Flying with a Maasai

We have chartered a small plane. We are with a member of Parliament, and elected officials looking at a vast area of land, in a remote location. We land for lunch. We eat in a small school, 150 students. The kids are in their green uniforms and excited about these guest that have landed from the air.  Once they get the courage up they yell “How are you?” “How are you?” “I am fine.” I hear it all the time and each time I find it adorable. I yell back “I am fine, how are you?!”

We meet and talk with landowners, and then we are to return south. A local Maasai who serves as a community liaison officer for conservation and community initiatives joins us in the plane. He is to be our guide as he knows the land better than the back of his hand. As we start taking off, I say to him “Please, just interrupt us anytime to point things out.” As I speak I notice he is bracing the chair. He is visibly shaking. We learn that he has never been in a plane before, let alone a small plane (10 seater.) He is absolutely terrified.

The woman next to me keeps saying to him “Poa,” which is slang for “Its all good.” This is in the language sheng, which is basically taking over Kenya, a slang that many adults cannot understand—strategic on behalf of the youth, but a concern of teachers. But back to the poor Maasai. Every time the plane dips or rises he lets out a little “ay.” He is breathing in and out like he is having a baby. Given that we are looking at particular parcels of land, we are banking steep turns, turning around and resurveying the area. Every time we dip left or right the “ay” gets louder, breathing faster. When the Maasai sing and talk they have a series of yelps, cries and short phrases such as “ay.” This poor man is using all of these expressions.

Long story short, we made it to the landing strip. He safely put his feet on the ground, and insisted that is it not normal to defy gravity and he will surely take the road next time.

Kafue National Park

We are in Zambia, Lusaka to be exact, the capital. We flew in from Zimbabwe after meetings in Harare. We are here to look at Kafue National Park, an enormous Park with little infrastructure and visitation. There is a lot of attention on this Park, interest by international donors (US Government, Norwegians) and we are providing advice on where and how the investment should be directed and how we can assist. As always, the questions revolve around making the Park self sustainable, generating income for the country and the surrounding communities and protecting the wildlife and ecosystem.

Zambia is one of the poorest countries in Africa. Although it seems many countries within which I travel says “one of the poorest.” The plight of Africa. The poorest, the most corrupt....however, there are so many stories of enormous success and growth in Africa, but that is not here, today in Zambia.

In the capital we meet with various donors, government officials and partners. There is a new President in Zambia, Sata, just elected, and so everyone is waiting to see what change will take place, if any. A transition time is always a fascinating time to be in a country. Early promises, statements. The old President is under investigation for corruption, his family detained at the border, his son is supposedly hiding out in Kenya...the usual stuff.

Most donors are waiting to see just how serious Sata (the new President) is about natural resource protection and conservation. Zambia’s economy is dependent upon: mining, agriculture and tourism. A smart approach would be proper planning that will enable the development of all three. You know, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. If tourism fails, you have agriculture, if you run out of minerals, you have tourism. If the new allocation of ministries is any indication, there is serious concern. For example, wildlife is within the Ministry of Broadcasting, Health and Wildlife. Makes really good sense, right? Seeing how Government’s divvy up their ministries is always a fascinating game of chess to watch. I will give you health, if you give me mining. Etc...  This is a major issue for a lot of countries. In Kenya for example, when a peace agreement was brokered, the number of Ministries doubled, each party wanted ample control over Ministries. So Kenya has 42 Ministries, which means 42 Ministries each with big, fat packages. This also means public health was separated from medicine. Environment was separated from forests, which was separated from wildlife. So, you can imagine how efficient things work. In Zambia, it was the same story.

After days of meetings in Lusaka we are ready to head west out of the city to Kafue National Park, but we are given a meeting with the new Minister of Tourism, at 2 pm. It is 4pm by the time we hit the road and make our way out of the city. Lusaka is a gritty, chaotic city. The usual blend of sky scrapers, tin shacks, houses, traffic, people, bikes. The road east is paved and we drive four hours the edge of the Park, stopping for petrol halfway, our last petrol stop for days. This main road cuts the Park into two parts. We spend the night at a lovely lodge off the main road that sits on the Kafue River. It is dark when we arrive, but you can hear the river and hippos. The warm breeze is welcoming, as is the noise of the bush.

