Speaker 1: South Africans doing great things.
Speaker 2: Our well, our next interview that we're having a South
Speaker 2: African doing great things is doing exactly that. In his
Speaker 2: little corna He's about to do something really crazy, something
Speaker 2: I would never do, certainly, but something that is really admirable.
Speaker 2: And he is going to be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
Speaker 3: It's a I don't know if.
Speaker 2: Any of our listeners ever think of connecting the SPCA
Speaker 2: animals taking care of our animals and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro.
Speaker 3: He's going to show us the link.
Speaker 2: This evening, we've got Troy With's email with us, who's
Speaker 2: a part time kennel assistant at the SPCA Santon and
Speaker 2: he's a qualified game ranger, a lover of animals, and
Speaker 2: he is a nature enthusiast, joining us in studio this evening. Troy,
Speaker 2: good evening and welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Good evening, Homoso, and thank you for having me.
Speaker 2: This is quite a title, hey, part time kill assistant,
Speaker 2: qualified game ranger, animal lover, nature enthusiast and word just.
Speaker 3: All basically an amazing human being.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in studio this evening.
Speaker 5: I mean sometimes when I think about it and I
Speaker 5: tell my friends, I say, if it was a number
Speaker 5: of planets, how many times would I be time traveling
Speaker 5: now with the number of you know, jobs I've done
Speaker 5: and things like that. So it's been a quite exciting journey.
Speaker 5: But this one is the utmost exciting for me throughout
Speaker 5: all my career and more welfare, this one is the
Speaker 5: most exciting.
Speaker 3: And this one, you mean your work currently with.
Speaker 5: The SPCA, My work with the SPCA and climbing for Casula,
Speaker 5: climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for Casudi LA and fundraising for the
Speaker 5: Sentinis PCA, like all of that is just exciting for
Speaker 5: me a new fields. It makes me nervous at times,
Speaker 5: but you know I live to learn and I start
Speaker 5: to learn and to teach to educate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean climbing Mound Kilimanjaro is not a
Speaker 2: small thing. And I don't think you wake up one
Speaker 2: morning and you just decide I'm going to climb, But
Speaker 2: you're doing it for a really important cause, something that's
Speaker 2: close to your heart, and that is nature and animals.
Speaker 3: So speak to us about that.
Speaker 5: So it's a passion I discovered when I was quite young,
Speaker 5: you know, playing with playing like outside, watching ants. Do
Speaker 5: they think you know, watching National Geographic walking dogs when
Speaker 5: I was young, and actually it's it even reminds me
Speaker 5: of a story of how I met Stephanie because we
Speaker 5: used to be under the We used to have a crew,
Speaker 5: the Animal Kevin Crew. So we go around Alex. That's
Speaker 5: why I'm born, that's why I'm raised, go around Alex
Speaker 5: collecting injured dogs, collecting straight dogs, stray cats, injured cats,
Speaker 5: and then we would take them to the Sentinus. PCA
Speaker 5: would also keep an eye out for like animal cruelty,
Speaker 5: any form of cruelty, maybe like dogs that were chained
Speaker 5: for like a long time and haven't been given a
Speaker 5: chance to even go out. We would have an approach
Speaker 5: to like educate the owners, tell them the importance of
Speaker 5: walking a dog, the dog learning its surroundings. Why it's
Speaker 5: important to walk a dog because you know, it gets
Speaker 5: to know its surroundings. Yeah, it gets to leave marks,
Speaker 5: you know, through urine and things like that. So we
Speaker 5: would teach a lot of people about that, and not
Speaker 5: to be afraid of dogs, not to be afraid of cats,
Speaker 5: you know, like show them that if you don't understand something,
Speaker 5: that's where usually fear lurks. But when you grow to
Speaker 5: understand a certain animal and how you can relate to
Speaker 5: to it using your own characteristics like feeling. I mean
Speaker 5: they sentient beings, they feel like us, They show compassion,
Speaker 5: they show fear. These are all characteristics we also share.
Speaker 5: So we would do those kind of things around the township.
Speaker 3: Yes, and I love that.
Speaker 2: I mean, had you always had a love for animals
Speaker 2: or is it something you developed over time?
Speaker 4: Probably my past life. I was an animal myself.
Speaker 5: Who knows, but yeah, yeah, yeah, I've always loved animals
Speaker 5: from a young age. I've always been fascinated by them.
