Almost 5 years to the day since I set foot in Mozambique and in that time I have climbed my own inselberg. But the last ascent has had its own nokes and crannies.
Letting my house for two months involved processing piles of life clutter that seemed to replicate like cockroaches just as I had exterminated one another family scurried into view. I held a community fundraising event 3 days before vacating my house. Which at times felt like a self made mountain. But it truly illuminated the value of communities and all my closest friends and neighbours baked, helped, gave in support of mareja. Nick Cope, the fantastic children's singer, was the highlight with little people voting with their feet for him and for elephants. The event over and more piles redistributed and somehow the house cleansed and made less lived in. We leave and say goodbye to our home for 2 months and L leaves school, nursery, friends and his beloved toys (neatly in boxes)....quite a thing for a just 4 year old,
Then we make a QUICK stop in Germany enroute for a lovely family party. The day we actually leave and struggle out of the house with 3 large suitcases, 2 small and 2 backpacks, D started to feel unwell. My refusal to fly from stansted saw us hit the rail network via St pancreas via Brussels via cologne and two taxis. Perhaps this didn't help his condition. He had brought malaria with him from his recent return from Moz. But that was only the tip of that development. The standard medication recommended by my doctor, based on the miracle plant Artemesian, turned out not to work, then a German doctor recommended malarone...a whole 6 weeks later we arrived in Nairobi and a friend very cleverly spotted Ds reduced manner and frame and insisted he see the revered specialist Dr Saio. He uncovered a stubborn and persistent case of the life treathening illness and we learned a lot about the latest recommended treatment. P. Falcipricum is partially resistant to coartem the plant based cure and Ds missing spleen didn't help fight those weasley parasites. He was given a double dose of synthetic Artemesian and malarone and it worked. Big relief. (Though the patient carried on peppering medication with beers, hard to imagine what he was thinking but of course malaria does make you go a bit wacko.)
Anyway the mountain was nearly over having arrived in Kenya. We only had a visa to sort. They have changed the mozambiquain rules and you now have to obtain them outside the country. This particular mountain, the visa mountain, may make you want to jump... So in brief 3 visits to the embassy, $215 and 13 days later we get the visas. However the delay was filled with extraordinary sights... Zebras at breakfast, Lamu green turtle hatching and its old city coral walls, giraffes against the horizon. And Laurie learned the delights of hotel service and one morning slipped out to order 3 waffles and a hot chocolate!
So yesterday we arrived in Pemba 5 years after my last trip before I became pregnant. And much had kept me away... With my new head and heart as a mother and sensitised perspective on risk....the need for working vehicles, the lack of medical care, the intense Poaching crisis, isolation, new dengue fever out break, hotspot for malaria, Laurie's penicillin allergy...
It's familiarity was very welcoming, the stale sweet smells and bright glare of the Indian ocean. Dust, fumes and familiar faces. All strangely comforting But also the stark changes of development such as scattering of many windowed concrete facades fuelled by the gas find and nearly all stopped in their tracks by the project being halted. A town hoping for change but rather like a butterfly with only half a wing emerging from the dried crysalis.
But this is only the beginning tomorrow we head to mareja.
Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Tuesday, 12 July 2016
Laurie was hit on the nose by a baby elephant
...he really was! We were at David Sheldricks fantastic elephant orphanage in Nairobi for the hour display, when the babies are given their morning bottle and brought into a wallow. Laurie put his hand under the wire to grab a piece of foliage that they were being fed and the little snouted big eared gambling youngsters wandered around with many keepers very calm and tame. When they occasionally came close enough we could stroke their funny dry leathery skin and L found his moment to offer up his twig to one. In fact this young male was eating a nice Handful of grass but L kept offering him his prize twig. Then the young male suddenly looked at L and swung his small trunk up and bopped him on the nose. The shock was great and L cried loudly. The collective very large audience weren't quite sure what to do. But a young female Ellie did...she marched over and took Laurie's twig from his hand.. He was delighted and encouraged enough to stop crying. And I have chosen her as my adopted elephant!
