When we pulled up to Uyoba School in our safari vehicles, students swarmed out of their classrooms to meet us. They practiced their elementary English conversational skills with us, and we took photographs of them so they could see themselves on our camera screens. That was a real crowd-pleaser. Even the older students, who held back because they were too dignified, were drawn in by the laughter and fun. There seemed to be no boundaries between cultures, and we appreciated the students’ hospitality and curiosity. While they do not see many people who look like me, they were more friendly than shy. With water scarce and hauled daily in five-gallon buckets for most families, and given the gritty, dusty dirt that swirls in dust-devils on paths and alongside roads, not to mention the severe heat, it makes sense that most students wear their hair in a low-maintenance style.

Elephants are always nearby. I stepped in big, round dried elephant footprints in the hard earth right behind the classrooms. The footprints were left over from the rainy season which is November through May when it can rain up to 30 inches. When the rains stopped, the footprints baked into the hard mud just yards away from the classrooms. The footprints are like concrete, and it’s hard for me to walk across them because my feet aren’t flexible enough to manage the rough terrain they create. At the Uyoba School, Carol showed our group an interesting mural painted with wildlife at the end of one classroom building. The almost life-sized paintings of elephants showed huge pockmarks where students hurled rocks at the wall. It looked like a target practice site. Carol explained that students, angry at elephants for destroying their families' small crops or granaries holding corn from a year’s worth of hard work using only hand tools, showed their frustration by pitching rocks at the wall until chunks of plaster fell off. 

Hunting is illegal in the national park, but some students’ parents still love bushmeat—any meat from a wild source in the area, like buffalo, or herbivores, like impala, puku, kudu, and gazelles. When asked, students will tell you their favorite meat is elephant or hippo even though they eat a mostly vegetarian diet. Their staple is nshima (ground white cornmeal cooked into a soft polenta-like dish and often served with tomato relish and greens resembling okra or mustard greens.

Even the youngest children understand education is the key to a better future. Students often leave their homes before daybreak to get to school on time and come up against elephants, hippos, and other wildlife headed back toward the river after a night of foraging. The smallest and youngest students run this rampart of wildlife and thickets of tall brush that can hide anything. They may arrive with empty stomachs and have little or nothing to eat for lunch. Some school children show signs of malnutrition, but they are eager to learn as much as they can. If these students grow up caring for the environment, if they can learn to coexist peacefully and protect wildlife, they will inherit a promising future. They will have ways to earn money without poaching, and elephants and other wildlife will have a chance.

Written by Patricia Cole

An Africa Hope Fund board member for 7 years, Pat is a writer and a conservation activist. After traveling to Zambia, she became dedicated to helping Africa Hope Fund provide education to the next generation of Africans and ensure their future by protecting wildlife. Find Patricia on Facebook and Twitter, or on her websites www.writepatwrite.com and www.patmcole.com.

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