Going wild

Last semester I wrote about my nerves and apprehensions about my upcoming trip to Namibia, Africa. Now, it's time to write about the experience.

This summer I spend three weeks at the Harnas Wildlife Foundation in Namibia. Harnas is an organization that takes in orphaned, injured, sick and problem animals from all over Southern Africa. It has many species that require volunteer care, including cheetahs, leopards, lions, baboons, giraffes, meerkats, wild dogs and more. It was a life-changing experience that allowed to me reconnect to God and nature in ways I could have never imagined. While in Namibia, I feel like I lived the way that maybe God had intended us to live. The physical address of the farm was "100 miles Northeast of Gobabis, Namibia" — truly the middle of nowhere. The closest grocery store was an hour's drive, and the city was much farther. In the Harnas volunteer village we had no electricity and no hot water. We lived in small cabins with mosquito-netted sides and a solar lantern to share between four people.

Harnas was a sort of Garden of Eden for me, a chance to live in complete harmony with all of God's creation. The day revolved around the natural cycle for the animals. Each morning we awoke at dawn when the lions roared, notifying us of the sun's presence. So up we got, ate a small breakfast, and then went to prepare the much more substantial meal for the animals. We would feed them until noon, when we would break for lunch and an afternoon rest in the hottest part of the day. Then from 2 to 4 we cared for the animals: brushed them, played ball, cuddled, and walked them. Yes, we walked cheetahs and baboons! At 4 we fed them again, and then as the sun began to slip below the horizon around 6, we headed back to our village for dinner, a campfire then bed by 8:30.

It all made me wonder how we got so off track. I didn't miss any of my material comforts while in Namibia. It was incredible to go without an alarm clock, because I knew that the lions could tell me much better when it was time to get up. The food chain was certainly intact, yet the feeling of lying down in the African sand and having a cheetah come lay next to me and lick my face, just like a housecat, felt natural and right. Somewhere along the way humans assumed the mindset of hunter and hunted, human and animal, predator and prey. At Harnas, I let myself forget that attitude and in the process gained an enormous respect for God's creations and their ability to live alongside each other without strife (except of course when they got hungry). I witnessed a Labrador and a leopard drinking from the same palm and a baby giraffe and an antelope napping together on the lawn. But most of all, I saw humans come from all over the world to join together under the African sun — all in awe of God's magnificence and glory.