Speaker 5: Like I said, when I used to see them in TV,
Speaker 5: I'd ask my parents questions. I'd never miss National Geographic
Speaker 5: when it even used to play on a SAPC three
Speaker 5: when I was young, up until you know, we upgraded
Speaker 5: Enainey and we've got like DStv, so I could watch
Speaker 5: animals the whole time. So I would also go to
Speaker 5: the homelands and watchcows, watchcolds. They would even call me's
Speaker 5: and now call out and I just watch out. I
Speaker 5: was just fascinated about animals from there, the smallest to
Speaker 5: the biggest.
Speaker 2: That time running away, I'm like, what do you mean
Speaker 2: there's that yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yo, yeah, no, I understand what I
Speaker 5: understand what you mean. But yeah, I've always been passionate
Speaker 5: about animals, and as I grew up understood the more
Speaker 5: the passion that love just grew with me.
Speaker 3: So when did your relationship with the sand and the
Speaker 3: SPCA start.
Speaker 5: Apart from it being deeply apart from being deeply connected
Speaker 5: with it. From twenty twelve, I was involved with it
Speaker 5: a little. Like I said, we would report cruelty, would
Speaker 5: take animals there that were injured. Although when I met
Speaker 5: Stephanie in twenty twelve, and that was also when the
Speaker 5: first group of Killeman Jerald Schimers was founded. So during
Speaker 5: twenty twelve I met Stephanie and I had asked about sterilization.
Speaker 4: It was a mobile clinic day.
Speaker 5: They've had a series of mobile clinic day before that,
Speaker 5: but twenty twelve it was held at Cutter Primary School
Speaker 5: at Ford Street in alex So. I had asked about
Speaker 5: sterilization and it was for a gentleman. I knew optim Vola,
Speaker 5: but I just referred to him as uncle, you know
Speaker 5: us in Africans, Yeah, you know, that's how we referred
Speaker 5: to a malue aunt. So he was like Malome and
Speaker 5: I went with Stephanie to his place to find out
Speaker 5: more information about his dogs and everything. After they've spoke,
Speaker 5: we got the sterilization organized. The dog's got sterilized because
Speaker 5: there's something this PCA in general doesn't promote breeding. I mean,
Speaker 5: there is a number of dogs without homes and it
Speaker 5: is because of you know, careless breeding and things like that.
Speaker 5: So after finding out about that, I had a word
Speaker 5: with Stephanie. She asked me questions about myself. I told
Speaker 5: her about myself. That's when she even found out about
Speaker 5: the Animal Kevin Crew. He met my other friends who
Speaker 5: are in the Kebin Crew and the we even made
Speaker 5: a front page at that time Alex News. So when
Speaker 5: she found out about me, she slowly and introduced me
Speaker 5: to Angie and they saw me call. They slowly got
Speaker 5: me into volunteering at the Centinus PCA.
Speaker 4: That was also nice.
Speaker 5: So I started volunteering at the SPCA, walking dogs and everything.
Speaker 4: At first, I didn't know the rules.
Speaker 5: I was kind of like shouted because I just got there,
Speaker 5: took out dogs, took them back into the wrong kennels,
Speaker 5: and you know that's quite dangerous. Yeah, soa kinda got
Speaker 5: in trouble a little. Although as I went through the
Speaker 5: training as one of the youngest volunteers there, I learned
Speaker 5: more and more about the SPCA and I started understanding
Speaker 5: what this PCA stood forward. It was all about the
Speaker 5: impact it had to the community, and I just wanted
Speaker 5: to get involved. Even right after school, I don't waste time.
Speaker 5: I just went right into the SPC and asked for
Speaker 5: a job there.
Speaker 2: Sure, that's yeah, that's a beautiful, beautiful story. And then
Speaker 2: at what point did you think maybe I should try
Speaker 2: some at this mountain?
Speaker 5: So Stephanie has been asking me to climb Mount killy
Speaker 5: manjarichoklast some time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm gonna ask that we actually introduced Stephanie and
Speaker 2: oh yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 3: You make reference to her a lot, and I think
Speaker 3: it's only.
Speaker 2: Fair she here in studio and she does seem like
Speaker 2: she's a key to put it aword Os. So I'm
Speaker 2: gonna ask you just to come closer to the mike, Stephanie.
Speaker 2: I know that you here accompanying Troy, but yes, we're
Speaker 2: going to bring you into the conversation.
