This day was my favorite this week, we got to hear from all of the important people in the department who knew what we were learning about and wanted to help us understand the Zoo and how everything works.
We first got a presentation from our Supervisor, and she talked about Zoo vocabulary and how we can use it to understand how the Zoo connects to the real world of conservation. It was a lot about the AZA, the main company or overarching rule-makers who provide information on how to care for your animals properly and how to enrich them and help them breed, etc. It was cool because we got to learn about all the different kinds of enrichment that animals get, whether it be a change in scenery, so a change in how the aquarium looks to the fish, or a cardboard zebra or rhino for the big cats to play with and eat, each of the animals is enriched in some way so they don't get bored. The meerkat tunnels actually are destroyed every so often so they are kept amused by digging different tunnels, and don't turn on each other. They're super funny and cute, but that's beside the point. I really loved learning about all the Zoo does to interest their animals and provide a natural experience for them even though they are in captivity.
The next presentation we got was from the main interpreter at the Zoo. Interpretation is basically making your knowledge available and understood by the public. So helping them understand what conservation is and what they can do to help save all kinds of wildlife across the world and even at the Zoo. She told us about the importance of tailoring your message to the public and making it simple and easy to understand. Plus, fast, because the conservation stations they set up at the Zoo are usually tables where people will stop by for 10-15 seconds at the longest. And you have to keep them interested, especially if you want them to get the message you're trying to send them. So take rhino's for example. I want to tell the public why they are endangered and what you can do to help the rhinos. I can know all I want about the rhino's biology and behavior, but that's not going to get me anywhere with the public. They want to know cute or weird facts about the rhino, and they mostly care about the ones at the Zoo. To get them engaged I'd show them a dagger made of rhino horn and then tell them this is the main reason they are endangered and you can help by donating to international rhino fund, or going to bowling for rhinos! And that's simple, and people understand that. So that's what we're trying to do. Reach kids and adults and tell them about how important these animals are to the ecosystem and how they can be saved.
This presentation was very important to us because we are trying to talk to the public about our animals that we researched and get them to care, and that is part of our project, is talking to the public, which we will do Thursday. So it was important to learn about interpretation and the proper way to address and educate the public about your knowledge and information.
After lunch, we got to talk to Renee, the coolest person I've ever met, with the life I've just begun to dream about. She told us all about Children's Bush Camp in Zimbabwe that is a part of the Painted Dog Conservation project. She told us she got into it because Dr. Greg Rasmussen saw her breeding painted dogs in the best way he'd ever seen and wanted her to bring her techniques to Zimbabwe so she got to learn all about the people involved down there, and then ended up getting the job at the Zoo and keeping contact with PDC. She was so cool, so funny and so unique. I just loved her attitude and her outlook on life and her playful banter. She was, like she said, just a big kid. And I loved it. She was the kind of person I hope to be around the people who hope to be doing the same thing one day.
But anyway, she talked about the Bush Camp. It's this Immersion Camp in the middle of the Bush in Africa, where the National Park is located and where PDC is. So 6th graders from villages all around the national park get to go once a year, and so every year it's a new class. They get to stay there for three nights in their own special huts and be completely in nature. They get to see the painted dog feeding, and play a bunch of games that teach them not only about the painted dog but their role in the ecosystem and the value of the ecosystem to their lives. They become so excited and enthused about it they bring it home to their parents and their parents are even asking for their own Bush Camp. So the camp built a Nature Center where adults can come and learn about it. And all of this experience is completely free, provided to every child once they reach 6th grade. It's so exciting to villages that every time the bus comes to take them to the Camp, the kids run up to the bus with such enthusiasm and vigor it's hard to not be inspired. It's all about education that empowers children to reach their dreams, to love something, to spread joy, to inspire and to love something. It's fantastic, amazing and so inspiring to me. Just hearing about the enthusiasm these children have is heartwarming to me.
The stories about the kindness and gentleness of the villages and the tribes is so inspiring to me and to spreading God's word that I can't imagine how He couldn't be calling me to a life like that. Like this, where joy is seen and love is heard and education is not just about things, but about the thing, the One who gave us all of this earth that we were meant to protect. How could He not want me to experience or be involved in something so fantastic, so amazing, so wonderful and so obviously Him? I can't imagine a better life than spreading the joy of knowing our God to children, and tying it so tightly with loving animals and the earth that they are inseparable. But that's just a little tidbit of my inspiration from this week, I'm sure more is coming before I know it.
So Renee was awesome, she talked to us all about the Camp and the Dogs and it was absolutely fantastic. And she was so happy and goofy that there's no way you couldn't like her. That experience was definitely the best part of my day, and actually of this internship so far. It was amazing and inspiring and I want a life just like the people who run the Camp.
But all I can do is pray. And I will, and I am. I'll pray for what I've always prayed for, joy.
(This blog was written as if it were Tuesday, June 5, 2012)
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