Thursday, 23 June 2016
2 moments and narrowly escape prison
The first was at Frankfurt airport when at the security check a uniformed man steps forward, says something and escorts D to one side...Laurie and I have already spied a play area and are on the front foot when I catch sight of the uniform out of the corner of my eye. I double back leaving L exploring a space ship....'What is it?' I ask in a special trying to sound level voice. 'Oh my bag has tested positive for explosives.' We all stay calm, despite being late for our plane as usual. Other uniformed types gather...until finally we unearth a branding tool his mother had popped in his bag as a present for someone at Mareja. (It is for branding belongings not people by the way.)
The second moment was at Nairobi airport. Again Laurie and I were hurtling towards our taxi driver who was holding out one of those wonderful signs with your name emblazoned, that make you feel on top of life/welcomed/generally loved. And D is dawdling having taken his shoes off and enjoying a post flight fag. Then again I see the tell tale twinkle of uniform, this time a policewoman holding D quite aggressively by the arm. It turned out he was smoking in a no smoking area...outside the airport entrance but apparently marked. He was not having any of it and went in with heavy sarcasm...which turned out not to be a good idea. I go up with a large smile and try to defuse the situation and to assure her he is not a no-shoed vagrant!
The winged words float load and clear. "I am arresting your husband." After much bobbing on my part I mention that I will pay a fine. It doesn't seem to register then our taxi driver gets involved and says I must give her the money very subtly. Eventually after much complaining about D's attitude I hand over a bunch of KES.
Not the best start to our travels. But at least there wasn't yet another detour...via prison.
The second moment was at Nairobi airport. Again Laurie and I were hurtling towards our taxi driver who was holding out one of those wonderful signs with your name emblazoned, that make you feel on top of life/welcomed/generally loved. And D is dawdling having taken his shoes off and enjoying a post flight fag. Then again I see the tell tale twinkle of uniform, this time a policewoman holding D quite aggressively by the arm. It turned out he was smoking in a no smoking area...outside the airport entrance but apparently marked. He was not having any of it and went in with heavy sarcasm...which turned out not to be a good idea. I go up with a large smile and try to defuse the situation and to assure her he is not a no-shoed vagrant!
The winged words float load and clear. "I am arresting your husband." After much bobbing on my part I mention that I will pay a fine. It doesn't seem to register then our taxi driver gets involved and says I must give her the money very subtly. Eventually after much complaining about D's attitude I hand over a bunch of KES.
Not the best start to our travels. But at least there wasn't yet another detour...via prison.
Friday, 27 May 2016
Our first community fund-raising event went with a song and a jig thanks to the wonderful Nick Cope
It really felt as though my community in west oxford, far, far from the damp forest of Northern Mozambique and the onslaught of elephant poaching, made a bridge and reached out to Mareja and its community.
There was a delicious and burgeoning home made cake store run by Joyce, Annabel led adult and children animal yoga, Kelly provided a creative elephant mask making session with lots of sparkle, Maureen and Aylse sold high-end second-hand items, Dominik organised 'pin the tail on the elephant', Donate sold our new t-shirts and then the star of the event Nick Cope appeared.
Nick performed for us in aid of our work, a hugely generous and wonderful act. He is rather like a pied piper and suddenly children appeared followed by their parents. Soon the hall was humming and children jigging and singing along...what colour is your t-shirt?, did-dig-dig like a mole, applause for the dinosaurs!
We made a clear profit of £700 and all money raised goes directly to our anti-poaching work, with no overheads. The current priorities are to buy new long-range radios, new boots for the 4 new rangers, night-vision goggles.
An enormous thank you to all who helped and came along. I hope to hold another event in early December.
There was a delicious and burgeoning home made cake store run by Joyce, Annabel led adult and children animal yoga, Kelly provided a creative elephant mask making session with lots of sparkle, Maureen and Aylse sold high-end second-hand items, Dominik organised 'pin the tail on the elephant', Donate sold our new t-shirts and then the star of the event Nick Cope appeared.
Nick performed for us in aid of our work, a hugely generous and wonderful act. He is rather like a pied piper and suddenly children appeared followed by their parents. Soon the hall was humming and children jigging and singing along...what colour is your t-shirt?, did-dig-dig like a mole, applause for the dinosaurs!
