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Expedition Diary - Congo Basin

Education for Nature

Judith Mashinya
© WWF

Conserving the Congo: Education for Nature

For almost 15 years, WWF’s Education for Nature (EFN) Program has been equipping conservation leaders with the training and practical experience to take on challenges in their home countries. Follow Judith Mashinya of WWF’s EFN Program as she travels through the Congo Basin to visit conservationists supported by WWF. Along the way, she travels across lagoons teeming with crocodiles and learns how to avoid a buffalo attack.

Napoleon Chi is the executive Director of the Watershed Task Group in Cameroon. He received an EFN grant for a course on watershed management.
© Napoleon Chi

Part 3: Early Morning Visit

Before leaving the U.S, I’d emailed all the EFN alumni in the Congo Basin to let them know that I would be visiting their countries and to invite them to meetings at the WWF offices. I had my most memorable meeting with an EFN alum early Sunday morning. At 7:20AM the ringing of my hotel room phone jolted me from a deep sleep. I was still jet-lagged and was tempted not to answer. Then part of me said it could be an emergency from home, so I picked up the phone.

You can imagine my disbelief when I heard from the hotel receptionist that a Mr. Napoleon Chi was in the lobby to see me. Napoleon is an EFN alumnus we supported to undertake training on wetlands management. In my pajamas, I straggled down to the lobby and there, sitting with computer turned on and ready for a presentation and discussion, was Napoleon. He had been unable to attend the group meeting, and didn’t know when I was leaving Cameroon,so he decided to come to my hotel to avoid missing me. I told him I was still fuzzy and would not do justice to any discussion so we agreed to meet later in the afternoon.