Sininho who?

As you can imagine, Sininho is not my real name. It is my capoeira name that I have been given a couple of years ago when I still practised it. Capoeira is a lovely and wonderful Brasilian Martial Art that interestingly still is a big and powerful part in my life, even though I am not playing it any more.

Nicknames – so called “apelidos” – are given to each student and usually reflect his personality, interests, the style of playing capoeira or something striking. Originally, apelidos were used when capoeira was still illegal in Brazil. In those times the nicknames were used to hide ones real name and with that escape persecution or arrest.

In 2014, I had spent a couple of weeks in South Africa where I volunteered in two big cat sanctuaries, Panthera Africa and Jukani. Both are so called “true sanctuaries“, indicating that they are not involved in any animal abusing activities such as breeding, trading, cub petting, lion walking, hunting or bone trading. Why am I pointing this out? Is not any sanctuary like this? No, unfortunately not! In most of the so called sanctuaries, where volunteering takes place in the name of conservation, those incredible beautiful and majestic animals are abused and breed to die in unnormal and cruel conditions. At the time I thought about volunteering, I also had those pictures in mind where volunteers raised little lion cubs cause “their mother rejected them”. But I had to learn that this is not true. The whole thing is a lie. A very big one, carried out on the backs of the animals. They are bred to be taken away from their mothers to be hand-raised by volunteers so tourists can take pictures. When bigger, tourists can walk with them before they become too big (and dangerous) for this “fun”. At that point, three options come up: bringing that animal back into the breeding cycle, killing it for bone trading or selling it for trophy hunting. It is a big and cruel business machinery. I fortunately got to know that before I went to South Africa so luckily ended up in true sanctuaries, where this kind of exploiting animal interaction does not take place. Yes, I felt a bit disappointed at the beginning. Who not would like to raise or cuddle a little tiger, lion or other cute wild animal. But I also understood the point. Interaction is not good! At least not for the animal. So I simply enjoyed my stay and the animals` presence and company. At the end of my adventure, I knew I will come back to Africa to extend my knowledge but also to meet more of those incredible animals.

Last year, I thought about taking a break from work and routine and it was more than clear, that South Africa and animals will somehow be part of my off-time. I first planned to go back to one of the sanctuaries for a couple of weeks, but after long discussions with myself, another plan grew inside me. I love all the cats, big and small, and other animals that I got to know in the sanctuaries. But this time, it felt wrong to go to a place where animal are in enclosures. Not to get me wrong … the places are incredible and the animals are in great conditions, they are well looked after, and they have a safe forever home, but for me it was time to see them in their natural habitat. And not only see them, but learn from and about them. One thing came to the other and all of a sudden I found myself preparing for a Professional Field Guiding Course in Southern Africa.

I hope I will have some nice, funny, interesting or else stories to share on this page, cause I have been forced by colleagues to do so 🙂

Boa noite, Sininho