NAI Blog

We are in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on our way to Arusha and have an Internet connection for one evening between our trip to Malawi and Tanzania so I wanted to post some news from our Malawi visit. After twenty hours in three legs of plane rides, and thirteen hours in terminals between flights, we landed in Blantyre, Malawi, on Wednesday afternoon. We left on Monday afternoon so time zone changes and flights consumed the first two days. Aaron Maluwa and Michael Gondwe of the Museums of Malawi met us just past customs, excited that we had stopped by for a couple of days.

We caught up on each others lives and checked into a hotel before going to the museum to tour their exhibits and grounds. Then we traveled by car to Aaron’s home for a wonderful dinner and visit with his wife Grace and daughter and son, Purity and Prince. He filled us in on the next day’s visit to Chikwawa community and Baeru School about an hour’s drive southwest of Blantyre near the Shire River.

The next morning they picked us up at 6:45 AM and we drove the blacktop highway southwest through many villages and past small farms to the Baeru School, arriving by 8 AM. We met the principal who explained the school has 1850 children and 14 teachers. Indoor classrooms handle a few hundred children at one time. A giant fig tree and other groves of shade trees serve as the other classrooms.

About three hundred children, grades 1 through 8, gathered under the fig tree and sat on the ground while teachers and village chiefs sat in plastic chairs or on wooden benches behind them. The program for the day was to be about HIV/AIDS and the ways to prevent it. Michael and Aaron each gave wonderful, interactive presentations in the common language of Malawi, Chichewa. They encouraged young people to wait for marriage before becoming sexually involved, but also explained disease prevention alternatives.

Then they introduced Olive Chisoya and Fanni Nyongo, social service counselors and HIV test givers from NAPHAM. This organization was created by people who were HIV positive to give support to others like themselves while helping other folks learn about their own status and the dangers from HIV/AIDS. Fanni gave an excellent talk about HIV/AIDS, myths and the opportunity to be tested.

David Mkandawire was next as a presenter. He was found to be HIV positive in 1997 but remains in good health through strict adherance to diet and medicine regimens. He told frank stories about the threats HIV/AIDS has for these young people. He asked who was sexually active and hands went up among the kids, especially among the 13-year olds. He goes on most of the museum trips to villages to tell thousand of people each year about his life and how to avoid the disease.

Many cultural practices in Malawi make all of this more challenging. Polygamy is common in rural Malawi. Young girls are introduced to sexual experiences at age 12 or 13 by older men chosen by their parents to teach them. Older men who are HIV positive often believe a local myth that sex with a virgin will cure them. The combination of these beliefs is deadly. David implored the young people to be tested and learn of their status with the disease. He also urged abstention until marriage and faithfulness to your one life partner.

The program for the morning ended with 70 youngsters lining up to be tested for HIV and most were girls. Two 13-year old girls tested positive and made appointments to bring their parents back to a counseling session with health officials.

After lunch the children were treated to entertaining videos in one of the brick classroom buildings while the adults of the community gathered under the fig tree. The entire program was done in a similar fashion with them, but with much more frank talk about the dangers of polygamy, multiple partners, unsafe sexual practices and not knowing your status with the disease. David was clear in saying, “I will die one day, but not of AIDS. I live carefully with a proper diet and medicines.” He explained that and HIV positive man or woman is more dangerous to others than someone with AIDS, because they appear to be well, but have the virus. He warned all to be wary and avoid casual sexual encounters.

After the educational sessions, the children joined the adults and cultural dances and stories were presented by local villagers and Malawi’s best cultural dance troupe. Local women led dances and songs with familiar rhythms they had rewritten with messages that warned of casual sex and the dangers of HIV. The adults were also invited to be tested for HIV and six women of the fifty tested had the virus. Few men agreed to be tested, showing another part of the problem. Many men know they have taken risks and they do not want to find out their status and that further endangers them and their families.

The donations of NAI members provide the transportation, meals and other daily expense costs for these innovate programs. Museum funds are inadequate and the great demand for these important programs is evident. Mike and Aaron are very grateful for the support from our members.

One in twelve people are HIV positive and one in twelve are orphans, usually who lost parents to the disease. The museum programs also teach about malaria prevention. If you have an interest in helping save lives through these important programs, click here and help as you are able. Monthly contributions of any amount you wish are especially helpful. Contact Beth Bartholomew at 888-900-8283 to arrange that.

