Marcel at Mayflower Bocawina National Park

For my three-week internship, I worked at Mayflower Bocawina National Park, in Silk Grass. It’s over 7000 acres of protected land, with hiking trails going to 3 beautiful waterfalls. Every day, I went to the park with one of the wardens and did work with them. This included opening up the office and signing in visitors to the park, usually followed by doing trail maintenance for most of the day, using machetes. I was pretty awful at using a machete for the first week or so, but by the end I was getting the hang of it. It was really great working with the different wardens, talking with them a lot and learning so much about how the park functions, and also about the different plants and animals in the park. I’ve considered becoming a park warden before coming here, so this was all really fascinating and useful information. While I was there, I stayed with a Garinagu family in Silk Grass. They were so hospitable and fun to be around. I was struck by how close-knit the village is, and how much everyone cares about the other people in the community.