A Month of Trees
One of the more important modules in a guiding qualification is Botany, and in general it is one of the more complex subjects that our boys would need to tackle. We decided to devote an entire month to this subject with lots of practical application to go with it.
We approached a little reserve that was not too far a drive, and we were graciously welcomed by the head curator named Nana (‘nana’ is also another word for candy in South Africa) and she made the time in her busy schedule to show us around the remarkable property. She had such a great passion for what she did and it was quite infectious. The boys soaked up all of the expert knowledge that she freely gave all of us. Savannah and I also appreciated the opportunity to have a guide take us through the diverse amount of trees and plants that we honestly had very little knowledge on, due to both of us studying for our own qualifications in a different province and biome, it was an excellent learning experience for all of us and we are extremely grateful to Nana and her team for showing us around.
The rest of the month we spent time at the little reserve, and with our practical introduction to the subject done, we started moving forward on the theoretical side of it, but doing our lessons on the reserve made the subject much easier for the boys to digest. We went over simple things like definitions and classification of different species and the ecological role that they have. We also took the time to compile information on a few different species from this area, Kuzuko Lodge’s province and biome, and some general trees found throughout the entire country. With these, we practiced tree identification and went through the general features to look for when a I.D is being done, and as always we look at the G.I.S.S first (general, impression, size, and shape), from there we look more closely at the finer details like leaf structure, bark, etc.
Throughout the month we noticed the boys truly taking an interest and memorising all the little facts we were giving them on the subject and we ended the month off with a little verbal and visual I.D test of the trees we have been studying with the added medicinal and cultural facts for each. They all did a great job and passed quite easily. It seems we really need to make this work more difficult for these young aspiring safari guides!