Interpretation of cultural practices are often historical, describing past behaviors or events. These programs are dynamic and preserve the cultures of people by using their dances, their voices and their emotions to build understanding and encourage change to protect their lives and futures.

-Tim Merriman

I usually enjoy learning opportunities of most varieties. However, I have to admit that getting up to speed with current science and forecasts about climate change has been less than uplifting. But one piece of information left me dumbstruck—there are no truly wild places left on this planet.

When Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature twenty years ago, he posed the idea that human impacts on the environment are so far reaching that there are no longer any places that remain as untouched, pristine natural systems. I guess I was in denial at that time, imagining that remote areas at the poles, in the deepest parts of the Amazon basin or in the deepest basins of the oceans, still existed without any signs of human alteration. Now we’re seeing the effects of climate change may be most profound in those same remote areas.

It seems as though the concept of globalization has really become apparent in the past year. With the current economic situation, we realize how closely the health of our American economy is tied to the economies of other nations. The H1N1 flu pandemic reminds us that we share many human health issues with the rest of the planet. And now we’re really waking up to the fact that we humans are altering the climate and the oceans on a global scale. In short, we all share a common fate, or to put it in more positive terms, we are each responsible for the survival and success of our fellow humans—not just in the next county or state, but in nations half a world away.

So Jim, do you have any good news to share? Perhaps I do. Interpretation is all about making connections, connecting our audiences to their heritage, to the world around them. As a growing portion of our audience realizes how closely together we are all tied, this becomes a common conceptual framework with which to view the world. That makes our job a lot easier, and our audiences are increasingly interested in exploring our various connections to nature and to each other.

We also need to present these global connections in a positive light whenever we can. It’s very easy to look at the negative aspects of globalization, but that tends to scare folks more than empower them. So to flip this idea to the positive, actions we take and changes we make here at home will send a positive ripple around the rest of the world. As we help ourselves we are also helping our neighbors. Actions that improve our environment in the U.S. may be felt across the Earth.

And while pristine wilderness may be gone in the purest sense, there are still places where nature prevails for the moment in all its splendor. And I have to believe that the natural systems that support us can heal themselves if we humans can reduce the strain we put on those systems. It is the only globe we have to live on, and globalization can mean mutual benefit rather than mutual destruction if we choose the right path.

As you read this, we’re in Malawi on vacation and headed next to Tanzania and then Kenya. I hope we don’t hear a phone ring or go on the Internet for two weeks. Vacations are best when they are “unplugged, unwired, away from the normal hubbub of work and life.” Malawi is our first stop on this adventure.

Two years ago in Vancouver, British Columbia, we got acquainted with Aaron Maluwa and Michael Gondwe of the Museums of Malawi. They use cultural dance, songs and stories to interpret the threats of HIV, malaria and food shortages to folks who live in villages without the opportunity for an education beyond grade school.

Most of us interpret nature and history to enrich the lives of healthy and often fairly wealthy people. They use interpretation and environmental education to save lives, especially of children and people with few financial resources. It’s important work and somewhat unexpected from museum educators who often focus more on built environments and artifacts. They are keeping alive the cultures of Malawi by using cultural arts to learn new skills to survive. We will visit their programs the first three days and get to take part in a visit to a village. They are doing great work and we look forward to learning more about it firsthand.

We are taking along a Skyhydrant from SkyJuice of Australia. It’s a high tech water filter that requires no power and has no moving parts. Reverse osmosis is the trick. It lasts five to ten years and removes all microbial disease agents for a community of 500 to 1,000 people. It’s the first of its kind being installed in Malawi and we hope to assist in getting more of them there. SkyJuice has put many Skyhydrants in villages in Kenya and Tanzania. They are also used in refugee camps all over the world.

Playpumps International is another interesting organization attempting to improve life in Malawi and many other nations needing clean water sources. They build well pumps powered by children on a merry-go-round play structure. They install 100 at a time for efficiency and Malawi is a current target for the program.

We recently learned about BeadforLife organization in Uganda whose staff works with village women to make beautiful handmade jewelry from paper beads. The products are wonderful and millions of dollars return to Uganda each year to support village enterprises.

Four years ago I led an ecotour for NAI members to Tanzania and Joe Wodiuk, an old friend and construction contractor, went along. He has since returned three times to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilamanjaro with nine blind people, to build an 8,000 square foot orphanage and to help that same orphanage get a start on raising a variety of Artemisia that can be used as a malaria preventative. Joe has retired from contracting and devotes his time, money and much of his energy to helping people in Tanzania and Haiti cope with basic resource problems.

