The Primate Affair

Diana Voronina Start Date: Feb 3, 2015 - End Date: May 23, 2015
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Volunteer Trip
  • Vacation/Personal Trip
  • Limpopo, South Africa

My Travel Story

by: Diana Voronina Start Date: Feb 3, 2015 - End Date: May 23, 2015
  • Educational/Research Trip
  • Volunteer Trip
  • Vacation/Personal Trip
I will be participating with GoEco in a project in South Africa called “The Monkey and Wildlife Rehabilitation Center” located in the Limpopo province. I called this the “Primate Affair” because I will have the opportunity to develop meaningful relationships with primates. This is an ecological conservation trip because the rehabilitation center I will be volunteering in was established to provide a temporary sanctuary for wildlife casualties, by rehabilitating them to a point of self-sufficiency, and ultimately reintroducing them into nature. This trip can also be categorized as a volunteer trip because my time would be spent caring for the animals, preparing food, and doing maintenance work around the center. I have been reading many blogs from past volunteers to develop an understanding of the opportunities offered by this project, and every story I have read so far, described exactly what I hope to accomplish with my time.

Through the numerous service hours that I dedicated in my spare time throughout school, I experienced firsthand how my dedication can make an impact on society. This impact not only comes from the time and effort that I put in, but from my leadership in engaging others to make an impact in the society. This impact was demonstrated to me through Key Club, where the combined effort of Key Clubbers around the world raised 2.5 million for maternal neonatal tetanus and eliminated tetanus from Madagascar.

On my service trip, my goal is to make an everlasting impact on wounded primates. I have been blessed with numerous opportunities for me to thrive and achieve all the things I want in my life, which is why I love to volunteer. Through service I am able to give back the good fortune that I was able to come by to those who are less fortunate. I realized that I am a volunteer at heart, because I am much happier volunteering than sitting at home and binge watching Netflix. My service trip is meant to act as my high school senior experience. My senior experience can be simply accomplished by though full time employment at my part time restaurant job, but instead I would rather dedicate my time and all the money I have saved to enrich my education at the rehabilitation center by pursuing my true passion of taking care of abused animals. This categorizes this trip as a vacation for me, because I am doing something I am passionate about and something that brings me joy to accomplish.

This would be an educational trip because I will have the chance to learn about the behaviors of the monkeys. I can develop a research paper as an external assignment in my free time. Monkeys are my favorite animals and being able to observe and learn about them in real life would be the ultimate learning experience. Also, I can take part in the planting or harvesting of food which is used to feed the monkeys. Gardening is one of my favorite past times during the summer, which I would enjoy immensely while I am at the center. These are some of the activities that classify this trip as a vacation for me, because I am doing what I enjoy.

To summarize, this is an opportunity for me to be taking care of primates in South Africa. This is going to be a once in a life time adventure for me, categorizing this as an adventure travel. I will be given the opportunity to explore the Limpopo province after I have completed my care for the animals on the weekends. I think I may do that once but not much because I would want to stay and spend most of my time playing with the primates at the center. I really hope I can get the funding I need to make my primate affair come true.
  • Limpopo, South Africa

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