mattbarney

A new job for me to start the week was forestry management which was basically just weeding the new tree garden (dad you would be so proud) the a cub walk and a walk with the 2 D's to end a pretty good day. Tuesday was planning for another school trip this time teaching them about deforestation, of course whilst I was doing this dendi and damara had caught a fully grown adult male buffalo (I always miss the exciting stuff) but it managed to get free but not before they took a few chunks out of him. A few of us played a celeb guess game ( too difficult to describe on here) which was a great laugh especially cause me and Maria won :) Thursday started with BE and Maria and Dom made a ... read more

On Tuesday it was time to visit chobe national park in Botswana, it was nice to have a day off and relax but apart from crocodiles there was nothing there I hadn't already seen ( dam them elusive leapords and cheetah) wednesday started with another client walk and lovewell got Zaria to lick my arm (which felt like wet sandpaper) and she got a bit carried away and nipped my arm :) thurs morning was extremely slow as I was on dembwa research which involves watching the lions do nothing for hours but it was great to finally get in the see the stage 2 site. A fairly quiet cub sit was followed by a dramatic evening in which we were trapped at the white house because of lots of wild elephant hanging around, then somebody ... read more

The 2nd started off with a couple of lion walks then a visit up to dembwa were I saw the dents and damage to hero's enclosure hence why it's had to be reinforced at the base with concrete (and of course he came to charge at us) Tuesday was one of my favourite days ever as I went rafting on the Zambezi with seba, aurelie and 4 others ( I bought the DVD if anyone is interested?) on Wednesday we learnt about the culture and history of Zambia which was very interesting even though some of the ways they do things might seem like there living in the stone age still. After breakfast I had the worst job I've had since being here, cleaning out the meat freezers which were full of donkey blood at the ... read more

The moment I wasn't looking forward to, teaching. We arrived at maunga school and were greeted by a few kids who were just staring at the funny white folks, then when the bell rang about 40 kids came out of nowhere. First task was to help out with watering the plants then the lesson started. We taught them some basic info about north American countries and it wasn't as daunting as I first thought. After some pack up breakfast it was football time and thinking I was helping them out I went on the girls team, 5 mins in I was knackered ( not sure if it was lack of fitness or the heat) and then as I was running for the ball with no one else around me I took a tumble and picked myself ... read more

Now this first session might seem like a waste of time, it's called behaviour enrichment which involves using natural resources to make toys for the cubs/lions which get trashed within minutes. After breakfast it was time for our 2nd training walk with dendi and damara in which you need to show a lot of confidence and probe your more dominant than them. The first part was to approach damara and stroke her head (which is a complete no no unless they know you well) and cover her eyes briefly. The second part was to ankle tap her when she's walking as if to trip her up. The final session was another lion walk but this time I was on hunting data so I was hoping for a kill. At one point dendi climbed a tree about ... read more