The sun is setting on a chapter of our lives as Phase 2’s – we have reached our NQF2 qualification with Limpopo Field Guiding Academy (LFGA) and we have to say goodbye to Tau Camp, where we have spent the last few months, and to Mongena Concession, Dinokeng North Game Reserve, where we came in as nature enthusiasts and came out as FGASA Apprentice Field Guides.
The last two weeks have been intense – birding, tracking and practical assessments in the time of just a few days, so we cannot help but to be proud of ourselves, as our assessors have deemed us competent for the job of Safari Guide and Ranger. While the birding assessment has comprised a two-session exam on IDs and calls of almost 150 species, our practical assessment consisted of conducting a game drive in our reserve, proving that we are able to be guides and ambassadors of nature.
It is important to note that I now refer to the final, summative assessments towards the National Qualification (NQF2) in Nature Guiding – all along the two-month FGASA-endorsed course that we have attended, there have been formative assessments. Each week we were tested in several areas, both practically and theoretically. Botany, mammals, astronomy, birds and tracks are just a few of the areas that the Apprentice Field Guide needs to be competent in.
What makes the positive result of the assessment even more valuable is that these exams are not, for the most, an intense study of facts and identifications that start a few days before the exam itself. To pass the practical assessment, we are required to build up knowledge from Day 1 at LFGA – studying everything last minute when for some, panic sets in, may be enough for passing but not for remembering these concepts in the long run, where they will be required.
After the assessment though, it is clear is that we have not conquered any peak just yet. The gratification of finally becoming a field guide, nature guide or ranger is great, but as apprentices we are more or less just taking a break on a picnic stop along the way, and the challenge continues. We now have to make our way into the industry, prove ourselves worthy, not only when dealing with guests, not only when approaching animals or adhering to a professional code of conduct, but all of this together.
The knowledge required to pass the FGASA Apprentice Field Guide qualification, though very comprehensive in many aspects of South Africa and its nature, is only a starting point in what, for safari guides and rangers, is a life of continuous learning and improving, not only in terms of qualification levels, but everything that a guest may want to know about the bush. We are here for the long run, for the marathon and not the sprint – and we do surely enjoy it for now.
A personal note on my final, summative practical assessment – it was on the 2nd of February, exactly 2 years after I landed in Africa for the first time. I was in Uganda at the time, collecting data for my Master’s thesis, and just after I started diving into the crucial part of my field work, I would be brought back to Europe by the incoming coronavirus pandemic. Impatient but not less determined to come back to Africa, I waited for almost two years to come back and attend the field guiding course as I had been planning since high school.
The fact that my certification as an Apprentice Field Guide arrived exactly two years after my first day in Africa, though more or less random as I could have had the exam any day in the first week of February, is highly symbolic to me. It shows that wherever you are, and whatever may be stopping you from working on your dreams – whether we talk about field guiding or anything else – you need to keep going forward in spite of the obstacles, such does the zig-zagging branch of the Buffalo Thorn. At the end of the day, Africa will always be here for those who want it enough.
Stay tuned for the 4th and final edition of Nicholas’s story as he takes up internship at a Big 5 Game Reserve in the beautiful Waterberg region of Limpopo Province.
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