We are heading to northern Kafue National Park, the Busanga Plains. The manager of the lodge says “Oh, it’s easy to get there, you just head north and you basically spill into the camp.” We should have known better. We do know better, but that morning, we were anxious to get there. We turn off the main road instantly, enter a “gate”—a stick resting on two barrels and head north. Now, a main road to someone who lives in the bush is quite different to someone who is visiting a place for the first time. The road is sandy and there are various spurs off the “main road”—we soon find ourselves saying, is this a T junction? Is this considered a turn? Our map is out of scale, and we are completely out of phone range—no network. The map shoes a rock outcrop, this looks like one? Yes? Should we turn around? 7 hours they told us. Well, we are heading north right? So we should spill into it...

It is hot. Very hot. The Tsetse flies are biting and it is an all out war in the Land Rover. The three of us smack each other hard with newspapers, everyone, anywhere is fair game if a Tsetse is on them. Never does it occur to us to roll up the windows and turn on the AC. Smack. Blood smears the windows and the newspapers.

Three gorgeous lionesses lay on the side of the road. They are laying in the shade, cooling off. We watch them for a while as they breathe in the warm air. They eventually, slowly get up and cross the road, and it is only then that we realize there are two males behind us.

We eventually reach the plains, what we guess are the Busanga Plains. Vast. Open. Awesome. Similar to the Serengeti in that they stretch as far as the eye can see. Given that there are no other vehicles (although we would have welcomed one to ask for directions), no cell reception, I feel far more remote than the Serengeti. We travel along the western edge of the plains, the tree line, hoping for some sign of the camp. Eventually, we run into a vehicle, mechanics for the camp, and we follow them along a curvy, windy route through the plains, which we frankly would have never found.

We eventually ‘spill’ into camp, and we are relieved after a solid 8 hours in the vehicle. The camp is run by Wilderness Safari, and it is a lovely camp. Four luxury tents in total. We are greeted with cold mint-ice tea, cool wash cloths and collapse in the safari couches overlooking the awesome plains.

We spend the next two days in the plains. They are unique, remote and magical. They flood half of the year. We drive at night and during the day. We see porcupines, cheetah, civets, cervals—the wildlife viewing is amazing. The bird life exceptional. We talk to camp owners, lodge managers and discuss where investment should be directed, poaching issues, how to increase revenue, how the wildlife authorities work with private investors etc...

At night the horizon is one fire, bush fires are a severe problem and it appears that the world is on fire. They are set mainly by poachers. One night at dinner, under the skies and with lanterns all around we see the flames. The wind is blowing. The camp manager (who looks like he is 18 years old) walks me back to my tent—you can’t walk alone at night because of wildlife, not sure what this 18 year old would do with a lion, but hey, these are the rules. I see the flames and ask if we should be concerned. He says no. As I go to sleep that night I try to comfort myself, thinking this kid, (yes, I am more than twice his age) certainly knows how the fire is moving and I have nothing to worry about. Ha. I am exhausted from the day, the sun, the heat, and the big, comfortable, soft bed quickly lulls me to sleep.

The next few days were drive out of the flats, though southern Kafue and to Livingstone to our office to meet with the team there and check on projects. Meanwhile the President of Zambia fired the board of the Wildlife Authority, saying they cared more about nature than people. Well, caring for wildlife is their job. A typical populist statement, but followed by the pardoning of 750 poachers from jail. The 90 Million USD that was going to Kafue was yanked and other donors have pulled back. We’ll see how the story continues to unfold, but not a good sign for Zambia’s protected area system and tourists in general. Rumour has it that the President years ago was detained for ivory. Who knows the real motivation for his current actions but hopefully his actions will change.