This was my first time trying the volunteer program, so I learned much about it as I went. The game counting seemed useful to not only the park, but also to potential researchers looking for population and movement data. I had a wonderful time and would enjoy doing it again. The visit to the school was fantastic. The opportunity to meet and interact with local people was amazing. Most of all, not just driving by the animals, but being down in the pan with them, listening to them interact with each other - was an experience that cannot be explained in words. To see the elephant families greet each other, to watch them touch, hear them trumpet, and experience their joy at meeting at the waterhole is a lifetime experience.

Jeffrey Burtner
Zimbabwe September 2023