I arrived at the Naankuse Wildlife Sanctuary in Namibia on 20 December. "Naankuse" in the local bushman language means "God is watching over us". I wish he had been, because surely he wouldn't have put me through this if he was..
Most of the wildlife that I encountered at Naankuse was of the 18-25 year old human kind, which is predominantly a nocturnal animal and seeks regular sustenance on alcohol. In essence, Naankuse - as I experienced it - was like Club 18-30 does ecotourism.
After being one of only three volunteers at the Amakhala Game Reserve in South Africa, it was a shock to find there were 27 volunteers at Naankuse. The whole set up was something of a hot-house environment, with very basic dorm-style accommodation and only one seating area where you ate and socialised. Although the sanctuary was only about 35 minutes drive from Windhoek, it was in a remote location with no easy way to get out. Taxi fares to go anywhere were quite expensive and so even by the end of my first day, I was already beginning to think I would go nuts if I stayed there for four weeks.
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| My room |
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| The accommodation block |
On top of the high number of volunteers, the situation was not helped by a reduced number of staff. Some had gone home for the holidays; some had friends and family visiting and weren't so focused on the job; and there were also some celebrity guests at Naankuse which distracted the attention of the staff - more on that later.
All in all, the feeling was that volunteers were pretty much left to get on with it ourselves. We were split into three groups and one volunteer was appointed as the group leader. Despite their enthusiasm, the group leaders were put in a rather difficult position as they didn't always know what they were doing and even if they did, they didn't necessarily have the people skills to manage such a diverse group of people of different ages, cultures and motivations for being there.
Hey paras 2 and 3 are just awesome! Great writing.
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