A scree-laugh in the night

I am in Mikumi, Tanzania and I need Margaret Atwood. She is good at making up words. What is the word for a screaming laugh? A screelaugh? Anyway, she could do better.

I’m looking for the word that describes the sound I made when I discovered the rather large bat flying around the bedroom I was sharing with Claudine Lowry, NSCC Dean of Organizational Learning, at 10:58 pm. The time was significant because that is exactly two minutes before the generator is turned off and the lights go out in the camp, and while the sight of this frantic bat flapping (another new word? Batflap?) around the room had me screelaughing very loudly, I was more freaked out by the thought of simply hearing the batflap in the pitch darkness. Right on time, not Swahili time, the lights went out and I tried desperately to go to sleep. Claudine and I have a history of wildlife interactions here – just check last year’s blog entries, so this is par for the course, but still led to a bad night of sleep.

All this was after an intense day in the Mikumi National Park guided by VETA Mikumi Tour Guiding faculty Ludovic Saronga and Patrick Kipinga and 24 of their students which ended with the sound of a leopard hunting impala next door to our cabin. Unlike last year, when NSCC Academic Chair Audrey Arsenault and I were the only one to hear the big African cat’s growl, this year the Masaai Askari (guard) heard it, and Jim Bate and Tourism Industry Association of Nova Scotia (TIANS) reps Lynn McDonagh-Hughes and Lisa Dahr heard it too!

Claudine, Jim, Lisa and Lynn and I are all here this week at VETA Mikumi to continue our work on the EFE project. Claudine is evaluating the impact of the CCEDP training for faculty here, Jim is working with the restaurant, conference centre and visitor information staff and faculty on entrepreneurship, and Lisa and Lynn are delivering an introductory “superhost” customer service and industry standards train the trainer session. I am working with the campus principal and various leaders here to plan completion of the final stages of the project.

More updates to come!

Katie Orr
Director, NSCC International