My time at Cheetah experience
When you find a doves leg outside your door, a lion on your backyard, a carcass in the fridge and cheetah playing with the dogs around your legs in the kitchen – then you know that you are at Cheetah experience.
For me who studies biology and teaching this is a perfect project – a combination of natural conservation and education of people in one of the friendliest countries I ever have been to. I have come over the globe to find love for animals and understanding for other cultures, I cannot ask for more and realise that the rest of us still have a lot to learn.
Cheetah experience is a non profit organisation and every cent that comes in goes directly to the animals in form of buying fences, baby bottles, food to the animals and more.
They call Me a “working volunteer”, but that is only half of the truth when every one of the people working here is working for love to the animals without involving any money. To be a part of something that big and selfless fills my heart with hope, it convinces me that this is something worth working hard for.
These people seem to have one common call in life - to save other species. Love is what keeps them together as a family. A more unselfish cause and group of people you will need to look hard for to find.
The work here includes early mornings and late evenings, preparation of food, feeding of the animals (the big ones and the babies), to guide tourists, cleaning of enclosures , washing bowls and baby bottles, taking tourists on game drives (safaris) and building enclosures. How tiered your body ever may be, it is the appreciation you get from the animals that makes you get up the next morning again. In the end of the day it is all about love, don´t you agree with me!?
The one who started Cheetah experience is Riana van Nieuwenhuizen – the beating heart of this project. Her dream is to start to breed with threatened species, especially cheetahs, and let them out in a protected wild. To be able to do that the project needs to collect money; to get there she is educating people to create a better understanding for the animals and raising cubs. Without her and her helping hands this good will would not exist.
One person can´t do everything, but everyone can do something – that´s what we (the volunteers) are here for. She allows us to fill the days, which are full of hard work, with laughs and joy. That is what keeps this project together.
If you have heard of horse whisperer you will understand what I am telling you when I say that she is a feline whisperer. I am not implying that she has a sixth sense, but her understanding for these beautiful creatures is beyond ordinary and it is recognized over the world now, thanks to media. Working with a person like her is an experience of a life time. I simply can´t find the right words that would justify the good cause that fills this woman’s heart.
“Kisses make a cheetah grow big.” //Riana
As you maybe understand my two weeks here has been perfect! South Africa and this project will always have a place in my heart; my home is where my heart is, so I will be back.
//Linnéa J.
Volunteer from Sweden
2010-07-04
Linnea with Bibi the cheetah.
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