I started by saying that we’re going on a vacation and the Tanzania leg is definitely that, about ten days of photography and birdwatching in the Serengeti and among the baobab trees of Tarangire. But tourism of many kinds change us, usually in very good ways. It presents us with opportunities to do better things for our own communities and for distant communities. The best vacations not only relax us, they help us think about the world we love and the good things left to be done.

-Tim Merriman

Travel is not only broadening, I’ve realized, but burdening too. I carry these lives and places with me. But I’m grateful for the ballast; it’s keep me from tipping into total complacency. Judith Stone

Sections have presented a particular challenge to NAI—section members are spread all over the country/world, making it very difficult for them to meet. Up to this point the annual NAI National Interpreters Workshop has been the best regular opportunity for a gathering of section members, but there’s so much competition with other program elements that section meetings are relatively short. That may soon be past history.

The ZWPA (Zoos, Wildlife Parks and Aquariums) section organized the first webinar in the history of NAI (as far as I know). Nearly 60 members from around the country—and some international members as well)—attended a virtual icebreaker on Monday evening, and then participated is a number of web-based sessions the following day. The webinar is a different experience than an in-person meeting, but it was a very productive learning opportunity. Congratulations to Todd Bridgewater and Jessica Moore for organizing this workshop, and a special thanks to Dr. Pat Stephens Williams and Steven F. Austin University for hosting the meeting.

When Don Follows and I started the first section at the National Interpreters Workshop in Aspen, the internet was a little-known curiosity. Publishing a quarterly newsletter was the primary benefit we could offer section members. Now with e-newsletters, conference calls—and webinars—technology may finally help us solve the challenge of gathering interpreters with proximate interests but distant locations.

We’ve seen membership in NAI spread to over 34 countries now, and still growing.  The international meetings that NAI hosts have increased support and communications among interpreters all over the globe. Every time we meet one of the most common comments is “We need to get together more often.” While a face-to-face meeting is always going to be a richer experience, technology is providing more options that will better connect us all.

I remember the 1970 debut of the Youth Conservation Corps(YCC) and later the Young Adult Conservation Corps (YACC). Wonderful things happened with those programs and many of our colleagues in the interpretive profession got a start as a YCC or YACC camper or worker. Many colleagues also started as staff working with these great programs, that were similar to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) of the 1930s.

In 1955 Elizabeth Cushman, a Vassar senior, received a grade of “A” for her senior thesis that launched the creation of the Student Conservation Association (SCA). This innovative partnership with National Park Service and later other agencies was also inspired by the CCC. It has aptly demonstrated the power of engaging young people in conservation work on public lands. Many working professionals remember that important first experience with SCA .

There’s a proposal in President Obama’s budget for 70 million dollars for a major revival of YCC programs. About 30 million dollars may be destined for hunting and fishing oriented programs and the other 40 million is for other nature programs. Young people in these programs have grown personally and connected with natural and cultural resources in lasting ways as they have in SCA. These programs included educational programs each week along with the work. Interpreters and environmental educators usually provide the enrichment programs.

Not everything that happened in the 70′s with these programs was good. I had a crew of hardcore unemployed youths from YACC who lived in a residential camp nearby and worked with me daily in a state park visitor center. They were enthusiastic, appreciative of the job and willing to do whatever they were asked. I was proud to give them uniforms and an opportunity to represent our conservation mission to our diverse publics.

However, they lived in a residential camp, made a minimum wage income for full-time work and had no costs for housing and food. They would share stories at work of staying up late, drinking, doing drugs and even shared a story of stealing batteries from cars and trucks on neighboring farms. The residential camp put inexperienced young people with some adolescents with very adult habits and shortcomings. It didn’t ruin the program but I watched several teenagers sink into addictive behavior, who might not have met that temptation in a non-residential setting. At the time we informed administrators of the problems but the policies and funding were inflexible.

I  hope that these new programs will be placed in both governmental and nonprofit settings to create diverse experiences and assist the many struggling resource organizations who have experienced year after year of budget cuts. This new infusion of labor is needed in many agencies and organizations.

YCC  did not disappear in the past thirty years. The YACC turned into the Public Land Corps and YCC endured as a program primarily on federal and state lands, but neither program has been very well funded in my view. A few state park systems have maintained their own versions of these programs. The proposed 70 million dollars would be a major infusion of money into this important program to create jobs and introduce more young people to careers in conservation.

