This is my story............in a nutshell
As a child I was always involved in Nature Activities, there was not a single camping trip at school that I did not go on, my love for Nature, Animals and survival skills was prominent from the start, from trying to hatch bird eggs kicked out of nests to saving striped field mice from a building site and releasing them in a nearby field, to chameleons, meerkats and even a black-backed jackal that was rescued from a burrow that farmers was smoking out to get rid of them. Don't get me wrong, these animals were all free, never caged and free to go when they were strong enough as most of them did, except the eggs of course, I was never quite successful in hatching these, however the imaginative hopeful mind of a child didn't stop me from trying...
I completed school in 2000, at this time my dream was to become a nurse, I think this was the answer I gave the day I entered school and was asked "what do you want to be when you grow up" however even though I cannot complain about my childhood the opportunities was limited and I had to get on my feet and get a job. After numerous years in Cape Town working in and later managing a restaurant and night club I decided to follow the masses to London, arrival in London was tough coming from Africa, my first job was via a recruitment agent as an office hand, this was only temporary and the pay was low, I could not afford buying warm clothes and my Mr.Price jacket and gloves had to do, I remember walking home crying that day, I have never been so cold! My next job via this same agency was for the Amazon warehouse, I was a picker and we had a limit of 120 items to be picked for shipping at a time, you don't make this limit you lose your contract, needless to say I was skin and bone and don't think I will ever be as fit again, considering my staple food was 2 minute noodles I had from a teapot as the Motel had no crockery besides the teapot and mug in the room. Then my third and final job in London also via this recruitment agency was for a multi million dollar company in Westminster in the heart of London, I started as a receptionist and worked my way up to finance administration, I stayed with this company for two years and was offered the opportunity to go study accounting but decided to return to South Africa instead, Africa was calling and I was going to answer...
Upon my return to South Africa I started exploring opportunities in Nature Conservation, funds was limited and after all I had to work so staying at a campus and paying for a degree was not an option, I did however find a Nature College with short courses in guiding and decided to try it out. My first day in class I knew, this was it, this was my calling, I soaked up every word, put my heart into it and was so exited I have found a career that was going to be me, working with people and animals - two things I've always wanted to do.
I completed my course and decided to start short walking tours on a guest farm my parents were managing, offer a game potjie (traditional African Stew) and was set on making a life for myself as a guide and nature lover, I even had my 1972 VW Beetle branded with my new company logo, I was so sure of my business getting going until I had guests book in one night whilst I was taking care of the guest farm for my parents whilst they were away. The guests were Harley Davidson riders on their way back from a rally, one of the riders got of his bike, took his helmet off, gave me one look and life changed in a flash.....
This was 27 September 2008, 6 weeks later we got engaged, January 2009 I moved to Namibia to my fiancee, Ian Smith, on the 25th of April 2009 we got married on the very farm we met, walking into the reception to the roar of Harley's and my life was complete and rewritten.
However being the driven person that I am I was certainly not going to sit at home and do nothing, there was a whole new country to explore, I immediately found a lodge that employed me as a guide however this was in a dangerous game area and I had to complete my rifle training. By Tuesday I started complaining about my neck feeling like it's gone into spasm, by Thursday I was home with Ian, by Monday I had an emergency operation that cost my guiding career, the .458 rifle broke and shifted a vertebrae in my neck and I would never carry again. Later on we discovered this might have been a previous injury, no need for the detail, the fact was my dream as a guide passed and I just started, gutted and disappointed and heartbroken cannot explain what it felt like to see you dream disapear in a matter of days. But hey I've eaten 2 minute noodles from a tea pot ... I was certainly not giving up!
The new dream.....
If I cannot guide I was going to educate in guiding, lectures I can do, I'll leave the practicals to the big boys that can play with big guns without landing in the ER. The next four years up until today has been four grueling years of market research, endless workshops, networking, meetings, getting a qualification in place for field guides in Namibia (Namibia only had a Tour Guide Qualification - quite different from what your lodge guides does) and lots and lots of prayer. Next up was finding a site for our training, with a business partner with strong connections in the Zambezi Region (previously known as the Caprivi), an abandant lodge, the local Chief and Conservancy's permission we found the perfect spot for our training, Matota Island Lodge, the infrastructure already there it just needs some final touches. Now remember there is limited funds, we are doing all this via my husbands company on loan accounts and trust me setting up a school like this is not cheap....needless to say, we need funds...and lots of it...
So this is where we are right now. We have an amazing site, by the Grace of God we have had enough funds to complete it, buy 2 vehicles and a boat and every time we think we have run out of funds we get a breakthrough, from sponsorship from the British High Commission for our trainer training to good financial months in our existing company that enabled African Monarch to push forward and survive another month. We are now at the stage where we started advertising courses, however training is not cheap and even though the requests are flooding in it seems our next challenge is to find bursaries for our students. In and across most of Africa members of the local rural communities have incredible knowledge of the fauna & flora in their areas all they need is training in how to deal with the public, carry forward their knowledge and the working environment of a guide and this will enable them to find employment in an area they know so well, living and working in nature, I also strongly believe that we can reduce human animal conflict via our training, education is the key.
Tomorrow is another day, we are taking the vehicles up to our site, this is an exiting event, renovations has been going on for 3 months and I cannot wait to see Matota, I will blog as we go and take lots of pictures.... so if you want to follow the African Monarch Journey, well, watch this space!
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