After 3 month of interning at Ilbirs Foundation it feels strange to leave. Partly because the time flew by so quickly and partly because I became used to this wonderful place and to my collegues.
Looking back on this time I feel very lucky. I had the chance to do amazing work and learn so much more than I expeced. This will shape my future without a doubt. Just as initially planned I spent most of my time working on the development of monitoring methods for the Tien Shan Wapiti, a local and endangered species of elks. Through this work I learned a lot about wildlife management, working in Kyrgyzstan, organizing and conducting expeditions and so much more. I am delighted that as a result of my internship an opportunity has arisen for me to continue working with Ilbir's Foundation, as I will be doing my bachelor's thesis in connection with their work.
Reflecting on my internship, I can point out some moments that meant especially much to me. The first that comes to my mind is the expedition in Naryn stat reserve that I planned over most of my time here. I was very pleased that so much planning and organizing finally led to this expedition. I spent eight days in your national park with motivated volunteers, two rangers and a colleague from Ilbirs Foundation. On horseback and on foot, we travelled an average of 25km a day to collect data. Not only were these some of the most challenging days of my life, but we were also almost attacked by a bear at one point! Nevertheless, it was fun, and I will remember it for a long time. Another highlight for me was a birthday party of a co-worker here in the office. Everyone came together and we had a wonderful social celebration and meal. Thanks to the friendliness and openness of the people here, I felt as if I had been working with everyone for ten years.
I also remember a particularly difficult event that forced me to develop flexibility. On the first day of the expedition in Naryn, the one I Just mentioned, one of the rangers, who was currently working in a team with one of the volunteers offered this volunteer to create some fake data, so they wouldn’t have to do the hard part of the work. I concluded that this person saw me as unimportant and our work as stupid. Considering that I counted on everyone there this had me shocked and disappointed for some moments. Luckily, I found a way to quickly reorganize the work so this person’s lack of interest would not interfere with the mission. I was surprised by myself for being able to process and adapt to this problem. There were other situations too during these three months where I had to adjust myself to difficulties. For example, sometimes it was hard to get a reply that I needed, or my tasks were unclear. Overall, I could learn from this too and handle the situations well.
In conclusion the entire experience was very interesting for me and motivated me to pursue international work in the future. I have a feeling that what I was doing here has a good impact on the local environment and that my contribution is overall valuable.
Without further talk: Here are some nice pictures I collected during the past days.
The first picture show scenes from a family that lives far up in the mountains to herd their animals. On a wildlife photography tour that i could accompany we visited their home to eat and spend one nigh
The following pictures were all taken during the Expedition in Naryn about Monitoring of Tien Shan Wapiti. First me with two good friends that agreed to volunteer on the trip.
Meet Elisa (on the right), one of the 15 Wapitis that live in the 0.5 square kilometre fenced area next to the Nature reserve. Like her friends there she is well used to people. Some of her favourite freetime activities are relaxing next to the yurts of the local people and curiously sniffing people.
Here you can see Bob. He is one of Elisas fellow Wapitis in the fenced area. We stumbled across his sleeping spot during our survey, to which he replied like this:
In the actual nature reserve we spent our time hiking, horse riding and on data collection.
This blog surely misses many details of my experience, but I hope it provides an interesting overview and sparked some interest. Feel free to contact me about any questions!
The following and last 3 days of my work here I will spend analyzing the collected data, finishing up and reporting on my tasks and, of course, celebrating with my colleagues.