NAI was one of 140 organizations who joined the National Wildlife Federation in support of this proposed initiative. Your letter or call to a member of Congress or Department of Interior Secretary Salazar can only help show support. In difficult times wonderful opportunities appear. Let’s hope this one rises to meet its full potential.

- Tim Merriman

Just when things were getting really good along the Central California Coast, we got word that El Niño is returning, and in a significant way. In the past couple of weeks Monterey Bay has come alive with krill after a successful upwelling season, and we have seen over 30 humpback whales and hundreds of Risso’s dolphins and northern right whale dolphins. The highlight had to be two blue whales that spent an hour feeding a few hundred yards from the Aquarium.  

Blue whales trump staff meetings and office work, so we all emptied out of the building and filled the outside decks to stare in awe at these amazing creatures. It just doesn’t get any better than that. That afternoon NOAA issued an El Niño forecast/advisory for this fall and winter, which means warmer ocean water is heading for the eastern Pacific, including California. Monterey Bay won’t warm up overnight, and I expect our whales will enjoy good feeding for the rest of the summer.

However, this may mean that 2010 will be a tough year for many of our birds and mammals in terms of locating food and raising their young. From my selfish perspective, it may mean very poor wildlife watching along the coast for the next year or more. It’s probably not fair to refer to El Niño as a problem child. The name actually refers to the Christ Child, because this warm water event often peaks during December (the Christmas season) along the west coast of South America. It’s a natural event that has occurred for millennia and marine life of all types has adapted to survive these episodes. However, the lack of predictability—both in terms of occurrence and effects—is a little problematic for we humans.

If the typical El Niño pattern holds true, we may expect fewer hurricanes this season, a mild winter in the Northeast, and heavier than normal rainfall in the Southwest and California. If a lot of warm water persists in the Eastern Pacific, supplying more moisture in air masses moving over the US, we could see heavier rainfall in many areas. That could be a good thing as long as it doesn’t reach flood proportions. But judging from El Niño events over the last couple of hundred years, there is also a chance that we could have a drier than normal winter. A meteorologist friend assured me that we would know for sure what kind of winter we would have by May of 2010—when all the data was in. In the big picture, El Niño is one of those significant natural events—along with others such as volcanic eruptions, floods, meteors, earthquakes—that are not quite predictable and can have a profound effect on our lives.

These are examples that Mother Nature still has some tricks up her sleeve and we humans aren’t in total control. I like those occasional reminders that keep us humble and keep us focused on the power that nature has over us. This is rich material for interpretation, as it reignites people’s curiosity about these natural phenomena and it gives us an opportunity to help reconnect our audiences with the world around them.

We can also interpret how various cultures have weathered these events for centuries, in fact making these natural events a focal point of the culture. Now that I think about it, the coming El Niño may bring some interesting interpretive opportunities as we observe this unusual phenomenon again this winter. But I sure will miss those blue whales….

- Jim Covel

A part of the legend that surrounds Ernest Hemingway is the story that he was challenged by buddies to write a short story of ten words or less. Supposedly he wrote, For Sale: Baby Shoes, Never Worn. You can learn more about what makes this that the world’s shortest short story at Cliff Notes, but that’s not why I mention it.

It reminds me of how we approach writing powerful themes. The six word short story by Hemingway (maybe) would be a compelling title for a program and it implies the theme, though it’s not a complete sentence. It is a complete idea, a message. It suggests that a couple’s hopes are shattered, when they lose their newborn or soon to be born child. There are many ways you could say that, but the simple six words conveys a powerful set of human emotions and implied story. It has both tangible (baby, shoes) and intangible universal elements (hope lost, broken dreams, despair). The story is specific and interesting and it certainly answers the “so what?” question. It’s a story about a personal tragedy.

Good interpretation stimulates or inspires people to think. That’s provocation in Tilden’s six principles. Social science research indicates that people have to think deeply about ideas before coming to new conclusions that change their behavior. It’s usually not getting some new tidbit of knowledge that shifts our thinking, it’s the idea that inspires, troubles, stirs, frustrates, engages us and leads us to profound thought about it.

Powerful interpretive themes engage us and make us think. The supportive information, stories, photos, tours and other media are helpful. But if we want people to become better stewards of resources and protectors of unique environments and cultural sites, they must be engaged in an internal conversation that results in a personal decision to change, invest more, and do good things.

A strong theme is a great start on an interpretive program and it may only be six or eight or ten words, but it suggests a much bigger and provocative idea. The program or media piece based on the theme may be short or long, simple or complex. If it’s a powerful theme, it stimulates deeper thought, engagement and may lead to changed behavior.