We made a clear profit of £700 and all money raised goes directly to our anti-poaching work, with no overheads. The current priorities are to buy new long-range radios, new boots for the 4 new rangers, night-vision goggles.
An enormous thank you to all who helped and came along. I hope to hold another event in early December.
Thursday, 26 December 2013
Dominik's account of Christmas eve 2012 and reflections on the struggle
I thought I would post Dominik's account of last Christmas eve - this year he was away from the reserve and consumed by worry and a sense of defeat...
After a month of relative quiet and the capture of some big-time poachers (and their immediate release without prosecution) we are in the line of fire again.
Christmas Eve 2012, 16:00 hours, and I am sitting on the steps of the old house, overlooking the magnificent coastal forest in the clear afternoon light below. While I was out with the Elders and Chiefton to clean the graves and pray for rain and peace, the killers were already zeroing in on their pray......
For over 16 yrs we have now been in the hard knuckle business of community conservation against overwhelming odds. Taking on the timber giants of the day in the late 90’s, the ever more prominent snaring fraternity throughout, fighting bush fires and banditary. From 2004 to 2008 an almost impossible struggle against Chinese logging of a scale unknown before.
The first ever fine to be paid since the creation of the park for illegal logging was a truck captured by us and followed by several more (released without a fine). Seeing community relations plummet and agitation and defamation soar through our success. Being hailed and damned, shunned and consulted. All this has passed but now, in this time of drought we face our biggest challenge yet, the unopposed slaughter of our elephants by all means under the sun but predominantly by the use of automatic weapons of war. Facing the same mafia as before only now their agents are armed with machine guns not chainsaws and use helicopters not trucks.
Someone told me that wildlife crime is now bigger then trade in illegal arms and right up there with drugs and human trafficking.
As the blood moon rises into the afternoon sky and we finish at the graves the poachers are getting into position to open fire regardless of their target. The wounding or killing of a calf will most likely lead to being able to kill the mother trying to protect her child. Perhaps they even get to kill the aunt who may try to shield the youngster from further harm. Entire family clans have been eradicated like this. I hear of stories from Bilibiza and Taratibu where this has happened. Many herds are now without a cow or sizable bull, only adolescents and juveniles left to their own, inadequate, devices,
Blurred flashes of recent memory, my distant family. As I said this is Christmas Eve 2012 in the afternoon. I had just taken photographs of the rising ¾ full moon when the news came in excess of 75 rounds of AK fire reported at the mountain some 3km from the house.
The news came as a shock wave, as it always does – “get your head together”, “assess your capacity and possibilities”, “what time is it?”, “who can I take and how will we locate the site?”. It is a moment of electrifying intensity and deep hurt as the knowledge sets in that the damage is done, and that over 70 rounds rarely miss their target. Déjà vu images of dead cows come to mind, their babies near, hacked out faces, and the air of desperate confusion giving way to a morgue like silence. Got to move!
We race to gather some men and set off, but this turns out to be more difficult then expected. The destructive and decomposing influence of the chief park ranger, (in my absence) showed effect. Six rangers refused to go, having been told not to pursue armed poachers and not to go into the bush the same day as the incidence! So, I ended up with two, Ali and Juma, and we climbed the mountain to observe the bush from above and, as we were told the shooting was near, we settled in. Not before long, approximately one hour, we heard the terrible sound of axe on bone. This made a rough estimate of position possible. The need for action was like the force of a decompression chamber but it would have been seriously unwise to enter the bush at such a late stage and stoking around the dark for heavily armed bandits. All we could do so late in the day was to sit and listen once we had gotten into position. When hearing the axe (hacking into the skull to retrieve the ivory) we took aim and fired several vollies into the bush. The killers hurried away with their loot but possibly a little surprised to be noticed at all.
After a month of relative quiet and the capture of some big-time poachers (and their immediate release without prosecution) we are in the line of fire again.
