Why Africa?

When the fact that I would be travelling to South Africa for eight weeks finally leaked and I began telling people the details pertaining to my trip, I usually stuck with one story: Seven months ago, while attending school, a wildlife conservation organization came to the university and made a presentation outlining the opportunities it offered to students. By chance I attended this information session with my roommate Kaitlyn. I remember it was a Thursday evening and the only reason I was still at the school was because I was finishing up a paper for my night class... that I happened to start that afternoon. During the session I discovered that Operation Wallacea operates 13 research sites worldwide and conducts anything from canopy surveying, reef research, and desert projects, to projects involving the largest mammals on earth, elephants.  At that time it never crossed my mind that I would become involved in a research project, let alone ask my dad if I could travel to South Africa... without any supervision whatsoever.
My initial effort to become a part of the team that would be tracking 75 elephants in the Pongola Game Reserve was a failure. All the spots available for this dissertation project had been filled. It wasn't until a few weeks later that I received a follow-up email saying that a spot had opened up and it was mine. I was going to South Africa.

The other story doesn't involve "how" I had come across this opportunity, but "why" I had chosen to pursue it. The underlying cause for my fascination with these large herbivores began with a very very vague memory of the circus. I can't tell you how old I was, or who had gone with me that day (other than grandma of course), or  how I had even gotten there. What I can tell you is that I remember seeing two of the largest animals I had ever seen, each adorned with a large back platform that allowed the circus attendees to ride them. One was coloured blue, the other red. Although I had been too afraid to climb the stairs that would have landed me atop one of the elephants, seeing them that day changed my life and is still continuing to do so.