19.05.07 Looking back...

I've been in Vilanculos for a few days now. Zimbabwe and the lions seem far away and I've just had a look at the pics on my blog to remind myself about lion love. It really was an amazing privilege to be involved with these fantastic animals. Don't be too deceived by the fact that you see pics that are up close and personal. There is a handler nearby, probably behind the picture taker, distracting the lion from a friendly chew of a stray limb. They were used to people, but in no way tame.

The days at AP were rhythmic and structured. I got up at 6am for the first lion walk at 6.30. It could have been any one of 5 sets of cubs - from the 3 month olds, to the 1 year olds. You get back from the morning walk at 8ish, breakfast was 8.30 and then the morning work session started at 9.30. In that session you could be cub sitting the 3 and 4 month olds, playing and feeding them, or enclosure cleaning the walking and hunting cubs or the big grown ups at the breeding programme, or painting poles, walking in the bush doing a snare sweep or a boundary patrol. There were things I liked better than others, but I was reasonably mellow about doing everything. The morning session ended at 12.30, lunch was at 1, and then the afternoon session started at 2.15. You would do similar things to the morning session. Afternoon cub walks were at 4 to 5.30, brought forward as it started getting to dark to be out with cubs until 6. Not much changed this except torrential rain and thunderstorms, which there was for a couple of unseasonal weeks in April.

Sometimes you got to do other things, such as an orphanage visit, or the SCUD day (social and cultural understanding), or play games, or, on a v rare occasion, do a cub sit with the bigger walking cubs, which everyone loved.

I didn't really enjoy camp life - it was like a holiday camp in the bush, except you were stuck there, and communication was a rip off. Strangely, on the one hand it was all too comfortable with too much food and facilities (which I found particularly difficult in Zim) and on the other hand, it was not really run as a place where people came to enjoy themselves. The management style is perhaps a peculiar combination of white Zim culture (bullying, intimidation, threatening) and lip service (at least) to animal welfare and conservation ideals. The lions are not at all mistreated, in fact they are mostly pampered and spoilt, and I did support the aims of the project, but the evangelical zeal that those working there had about the programme reminded me slightly of cult indoctrination. If it works I'll be as happy as anyone, but I'm not sure about some aspects of the current programme - such as all the lions are that are at the breeding programme, some of whom are in small enclosures, and the fact that no effort is made to ensure that the vols behaviour with the cubs is as it should be (which is very important to the cubs' likely length of walking life vs time stuck in an enclosure). Some of the cubs' enclosures were far too small and stank of pee. And despite being lectured by someone who knows less about horses than I do on the life and times of the African tick, I wasn't convinced that the horses were properly cared for (due to lack of funds, not at all from want of trying from those who worked at the stables). There were several others there who shared these concerns but there was not an atmosphere where you could raise concerns and be listened to so few tried.

As for the way the staff were treated, well, I could go on for a long time! I wrote in a previous entry that the $8per hour of the internet was half a monthly salary of a lion handler, but by the time i left it was probably more than the monthly salary. I don't expect it is much different across Zim, and for all I know AP could be a model employer, but I seriously doubt it. It just seems to me that to treat people in the way that they are treated at AP completely undermines the aims that are espoused at the Livingstone project. Most staff members had to walk hours to work. Some got transport from town, sometimes there was transport to/from the main gate (4km from camp) but for most neither of these options was available. Very few staff members were allowed to eat with the vols and clients. It is a nonsense - we spend all day with the lion handlers and then they have to go and eat sadza (the local name for the African staple maize mush) and beans in a courtyard and are not allowed to sit in the dining area. The vols had to let clients go in front of them in the food queue so every meal time we would have ridiculous conversations telling people to go in front of us, they wouldn't want to do so, and some interfering busy body project manager would bawl over for the vols to let the clients go in front. it was all so embarrassing and boarding-school-esque. maybe that's where the managers get it from. They were not exactly Mr and Mrs Compassion.

I think that the man who started this lion project is an inspirational person who clearly has a vision for African conservation. But as ever, it comes down to implementation, and from the perspective of a volunteer, it is, at the moment, not a great experience if you do not numb your brain with large quantities of alcohol every night. Apparently there used to be many fewer vols, but as the penny dropped about how much people would pay to come and work with lions, the capacity increased dramatically. There were far too many vols there. Ten people on a vol lion walk is a pointless experience and often is disruptive to the lions behaviour. Sometimes you got the feeling they were looking for things for people to do, especially if the paint for pole-painting ran out. Generally, the vols experience there is about making money for the project. I did overhear the owner telling his accountant that vols were an integral part of the project as he walked round the new 26 vol capacity accommodation block. Yes of course we are. We pay GPB 2 - 3K a month!

There was also a real drinking culture, supported in no small measure by the volunteer project managers who often buy the alcohol for the vols, but then are supposed to discipline them when the drinking gets out of hand. Needless to say, as they were participating in the drinking, it didn't happen like that. While I was there 3 vols were kicked out for drink related "offences". For 2, it was a blatant over-reaction to a silly prank, with the camp managers using a previous instance relating to staff discipline to claim "equality" of treatment between blacks and whites. If you read this - it was about equal treatment of staff, not equal treatment of staff and vols. Their wilful and malicious misinterpretation of the principle was probably a deliberate kick in the teeth to the vols who had recently complained about unequal treatment between 2 staff members, and unfortunately 2 nice young lads suffered for it. The other lad that was kicked out was a rather silly American boy who didn't know how to handle his drink, but rather than try to nip the problem in the bud, booze was regularly bought for him, the culture encouraged until it all got out of hand.

There is loads more I could add but I've probably raised many of the issues previously. I learned that the only way I could enjoy the lion experience was to switch off from the rest of it while I was with the lions - to compartmentalise the parts of the experience that I loved, but not, definitely not to ignore the rest. I think this only clicked with me in the second month I was there, so maybe it was a good thing that I stayed for 8 weeks. I did have some fantastic times with the cubs, and I never got over the feeling of wonder that I had about playing with a lion cub. The 3Ms and 3ACs were my favourites, although having favourites is a bit random really.

As always, leaving was awful. I thought I wouldn't be sentimental about leaving the lions but it is like reading some chapters in a book, and then having to leave it behind and not know the ending. Of course the worst part was saying goodbye to the special friends I made there and the thought of not seeing some of these people again is not something I can accept. I have promised to go back and see them before I leave Africa. I think my journey home is going to be a crazy zigzag across southern Africa! If my new Mozambique phone would work I should be able to be in contact, but this is Africa, and nothing goes as planned.

Anyway, that's enough for the moment. I have now moved on, and there are new experiences to be had. I'll update you on life in Vilanculos next week.

Stay well everyone.