Christmas Eve 2012, 16:00 hours, and I am sitting on the steps of the old house, overlooking the magnificent coastal forest in the clear afternoon light below. While I was out with the Elders and Chiefton to clean the graves and pray for rain and peace, the killers were already zeroing in on their pray......
For over 16 yrs we have now been in the hard knuckle business of community conservation against overwhelming odds. Taking on the timber giants of the day in the late 90’s, the ever more prominent snaring fraternity throughout, fighting bush fires and banditary. From 2004 to 2008 an almost impossible struggle against Chinese logging of a scale unknown before.
The first ever fine to be paid since the creation of the park for illegal logging was a truck captured by us and followed by several more (released without a fine). Seeing community relations plummet and agitation and defamation soar through our success. Being hailed and damned, shunned and consulted. All this has passed but now, in this time of drought we face our biggest challenge yet, the unopposed slaughter of our elephants by all means under the sun but predominantly by the use of automatic weapons of war. Facing the same mafia as before only now their agents are armed with machine guns not chainsaws and use helicopters not trucks.
Someone told me that wildlife crime is now bigger then trade in illegal arms and right up there with drugs and human trafficking.
As the blood moon rises into the afternoon sky and we finish at the graves the poachers are getting into position to open fire regardless of their target. The wounding or killing of a calf will most likely lead to being able to kill the mother trying to protect her child. Perhaps they even get to kill the aunt who may try to shield the youngster from further harm. Entire family clans have been eradicated like this. I hear of stories from Bilibiza and Taratibu where this has happened. Many herds are now without a cow or sizable bull, only adolescents and juveniles left to their own, inadequate, devices,
Blurred flashes of recent memory, my distant family. As I said this is Christmas Eve 2012 in the afternoon. I had just taken photographs of the rising ¾ full moon when the news came in excess of 75 rounds of AK fire reported at the mountain some 3km from the house.
The news came as a shock wave, as it always does – “get your head together”, “assess your capacity and possibilities”, “what time is it?”, “who can I take and how will we locate the site?”. It is a moment of electrifying intensity and deep hurt as the knowledge sets in that the damage is done, and that over 70 rounds rarely miss their target. Déjà vu images of dead cows come to mind, their babies near, hacked out faces, and the air of desperate confusion giving way to a morgue like silence. Got to move!
We race to gather some men and set off, but this turns out to be more difficult then expected. The destructive and decomposing influence of the chief park ranger, (in my absence) showed effect. Six rangers refused to go, having been told not to pursue armed poachers and not to go into the bush the same day as the incidence! So, I ended up with two, Ali and Juma, and we climbed the mountain to observe the bush from above and, as we were told the shooting was near, we settled in. Not before long, approximately one hour, we heard the terrible sound of axe on bone. This made a rough estimate of position possible. The need for action was like the force of a decompression chamber but it would have been seriously unwise to enter the bush at such a late stage and stoking around the dark for heavily armed bandits. All we could do so late in the day was to sit and listen once we had gotten into position. When hearing the axe (hacking into the skull to retrieve the ivory) we took aim and fired several vollies into the bush. The killers hurried away with their loot but possibly a little surprised to be noticed at all.
Monday, 27 May 2013
Birthday surprise
An unbelievable 7 months later and Dominik returns from Mozambique for Laurie's first birthday. He with long rather bedraggled hair and baby, round, bum-shuffling, with a few words, in fact Dadeee (but not Mumeee!)
People assume that Dominik had not bonded with Laurie, how else could he be away this long in his first year? Missing Christmas and so many 'firsts'? But in fact that is far from the case. He felt Laurie was safe and once at Mareja he couldn't tear himself away from his elephants who were far from safe. I think he feels he should stand between them and the bullets (obviously with the help of the Rangers).
Friday, 12 April 2013
A close encounter with a Hyena
Dominik sent me this extraordinary photo today. The first sighting of a Hyena since 1999. So rare to get such a beautiful close up. This young animal must have been displaced from his pack - it was very hungry.As scavengers Hyenas have suffered greatly from eating poisoned monkeys. Poison is used a lot to kill animals that damage crops. Dominik thinks Hyenas are being lured from far afield by rotting elephant carcasses.
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