Katima, Namibia

Greetings Everyone:

I'm temporarily moving my office to Katima, Namibia today. Greenwell, my colleague, has been up in the Northeast setting wildlife hunting quotas in the conservancies based on all the recent game count data collected by the government and various other groups.

To get everyone geographically situated here is a zoomed in section of Namibia of where I'll be:



Source: http://www.orusovo.com/nammap/images/caprivi.JPG

The Caprivi strip is known to be one of the worst HIV infected areas in the world. I've heard figures stating 43% of this region is HIV positive and its actually been decreasing recently. That sounds like good news, but its only decreasing because people are dying from this horrible sickness.

Malaria is also a problem and I'm most likely going to start taking my pills to prevent this disease while always wearing long sleeve shirts. My pills make me sunburn so I've been neglecting to take them in warm sunny Namibia. And there are "elephants on every corner" and lots of "smelly water buffalo" along with crocs! eeekk!!!

I honestly believe you can't work in conservation in Namibia without addressing HIV and malaria too, so this will no doubt be an eye opening experience for me. The same applies for the Northern Great Plains when you consider the reservations and the diabetes and other health problems that are rampant.

A very powerful speaker and strong community leader, Janet Matota of IRDNC-Caprivi, presented to a Windhoek group a couple of months back about the current HIV situation and the work of conservancies and craft sales improving lives in the area. I have some great HD video of her speech, but again I'll have to post it when I return to the states. Speaking of internet...

There is no telling how much access I'll have to internet up there to update people through twitter and such, but no worries if I don't post early next week. I'm just working hard and seeing another amazing part of Namibia 8D in case you're worried!

Back to the truck situation... I don't know what happened, but the truck Green drove up broke down and he needs another one to drive around to the conservancies and set quotas. So, I was elected by the office to drive him a new truck and I'll fly back to Windhoek on the 29th of this month. Flights only leave this area every Monday and Friday.

I'm hoping to travel around some with Greenwell and learn more about the quota process and just see the conservancies up there, while crunching away on the commercial conservancy data I helped collect. Seeing is believing with how Namibia's conservancy system works. Dave Ward, from IRDNC, told me to take a nice weekend trip to Victoria Falls in Botswana and that means I can travel through Zimbabwe and Zambia in the process.

I'll also be able to see my friend Erica, who is also from the states, and is heading up the WWF Zambia office right now. It will be really nice to see her again and catch up.

Also, there is a secret I'm keeping and when I return on the 29th, the next morning I'm leaving with my colleague Helge to the NW communal conservancies in Damaraland [where my Namibia heart rests] to work on a special project request I REALLY hope works out so I can tell the blogger world more.

My travel and life experiences are sure tallying up quickly!

I need to go pack and hit the road!

Be well!

Cheers,

Aaron