College offering African experience

Frank PEEBLES
Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

CNC is heading on safari to Africa this summer and is inviting local residents to come along.
The college is focusing on the environmental and cultural lessons available out on the living plains of Tanzania, a place known well by local environmental planner and educator Dave Leman. Leman and African colleague Hagai Kissila are leading this educational adventure. “This is a rare opportunity for people from our region to travel in a small group setting with all logistics and details taken care of,” said CNC international program planner Jennifer Wheeler who called this "a trip of a lifetime."
Leman has been to Africa seven times, for up to a year at a time, dating back to the 1980s when he went on a university field lesson of his own to Tanzania. "I'm passionate about Africa and this is a good way for me to share my experience and accumulated knowledge," Leman said. "We want a minimum of 10 people and only a few more than that as a maximum. We want it to be as meaningful and personal as possible, so we don't want to go beyond what is sensible logistically and practical for having that comfortable group size optimal for the learning experience." The trip will focus on the regional biodiversity and ecology, wildlife conservation issues, natural resource management tissues and human culture. Kissila is a member of the Massi people and an experienced guide for both exposing the region to the developed world and protecting it from the developed world. Other tribes in the same area are the Hadzabe and Datoga people who will meet with members of the CNC excursion. "Very few tourists visit the area where these tribes inhabit," Leman said. "In all my time there, I've barely scratched the surface of what all there is to learn, but I can help point out a lot of things that would be missed otherwise. I have a pretty good sense of the most likely productive places for desired learning outcomes. I know where the lions are." People who attend will pass by iconic Mount Kilimanjaro, see the famous Serengeti, observe Olduvai Gorge, where some of the earliest known relatives of humans have been discovered, and Ngorongoro Crater, which has its own ecosystem inside the massive walls of an extinct volcano. The trip comes with a fee beyond the means of a casual vacationer but competitive with other African excursions that don't provide the enhanced inner views Leman and Kissila will provide participants. "Tanzania has an incredibly rich wildlife heritage and anthropological value, but that is at some peril with expanding human demands," Leman said. He insists that this trip will make light footprints on the indigenous social systems and ecosystems, and that too is part of the learning process. "It is not the intent of this trip to promote any particular solutions or a philosophical end point," he said. "It is to understand the cultures and natural conditions, and you can do your own analysis and form your philosophies on your own." The two-week trip happens in August. Initial orientation sessions will be held Wednesday and on March 3 (7 p.m. both times) in Room 1-117 at CNC. These sessions will be hosted by Leman and CNC staff. More detailed sessions will follow for those who commit to the trip. The deadline to sign up for the safari is March 31