People asked me several questions about the internship. I thought to have FAQ’s section about the internship. 

Q: Where are you interning, exactly?
A: Etosha National Park, Namibia. This park is about 22,000 Sq kilometers, which it means the park is bigger than the country of Israel. 

Q: What do you eat and how do you get food?
A: I get my food at a food store. I cook food (well, Nancy cooks, I wash dishes) just like I cook food at home. No difference between here and there except here have springbok meat and back at home doesn’t have this meat. The nearest food store is about three hours away, we have to stock up the food storage enough to last us for a month or so. 
We also have something called braai. It is an African barbecue style, we use a campfire to barbecue food. The culture of braai is to start a fire early, just before sunset, and sit down around the fire and have a sundowner (any alcoholic drink as the sun goes down). People would chat and enjoy drinks for a couple hours then start cooking food over the fire. Braai would last few hours and it is a good time for people to stop doing what they are doing and enjoy each other’s company. 

Homemade tortilla, guacamole, chicken with chutney, and cheese
Braai with other researchers
Steak roasted over braai fire with butternut squash
Q: Are you living in the bush?
A: Not exactly, I live at researchers’ camp. It has basic needs such as kitchen, fridge, washing machine, toilet and a shower. No internet, though. I sleep in a caravan and other researchers sleep in either caravans or tents. 
The researchers’ camp is located in one of five resorts in the park. It does not mean we are staying in a nice chalet with the AC running, it means we are staying in one part of the resort that is closed off from tourists and we only have basic needs (which means no AC). 
There were a couple occasions that we camped in the bush and had to shower in the tub with only two inches of water. 
My home.
Q: How is the weather?
A: Really hot. This location only has two seasons (dry and wet) and we are currently in the dry season with a wet season coming up soon. The day can get as hot in high 90‘s and there are few days that it dropped to 50’s. The nighttime gets lots cooler and sometimes chilly. 

Q: Where are researchers from?
A: All over the world. Of as right now, two are from Namibia, four are from Australia, one is from Canada and that left me, an American.

Q: What do you do in the internship?
A: I work on Nancy’s project. My tasks often include: identifying lions and hyenas and keeping track of prides and clans; observing animals’ behaviors (mainly lions and hyenas); collaring lions and hyenas; holding a heavy spotlight lamp for sweeping. Oh and making sure Nancy doesn’t fall out of the car.
Nancy tries to identify that hyena. 
One of many camera traps.
R to L: female lion collar, male lion collar, hyena collar
Q: What is Nancy’s project about?
A: Competition between lions and hyenas. Etosha National Park’s last study of lions was about 20 years ago and Nancy is starting this research from the scratch. Nancy is collecting on demographics of lions and hyenas hence me identifying lions and hyenas and their prides/clans. Nancy is using collars to compare the movements of lions and hyenas to see what kind of competition both animals have. 
Nancy is also focusing on HWC: working on improving relations between people and carnivores, figuring out the best way to get each party to co-exist. 

Q: Wait, who is Nancy?
A: You can say she is my supervisor/mentor. Nancy is supported by NSERC (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada) and is a Ph.D student with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa in collaboration with the University of California at Berkeley, USA. Nancy was born and bred in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is also deaf, and from a deaf family.  

Q: Is the internship 9am-5pm thing?
A: It would be if animals follow the concept of the workday. Animals are at most active around dawn and dusk. So, no. 
Usually, we would have a pre-sunrise game drive around the park, looking at the animals for behaviors and such. There is an office work that needs to be done during daytime, when animals are sleeping under the shade and the temperature at its peak. Sometimes we, stupid humans, will work outside with camera traps under the heat of the day while smart animals are staying under the shade. While working with camera trap, you will need to stay alert or probably end up stepping on a snake (I once nearly did).
After office work, we will head off into the game for an afternoon game drive in the park if we don’t have collaring to do. If we have a collaring to do, we will finish office work early have a dinner early (which often doesn’t happen and we will have a rushed dinner) then head into the park just before the sunset. 
The hours are odd. Sometimes, we will start at 6:30am and finish the day at 1am and another day, we would start the day at 10am and finish the day at 6pm. It depends on what needs to be done on that day and it depends on animals as well.
An office with an AC running.
An office outside. 
Q: Do you have a day off?
A: Not really. Animals don’t know the meaning of a day off. 

Q: Can you have a day off?
A: I can take a day off anytime I want and whenever I need rest. Most of the time, I keep working because the amount of work never decrease (I swear the amount increase every time I come back the next day). 
I had a few days when we finished early and rest a little bit during dinnertime before starting to work again during nighttime. We had only one day so far that we actually did nothing all the day (it was kinda forced on us).

Q: What did you learn from the internship:
A: How to identify animal bones, tracks and fecal. How to spot and determine which animal is it in the distance. How to preform sweeping with spotlight during nighttime. Some lab work such as doing a blood work. I also learned how to conduct a scientific research in the field. 
I learned that sometimes you have to let other people go on their way to get what you want even if you don’t like their ways. I learned it is important to not be too stubborn in your way but stay firm when it is necessary. 

Q: What do you do for fun?
A: Watching animals at waterholes (it is fun, trust me), driving in the park after sunset, reading book. 

Q: Do you feel lonely?
A: Nope. Not at all. How can you get lonely when you’re surrounded by thousands of animals?

Q: What’s your favorite part of the internship?
A: Seeing all of those animals I grew up reading about. 
Elephants and their lunches.
A male lion enjoying a sunrise.

Honey badgers running away from us.
If you have more questions, just ask me. 

Nancy still needs more interns for upcoming summer 2014. This project requires a team and it is just me and Nancy working on this project. I am only here for two months and Nancy is staying here for another year. More interns will help Nancy to move this project faster. Besides, where else will you get a chance to work closely with wild animals in Africa?