Four weeks of summer volunteer work in Africa gave Wilbraham & Monson Academy's Alexandra Garrison '18 a path toward a career and a lifetime of memories.
Sparked by her interest of working with animals, Alex lived at the Kariega Game Reserve in Eastern Cape, South Africa, June 12 – July 10, living and working with 10 other conservation volunteers.
Alex tracked lions, elephants and rhinos nearly every morning, assuming there weren't any right outside the door to her building.
"I woke up one morning and there were lions hunting zebras in my front yard," said Alex, an honor roll student and school ambassador who plays field hockey, basketball and lacrosse at WMA.
"For lions, we followed their carcasses," she continued. "We'd get out of the jeep, look at them, go to the mutilated zebras and conclude its intestines are here and legs are here, so it must have been a lion or hyena because they would have needed the strength to rip the bone out of the socket. We took photos and videos, and poked and prodded. We determined whether the carcass had been there a couple hours or a couple weeks. That was just about every morning."
After lunch, for 4 – 5 hours almost every day, Alex grabbed a machete and went to work on whatever needed to be cut down, including trees.
Her favorite day was Wednesday, when she got to travel to the grocery to pick up food for the week before heading to an orphanage, where many of the children took an instant liking to Alex and her long hair.
"It wasn't even a building," she explained. "It was a small hut where the kids gathered. This one woman, Gladys, had everything. It was pretty much just her cooking for these kids, and that was probably their only stable meal of the day. We played with the kids. They were so sweet. We played with them, fed them, and then played with them some more."
Alex's interest in the game reserve stemmed from a visit her family made to the conservation area in the summer of 2016, where she met Thandi, a pregnant rhino who needed special veterinary care due to her tusk being sliced off by poachers.
"I remember looking at her and her whole front face was missing because she was sedated and then hacked with a machete," Alex described. "It was absolutely horrific. The people at the reserve said there was a vet who needs to come once a month or so to clean out all the dirt and maggots that might get in it, and so not only did I know then what I wanted to do with my life – clean maggots out of a rhino's nose – but I asked if I could work with the vet or volunteer at the reserve."
Along with tracking the animals, her experience with the conservation work and orphans gave Alex a greater perspective of the world and a long-term path to travel along.
"It was great, and it was the first time I was away from my family in a different country," she said. "It was a big growing period. I had to travel by myself. Once I was there, I had to cook and learn how to carry myself with a different group of people.
"I don't think I've ever done something that helpful or that good. It felt incredible. Not only was it what I want to do – I have so many weird animal factoids now – knowing Kariega is trying to help the animals, and meeting the kids, it felt nice as well as being fun. Plus, I got to wield a machete almost every day. Where was the downside?"