African Wilderness

By Lucky Davis

I think its amazing how similar wilderness work is in any part of the world. I have experienced the wilderness throughout my life and have a basic understanding of how the work is done. Now having experienced it in a very different setting, I am amazed at how similar the work in Africa is to the work I have taken part in.

The first group I went with was run by Educo Africa for students of Tsiba University, a scholarship university for students who could not otherwise afford to pay for university education. I went partly as support staff, since I had camping experience and none of the students had camped or hiked before, and partly as a participant. There were two guides on my trip, a woman from Canada, the only other white person in our group, and a man in his mid-30's who was originally from a large township in Cape Town. As a kid, he was a criminal, breaking into people's houses and stealing, and he spent time in and out of jail. At one point, he participated in an Educo trip and decided to turn his life around. Now he leads trips for Educo, sometimes for people who were much like him at one time. He seemed to always be singing or leading the group in song...

One of the major parts of the Educo trip was a solo night. Some people were scared, some were excited, but no one knew what to expect. This was a great time for me because I had not done a solo since last summer when I did my 3-day in the Inyo Mountains. It was very cool to see how similarly the time was structured and set up. I took part in the solo night, and it gave me a great chance to think about what my 3-day solo had been for me and how to remember that. It also gave me a chance to take a deep breath and make some sense out of the experience I was having. I am at a big turning point in my life, and I used the time to break some of those feelings down into something I could understand.

The next night we sat in a circle and shared our solo experiences with the group. After someone would tell their story, the guides would do what is called mirroring, telling the story back to the student to give us a chance to hear it from someone else and to see deeper meaning. At this point, the bigger picture began to come into focus for me. The lessons and meaning that were coming out of the stories were so similar to what I had experienced in all the solos I had been a part of. I began to realize that no matter how different the solo place, the culture, or the people, when solo time comes all the experiences are linked by the wilderness and what it has to offer us as humans.

The next day, as we came into base camp singing songs in a language I didn't understand, there was a bond with the group very similar to that which I experienced with the group after my 3-day solo.

Part two of the trip was another great wilderness experience. While it was much different, the wilderness effect was still present and profound. The trip with the Wilderness Leadership School took place in a game reserve, and within the first hour we had seen cape buffalo, impala, wildebeests, an elephant, baboons, zebras, and we had been chased by 3 rhinos. Every day we would have about half an hour at sunset to sit alone. This was one version of a mini-solo, and although it was not set up the same way as my previous solos, on a broad scale, the impact was very similar...

In my mind there are some factors that must be taken into account with a using a trip like this for the wilderness effect. One is when a rhino charges at you, there is no way to not go into an altered state of consciousness. We walked in silence in the reserve and with all the animals so close, your awareness goes into a heightened state. So in some ways you do not have to set up the experience as much...

In conclusion, the wilderness can be found anywhere, and the wilderness effect is undeniable. I think it is more a state of mind than an actual place that allows people to experience the wilderness. You do not have to be in a special place to deeply experience the wilderness; rather, be open to new things

Note: In May, 2008, Lucky Davis participated in two different wilderness programmes in South Africa. These trips were part of his culminating project for his senior year of high school in the United States of America. Here are excerpts from his final reflection paper as published in the School of Lost Borders Newsletter Summer 2008.