Speaker 3: So you say, Stephane.
Speaker 5: DoD what So Stephanie got me involved with the Satini's PCA,
Speaker 5: and she's been asking me to to join the the
Speaker 5: climb to Mount Killemanjaro and to foundraise for the Santinis PCA.
Speaker 5: There has been a lot of things that has been
Speaker 5: keeping me from climbing it.
Speaker 4: But this year.
Speaker 5: I've had more jobs that allow me to be flexible.
Speaker 5: So I've been going on a series of hikes, you
Speaker 5: know locally like Mahale's and all these other places, training
Speaker 5: to to to.
Speaker 4: Climb Mount Killemnjaro.
Speaker 5: And with all these hikes, I guess definitely did also
Speaker 5: see that, you know what, I've got the fitness, I've
Speaker 5: got the mindset, I've got the vega to to go
Speaker 5: clime Mount Kilimanjaro and I mean it's the highest peak
Speaker 5: in South Africa.
Speaker 3: You know Africa.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and being part of the SPCA, she also wanted
Speaker 5: me to get involved with the fundraising because we are
Speaker 5: fundraising for the SENTINISPCA. We need to raise like four
Speaker 5: hundred thousand for the SANTINASPCA, So it's an initiative I
Speaker 5: wanted to get involved in.
Speaker 4: So she introduced me to that. I got to meet
Speaker 4: the the.
Speaker 5: Some of the climbers for Forksudi La and Yeah, it's
Speaker 5: I've been growing into it.
Speaker 2: Stepny, I just want to bring you into into the
Speaker 2: conversation because you're from the SPCA and you work closely
Speaker 2: with Troy. Just, you know, explain your role in the
Speaker 2: work towards you know, the project towards climbing Mount Kilimanjaro
Speaker 2: that Troy has not taken on.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you.
Speaker 6: Well, our story is quite intertwined. As Troy explained. We
Speaker 6: met in twenty twelve and it was at a Santana
Speaker 6: Mobile Clinic day. And I have found my passion around
Speaker 6: and I loved your previous interview by the way, because
Speaker 6: I mean, my passion is making an impact one step
Speaker 6: at a time. And I came into mountains really climb.
Speaker 6: My first KILLI Majar on two thousand and seven, and
Speaker 6: it was an amazing experience, huge challenge, and it's a
Speaker 6: great opportunity to share the experience with people but also fundraise.
Speaker 6: So I with a group of people founded Kusudi La
Speaker 6: Adventures in two thousand and one and we fundraise for
Speaker 6: animal welfare, conservation and wildlife and also communities along our journey.
Speaker 6: So our beneficiary for Kilimanjaro this year is the santon
Speaker 6: SPA and it's wonderful to sort of see the circle,
Speaker 6: you know, it comes full circle now.
Speaker 1: Troy and I were speaking on our way here.
Speaker 6: It's like, can you believe that we met thirteen years ago,
Speaker 6: you know, in a parking lot at a school in
Speaker 6: alex And here we are climbing Kilimanjaro together to fundraise
Speaker 6: for that organization that brought us together.
Speaker 3: Thought, yeah, so you're going to be doing it as well.
Speaker 6: Again, Yes, this is my eighth climb shows and how
Speaker 6: are you feeling about that? Oh?
Speaker 1: I'm feeling strong. But you know what it is.
Speaker 6: One of the things that's wonderful about it is it's
Speaker 6: the challenge. So I do not take this mountain for granted. Yeah,
Speaker 6: I am training, but I'm really I look forward to
Speaker 6: it every year.
Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, listen, this sounds amazing. How about us.
Speaker 1: You've got an invitation?
Speaker 6: You say, yes, We've got all of your listeners listening.
Speaker 3: Listen. That maybe takes time. I mean it sounds like
Speaker 3: a big challey.
Speaker 4: But I mean it is amazing.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, And I think that you you are
Speaker 2: so brave, you know, to be wanting to do this
Speaker 2: for such for such a cause. Yeah, Troy, I mean
Speaker 2: you you work for the SPCA in sent and what
Speaker 2: are some of the needs that the SPCA has. I
Speaker 2: mean you're trying to raise these funds. You said four
Speaker 2: hundred thousand rand is needed. What do you need at
Speaker 2: the SPCA.
Speaker 5: Currently, Well, there are kennels that we need to develop medication,
Speaker 5: you know, develop the clinic, the there's there's quite a
Speaker 5: number of stuff. Probably Stephanie can also add to that
Speaker 5: the number of stuff that we need.
