“I’m very worried about whether the next generation will look after nature, because they live on smartphones, they live in buildings, with computers and all of that. Where are they going to gain a respect for nature? “As you learn these skills, nature becomes home. Genetically we all know how to survive. If you take a little kid and leave him out in the bush, it’s amazing how he’ll work things out. The older people not so much, because we tend to lose the instinct over time. Even kids who live in cities, play outside with sheets, making tents. It’s in our genes and we have to encourage that. “One of the most powerful experiences of my training was shared with me by the mother of a former student who had learnt basic shelter and fire making. The family moved to Europe and I didn’t see them again, but months later the mother sent me an email saying that she wanted to thank me for the skills that I had taught their son. The family was in Norway and they’d got caught in a blizzard. They couldn’t drive any further because they couldn’t see anything and the mother was convinced that they would die there in the car. They were near a forest and the boy, who was then about 14, said, ‘Let’s go to the forest and build an emergency shelter–I know what to do.’ So they
did. She wrote in the email that they were cold, but they managed to get through the night. They were found the next morning and she said she didn’t even want to know what might have happened if her boy hadn’t had that knowledge. “In another instance a family was tracking and their water started to run out. The boy had learnt to tell if a path is going to water based on the animal tracks, so they found a water source. “I love seeing the transformation in the children who come to the B2Gold Education Centre. Very often they arrive talking about fashion and cellphones, but there’s no cellphone reception here, which can be very scary. But by the time they leave, they’re in shorts and tackies and they’re picking things up and looking at tracks. That awareness is very beautiful. “That’s why B2Gold’s Education Centre is wonderful. The guys who run the Education Centre take kids on game drives and tracking and on long bush walks. Kids need that and even if afterwards they don’t pursue it, it does leave a mark in their memory. There is peace there that I hope they take home, and as they grow up, they’ll remember that peace and hopefully go back into the bush again to find it.”
B2Gold Namibia (Pty) Ltd. 20 Nachtigal Street, Ausspannplatz PO Box 80363, Olympia Windhoek Tel: +264 61 295 8700 Fax: + 264 61 295 8799 E-mail: namibia.pr@b2gold.com
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