Dispatches
Mihingo Lodge, part III: Kids acting out in the name of conservation
March 19, 2008
That afternoon, we joined resident manager Kate Ward in a trip into the village to observe an environmental conservation class that she teaches at the primary school.
A volunteer teacher who uses Honey Fund dollars for supplies, Kate talks with the children about the National Park and the value of its animal population to the community as a natural resource for education/beauty for the community as well as the reason that tourist dollars come into their village to fund key projects including education.
What I found most striking is how very little these kids knew of the animals in their midst yet how quickly they started making the connection. Kate used a whole series of teaching techniques including story telling, games, songs and acting… it was hard to not join in:
What makes an eland special? Big horns? Yes! Big horns! Everyone be an eland and show me your big horns!
The children’s conservation class was followed by the adult literacy program which Kate also teaches. We were advised that adults were shy about our observing their class, so we didn’t linger, but Kate let us know that she was pleased to see class attendance increase. The weekly class usually starts with a handful of adults, but over the course of a session, up to 40 adults from the village assemble to listen in. Many of the adults in the village cannot read or write, so filling out basic school forms for their children an overwhelming, humiliating task. Kate has seen the excitement and pride in the faces of the adults in her class as they learn to spell their own children’s names.
With its mindful participation and support of environmental, conservation, education and community outreach, the committed owners and staff of Mihingo Lodge prove that a luxury safari destination can also be an exemplary environmental steward and community advocate.
Mihingo Lodge, part II: Take care of your neighbors, scavengers though they may be
March 19, 2008
I probably should have let them know that I can be very hard to wake up.
I came to at 5:45 AM with the voice of hotel proprietor Ralph at my door courteously PLEADING for me to rise so that our group could get underway for hyena tracking. This curious activity requires an early roll call - hyenas are easiest to locate during the pre-dawn return to their dens after an evening’s hunt.
At Lake Mburo National Park headquarters, we meet our hyena tracking guide, friendly park ranger Andrew, and we head off toward the hyena dens directly.
A few things to know - spotted hyenas subcontract their den construction. Anteaters do the dirty work, burrowing into the ground in search of insects - when the bug well runs dry, anteaters move on, hyenas take up residence.
We’d walked perhaps 15 minutes before meeting up with the first silhouette in the sepia of pre dawn. Andrew made calls that mimicked a hyena kill announcement, communication back to the pack that it’s mealtime. It clearly piqued their interest - more trotted into view.
I had figured, like so many wild creatures, that they’d run from a stinky pack of coffee addled humans with noisy cameras, and while they did seem wary, I wouldn’t call them afraid. Flash photography didn’t faze them and some even seemed curious about us, sniffing the air and taking steps toward us…. which reads as lurking calculation.
The beasts have a brazen edginess and a misunderstood bad boy charm - magnetic, but you somehow know to not turn your back.
Amidst the tracking, Mihingo Lodge owner Ralph explained a predator/scavenger conservation program that he’s very keen on launching in the nearby communities. Seems that local farmers blame the park’s relatively small leopard population on a number of livestock kills and, in response, farmers poison the remaining carcasses in hopes of killing the predator that perpetrated the act. Leopards are at risk, but more often than not, it’s the scavengers who are poisoned - hyenas + vultures who play an integral part of the park’s ecosystem.
Ralph’s leopard and hyena project proposal is to pay farmers for livestock lost to verified predator kills and eliminate the practice of poisoning that sabotages the scavenger population. Farmers would need to have suspected predator kills inspected + verified in the first 24 hrs after the incident. If it’s determined that the kill fits the profile of a leopard attack, the farmer would be paid for the livestock loss on the spot and the carcass would be removed in whole immediately, lessening the farmer’s drive for retribution and eliminating the vehicle for poisoning. It seems to be a well thought out solution that doesn’t punish the farmer or the wildlife… now just the matter of getting funding and implementation before the predator and scavenger population is poisoned out of existence…
Mihingo Lodge, part I: High style, low impact - everybody wins
March 19, 2008
From Nile Safari Lodge, we caught a lift back into Kampala for the night. We were met the next morning by Mihingo Lodge proprietor, Ralph Schenk, who spirited us westward toward the lodge and Lake Mburo National Park.
Conversation in the car was lively and Ralph, who is also co-owner of Banana Boat craft stores with his partner Suni, is an incredible source of information and opinions about many issues challenging Africa. His upbringing was a mix of influences of Africa, where he was born, and Europe, where his parents were raised and he was educated. At age 19, Ralph took an epic road trip over the whole of Africa, an odyssey that galvanized his passion for the continent. He focused his collegiate + graduate studies along with volunteer endeavors on economics, agriculture, conservation and alternative energy, mindful of what education would best serve the environment, community as well as his entrepreneurial interests in Africa.
We uneventfully crossed from the north to the south side of the equator (we opted to spare Ralph our tourist glee as he’d made the journey countless times). In the town of Lyantonde, we turned onto a dirt road toward Nshara Gate into Lake Mburo National Park and our hotel shuttle turned into a game drive as zebra, African buffalo and warthogs seemed to spring up from the ether across the park’s grassland.
Situated on a hilltop adjacent to Lake Mburo Park, Mihingo Lodge’s commanding views of the park and nearby lakes are a feast to the eyes. Ralph and Suni came up with an initial design that embraced high end safari lodge style and services with environmentally smart design. They created lodge facilities and bungalows that optimize the site’s natural attributes for both aesthetic beauty and ease of harnessing and harvesting solar power and rainwater to fuel lodge operations.
Guest quarters have been crafted with the seemingly improbable combination of spectacular vistas and supreme privacy. In décor, a tasteful minimalism prevails, yielding to the visual draw of the natural surroundings. Bedrooms and bathrooms are almost imperceptibly screened, providing unprecedented views of everything except the neighbors (as lovely as they might be).
Mihingo Lodge established a program, initially fueled by retail sales of local honey, to serve the community just outside the park gates. The Honey Fund benefits the Akashenshero area, providing an educational resource fund for Rurambira primary school, offering volunteer-run environmental education and adult literacy programs. The fund has recently assisted in tending to major medical issues that have faced community residents including reconstructive surgery to child’s cleft palate and an operation to repair a local girl’s bowed leg.
The afternoon of our arrival, Ralph took us on a trip to nearby Kazumi Lookout for a visual tour and history of the surrounding area and that evening, we convened in the lodge’s open air dining room overlooking a watering hole in Lake Mburo National Park. With impala and eland as our inspiration, we too sought refreshment. Over bottles of Nile Special, the boys and I determined that we’d spend the following morning tracking hyenas in the park and spend the afternoon checking out Honey Fund projects at the local primary school - opportunities to see how all the lodge’s neighbors are faring.