Speaker 1: Well, Troy is very right.
Speaker 6: I think the list is long that I think our
Speaker 6: specific project is Becauseudi La is to raise four hundred
Speaker 6: thousand rand to refurbish the kennels in the clinic. So
Speaker 6: Santa and SBCA has hundreds, i think thousands of animals
Speaker 6: that come through its doors every year and they all
Speaker 6: need medical treatment and so they have cannels that they
Speaker 6: obviously that they stay in before and after their treatments,
Speaker 6: and they are in much they're in very poor repair,
Speaker 6: so they need upgrading. So that is our big ask
Speaker 6: is to Casudi Love would like to raise four hundred
Speaker 6: thousand rand for the Santon SPCA.
Speaker 2: And I mean what does it take to some Maybe
Speaker 2: I should ask you if you know what does it
Speaker 2: take to summit Maud Kilimanjaro.
Speaker 3: What do you need to have in order to make
Speaker 3: it to the top.
Speaker 6: I think the most important ingredient is resilience, that ability
Speaker 6: to put one foot in front of another when you
Speaker 6: are tired, when it is cold, when the air gets
Speaker 6: thin as you are climbing to the summit. And remember
Speaker 6: or remember many your listeners probably don't know. We climb
Speaker 6: to the summit at night, so we will start climbing
Speaker 6: between midnight and one in the morning, so it'll be dark,
Speaker 6: it's cold, and we'll make our way up that summit
Speaker 6: and we will climb to five eight hundred and ninety
Speaker 6: five meters, so that is yeah, you know altitude.
Speaker 1: You can feel that altitude when you're walking. But we
Speaker 1: walk very slowly poly poly as they say.
Speaker 4: And sweetly slowly slowly.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Sure, well it does sound like it's an amazing experience.
Speaker 2: But also I think it's very inspirational what you're doing
Speaker 2: for the Santon SPCA.
Speaker 3: So you have a friend there with you, someone there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Tenzy our mascot, Yasudila mascot, tell me about Tenzy,
Speaker 5: So she's she's our mascot for Caudilla climbers and we
Speaker 5: always take her on well, she's always taken on hikes,
Speaker 5: on hikes. I'm also going to be joining her this
Speaker 5: year on a hike. And she also represents the animals
Speaker 5: at the SPCIA that we are chiming for and that
Speaker 5: we are trying to raise these funds for, and the
Speaker 5: Centines PCA as well.
Speaker 3: Sure, so she goes up the mountain too.
Speaker 5: Yep, she's been the how many times?
Speaker 4: Eight times? Now?
Speaker 6: Oh she's well, she's she's the second they were first retired,
Speaker 6: So I think this is her fifth Summit's still quite impressive.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, if Tansy can do it, I can do it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, we all heard that.
Speaker 2: Maybe just speak to us, Troy about the message that
Speaker 2: you have for young children from your community that have
Speaker 2: a love for animals that want to get involved. You know,
Speaker 2: how can we encourage them to develop that and and
Speaker 2: to get involved with organizations like the SPCA.
Speaker 5: Firstly, for the for the children that have already discovered that,
Speaker 5: you know, they have a love for animals. It's a
Speaker 5: great thing, you know, it's a great thing. I think
Speaker 5: they should tap deeper into their interests. You know, if
Speaker 5: you're interested about a cat, learn more about that cat.
Speaker 2: Know what.
Speaker 5: Drives it, what makes its characteristics to be a cat.
Speaker 5: If you interested in in a dog, learn about that dog.
Speaker 5: If you're interested in nature, learn about nature and grow
Speaker 5: your interests, you know, and to to try and not
Speaker 5: get distracted by a lot of things that happen, you know,
Speaker 5: in the streets, because there's quite a lot of distraction
Speaker 5: now that that you know, it takes us off of
Speaker 5: things that you know can grow us and improve us
Speaker 5: as a people. So with whatever passion you have out there,
Speaker 5: just make sure it's going to bring in a lot
Speaker 5: more than it would take from your future. So if
Speaker 5: you interested in that sports, if you're interested in animal welfare,
Speaker 5: go to these facilities. Learn more about them, even if
Speaker 5: it's the zoo, even if it's game reserves, just learn
Speaker 5: more about them. Or whatever interests, whether it's sports or whatnot,
Speaker 5: focus on it because there's always something to get from
Speaker 5: whatever interest you've got, whether it's sports, whether it's writing, regardless,
Speaker 5: So focus on that and try to grow on it
Speaker 5: as much as you can. That's the message I've got.
