’t met him yet, he’s currently on vacation
• Tarik Bodasing (South Africa) – Ecologist
• Stephanie Bradley (USA) – Education Manager (Married to Bobby)
• Bobby Bradley (USA) – IT consultant (Married to Stephanie)
• Emma Alfonso, DVM (Australia) – Research Veterinarian
• Ashley Flaig (USA) – Cheetah Keeper
• Mike Gardiner (UK) – Tourism Manager (married to Louisa)
• Becky Johnston (Canada) – Research Assistant
• Tamara Schenker (Austria), PhD – Genetics Technician
• Louisa Richmond-Coggan, PhD (UK) – Ecology Manager (Married to Mike)
• Paige Seitz (USA) – Livestock Guarding Dog Manager
• Richard Sirrika (Namibia) – Development Technician
• Tyapa Toivo (Namibia)– Small Stock Supervisor
• Hanlie Visser (Germany) – Hospitality Manager
• Paul Visser (Germany) – Estate Manager
• Kaetlyn Weidum (USA) – Research Assistant

And of course the short term-ers (research students, interns, and volunteers) that I adore so much and am sad they’re only here for a short time:

• Samara (Sam) from Brazil
• Nick from London
• Ana from Brazil
• Bogdan from Romania
• Sheridan from the USA

Okay so I am going to wrap this up now so I don’t lose it and you have at least somewhat of an entry (also, my lunch hour is coming to an end and I need to get back to work). I will write up more and finish my week’s recap for you after dinner tonight and come back and add photos to this entry too! I haven’t had a day off since landing in Namibia, so that’s my excuse for not updating yall yet, but I will get back to you soon.

Tootles!

Well, hello there. I am currently sitting at Heathrow Airport in London. I have found a seat next to an outlet, with optimal people watching opportunities, next to a coffee shop, and near a restaurant called Giraffe. There is a good chance I am not giving this spot up for at least a couple of hours.

Now I have been debating doing another long update post of the past year in review, but then I decided “nope, not this time.” This is a new chapter for me, so why spend time focusing on what has happened in the past when so much is happening right here, right now. Well not exactly right here and now, the airport isn’t exactly the most “happening” place, but that’s not a bad thing as far as airports go.

So why am I at an airport in London you might ask? Actually, chances are you didn’t just stumble on this blog by mistake, you probably are related to me or are at least a good enough friend of mine that you are interested in reading this blog. So, I am sure you already know, but just in case you don’t – I am on my way to Namibia (that’s in Africa) to work with Dr. Laurie Marker (world renown cheetah expert) at the Cheetah Conservation Fund!! This is truly a dream come true for me. When I was little I use to watch every single episode of Big Cat Diary and just imagine working in Africa studying big cats one day. I never really expected it would happen, but I also never gave up on my dream and voila – here I am on my way to Africa to study big cats. Boom! Dreams do come true, even the crazy ones.

Over the past few days everyone keeps asking me how do I feel? Am I nervous? Honestly? Nope! The only thing that worries me is making sure all my luggage makes it to its destination! I cannot wait to be in Africa tomorrow. Wow. I am going to be in Africa TOMORROW! I am halfway there and it still doesn’t feel real. I have no idea what to expect when I get to the CCF, maybe having no expectations is best, I am just along for the ride! But I have been ordered by my Aunt Sandy to “do epic shit” and that is exactly what I plan on doing. I would love to utilize this opportunity to the max, and somehow over the next few years work towards and earn my PhD – cause that had always been another goal of mine, and I feel if one dream goal is coming true, then why not two?

Back to my current situation – apparently being next to a coffee shop when you have a coffee addition like mine isn’t the greatest idea because an excess amount of coffee means I am going to have to pee sooner than later which requires forfeiting my people watching and laptop charging seat. Well shit, I did not think that one through.

Plus, back to this restaurant called Giraffe, since I was a giraffe keeper for the past year, I kinda feel obligated to eat there. So I am going to adios, find a bathroom, grab some lunch then surly have to search for a new seat for my base of operations – so until my next WiFi encounter, friends!