Rion’s Story

Rion is Clive’s 2IC and we spend a big part of our day with him.  He drives Shez, the vehicle we travel in for our volunteer activities (such as bush chopping) as well as on our game drives.  He is quite a character, with a wonderful personality and endears himself easily to all of the volunteers.

I sit down with him to listen to his story.

He was born in Damaraland and grew up in Fransfontain where he studied both Africaans and his home language till high school. 

He started playing football around the age of 10 and discovered he had a special talent at this sport.  It wasn’t long before he was playing for the under 23 National team of Namibia and travelled to Angola, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana for his sport, helping to win 19 cups for his country.   Unfortunately, he had to give up his love for  soccer due to financial reasons, as Namibian soccer players didn’t make much money at the time.  After a few jobs that included working for Telecom and a security company he started a career in the hospitality and tourism industry. 

He first worked at the Mowani Mountain Camp and moved from cooking meals to being a trainee guide.  In 2007, he started to learn English.  Given the fluency with which he speaks English now, (just 3 years later), I am really impressed at his ability to pick up a language so quickly. 

He loves wildlife and the great outdoors and is really interested in learning as much as he can in the guiding business.  He started studying ornithology and continued to expand his knowledge about elephants, as well as fauna and flora.  He studied at Windhoek at the Namibian Academy for Tourism and Hospitality and spent his free time at Etosha National Park where he expanded his guiding knowledge.

He moved to 3 different lodges before coming back to Mowani in 2008 as a professional guide. 

He joined PAWS in May of this year because of his love of big cats and his desire to learn more about leopards and cheetahs.  He enjoys both his work here and his colleagues and the opportunity to meet volunteers from all over the world. 

He dreams of being a birding specialist and writing a book about birds in Namibia.  He wishes to expand his knowledge about other aspects of nature and wants to study snakes and the stars next.  He also dreams of  broadening his guiding training at the Okavango Delta and being a tour guide on an overlander truck so he can explore Southern Africa and see a little more of his beloved continent. 

Rion is a man who has found his passion in life.  He tells me he loves working in nature and believes that if you don’t take care of nature, nature will not take care of you.   Rion, it has been a pleasure to meet you and I hope you continue to follow your dreams.    There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.  ~Nelson Mandela