Speaker 2: I think with me, I first need to get over
Speaker 2: my fear of dogs and cats.
Speaker 5: Actually well, researching more about them will show you you know, like,
Speaker 5: for instance, just the behavioral characteristics of a dog. When
Speaker 5: it's wagging its tail, you understand it's happy, you know,
Speaker 5: when it's that's.
Speaker 3: When I'm panicking. I'm like, what's going on? Are we okay?
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, I understand, I understand. I understand.
Speaker 2: Some of our listeners may want to follow and yeah,
Speaker 2: follow your your your journey as you are working towards Kilimanjaro.
Speaker 2: Where can they follow you? How can they stay involved?
Speaker 2: And how how can they get in touch with you?
Speaker 4: They can follow us on LA.
Speaker 5: There's there's an that we have an Instagram page and
Speaker 5: you can also email Stephanie on Stephanie brown Kula dot com.
Speaker 6: I think yeah, so people can find follow us on Facebook,
Speaker 6: La Adventures and on Instagram. As Troy mentioned, people can
Speaker 6: also email me Stephanie at Kassudi's hyphen la dot com
Speaker 6: or go on our.
Speaker 1: Website www dot la dot com.
Speaker 3: Maybe let's spell kasdila for our listeners.
Speaker 6: It's k u s you d and then there's a
Speaker 6: space LA and preps. I could just share with your
Speaker 6: listeners the meetings. So Kudi La means for purpose in
Speaker 6: Swahili because Kasui La Adventures is all about purposeful adventure.
Speaker 1: You know, we do it for the adventure, but we
Speaker 1: also do it for our purpose.
Speaker 3: Oh that's beautiful. There's a question here for you.
Speaker 2: Actually, one of our listeners wants to find out which
Speaker 2: course is considered to be tougher to summit and roughly
Speaker 2: how many days would it take.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's a great question.
Speaker 6: Yeah, so I think let me just start with Well,
Speaker 6: there's there's lots of different routes, and I think they
Speaker 6: all have different Some of them are longer than others,
Speaker 6: some of them are Yeah, I think some of them
Speaker 6: are a little harder well than others. So we do
Speaker 6: the Wrong Guy route, and because I like that route,
Speaker 6: it's the northernmost route, it's the newest route. It's not
Speaker 6: too long and it's not too short, and it's also
Speaker 6: a tented root, which means means it's it's clean.
Speaker 1: And it's not that busy.
Speaker 6: So we go up the Wrong Guy route and we
Speaker 6: take five days to summit and two days to come down,
Speaker 6: and then we come down a different route, the Marangu route,
Speaker 6: and the Maranga Root is the original route. It's you know,
Speaker 6: traditionally it's sometimes called Coca Cola route because lots of
Speaker 6: people do it, and you can do it quite fast.
Speaker 6: So I did that route in two thousand and seven,
Speaker 6: a five day climb, and I think that you know
Speaker 6: that was too that's too fast. I think the ideal
Speaker 6: number of days is seven. So that's what we do,
Speaker 6: just to give people the best opportunity to acclimatize, and
Speaker 6: we fully expect everyone on our team to be standing
Speaker 6: on the summit.
Speaker 2: Well, our listener, Zeno here says Kilimanjaro is on his
Speaker 2: bucket list and it's just a matter of time now.
Speaker 1: Well, I look forward to hearing from Zeno.
Speaker 6: We will we climb every year, so we've got dates
Speaker 6: for next July as well.
Speaker 2: So yeah, get in touch, you know, do the right thing,
Speaker 2: and maybe if you do it, I'll try to.
Speaker 4: Yes.
Speaker 2: Troy Muzim from the Santin SPCA and Stephanie, thank you
Speaker 2: so much for joining us. Thank you for spending your
Speaker 2: time this afternoon. You're doing amazing things. I wish you
Speaker 2: all of the very best, and I hope that your
Speaker 2: climb is.
Speaker 3: A memorable one. I'm sure it will be very memorable.
Speaker 2: I hope that it's a fantastic one and I look
Speaker 2: forward to hearing from you when you come back.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you very much, Moso all of the
Speaker 4: very best.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having us