Like a great short story, it makes you think. Hemingway or not, it’s hard to judge the source of this. But it makes you think - For sale: Baby Shoes, Never Used.

-Tim Merriman

I’m still amazed by the power of the internet to allow free and open access to so much information to so many people.  This phenomenon has been called the “democratization” of information, and it has overturned an age-old barrier.  Information is power and that power is no longer restricted to a small number of educated, well-informed insiders.  We all have almost instantaneous information at our fingertips.

Since we humans are social animals, it was only a matter of time until folks figured out how to utilize the internet for social networking, and now sites like Facebook and Twitter are among the fastest growing sites for internet traffic.  Now another interesting phenomenon is emerging.

We know that word of mouth is one of the most persuasive forms of communication.  Many businesses carefully cultivate their reputation among clients in hopes of generating good word-of-mouth advertising.  That word-of-mouth “buzz” advertising is what every successful business is going after.  There is now a virtual equivalent to that phenomenon—people are using social networking sites to share opinions, observations and experiences with various businesses or other activities.  A major advantage that sites like Twitter and Facebook offer is that information can be posted and distributed almost instantaneously, making these sites preferred sources for up-to-the-minute information.

So a growing number of tourist sites and attractions are taking advantage of this phenomenon to post daily—even hourly– information on weather conditions, special events or opportunities, other news that prospective clients would be interested in or that would help them make some decisions about their visit.  With the explosion of I-Phones and Blackberry devices, a large portion of the American population now has the ability to search these sites while en route are even during their visit to your site to access the latest information.

So imagine being able to post the afternoon weather forecast at your park or nature center, this morning’s wildlife sightings, a reminder about the evening campfire program or a link to a new podcast tour of your geology exhibit.  Then imagine that dozens, perhaps hundreds of onsite guests or visitors that are on their way will get that information and adjust their plans accordingly.  In other words, when you “tweet” (as in posting information on Twitter) there’s a large—and rapidly growing—audience that is tuned in.

I still believe that many of us are most effective in front of a live audience, interacting directly with people.  We know that the authenticity of a first-hand experience is a very compelling feature of many interpretive programs.  I’m not trying to diminish that fundamental part of the art that we practice.  However, I would encourage us to take advantage of new and effective ways to inform and prime our audience for a great experience.  In short, tweet and buzz no longer refers just to the birds and the bees.

- Jim Covel

Cliff House on the Pacific Ocean side of San Francisco Bay. Photo by Linda Long.

Growing up in the San Francisco Bay area, one of my favorite hangouts was Ocean Beach that stretches about three and a half miles from the Sutro Baths and Cliff House southward to Fort Funston. So I was particularly interested in a story about young man of 18 who was walking that same stretch of beach. He encountered a small group of people watching an interpreter doing an informal presentation on dune plants. Sounds like a fairly common occurrence, but this turned out to have an uncommon result.

The year was 1889, and the young man was Enos Mills. He had saved enough money working in the copper mines of Montana to afford a trip to California. He was finally touching the ocean that he had dreamed about as a boy growing up in Kansas. The interpreter he ran into was none other than John Muir. For the rest of that day, Enos Mills walked with Muir across the dunes of Golden Gate Park. Muir saw the makings of an inspired disciple. Mills found a mentor and a purpose for his life’s work—conservation. A lifelong friendship grew out of that chance encounter, a friendship between two individuals that would each change our world and inspire so many of us.

In our roles as interpreters, we have the opportunity to inspire countless thousands of people every year. You never know when that next Enos Mills will be in your audience. You never know when you may be talking to a future interpreter who will carry on this important work. Most of us are in this profession because someone inspired us early in life or early in our careers. In turn, we need to mentor those who will follow us.

Investing our time in mentoring new interpreters is critical to our future. Investing in the organization that will support all of us in our careers is also key to the future of interpretation. Your membership and participation in NAI helps provide that support, and the Enos Mills Fund presents additional opportunities to contribute. While funding is important, it all comes back to the people that are the profession. You are the most valuable resource in developing the next generation of interpreters.

So try this: Take an hour out of your week to take yourself on a walk on the beach, or through the woods, along a stream, or wherever your heart is happy. Think about the things that inspire you in that setting. Think about the people who inspire you—see their faces and hear their words in your mind’s eye. Hold on to those things and find a way to share them with others. With your help, a walk on the beach may just change their lives.