25 & Trying

A Night of Networking and Conservation

Gorongosa Hippos

Last night, I went to an event at DC’s Environmental Film Festival to watch a film on my husband’s country of Mozambique. The film, entitled Africa’s Lost Eden focuses on the amazing story of Gorongosa National Park in the center of Mozambique.

Devastated by civil war in the mid 70′s through the early 90′s,the park became a battle ground – and the toll has been felt throughout the ecosystem. Hippos, Lions, Elephants, and many others were killed for food, or fell victim to a violent conflict.

The film explores one man’s ambition to fund the park’s restoration for the next 20 years – Greg Carr. A philanthropist and entrepreneur,  Carr has made his money mostly in the tech industry – getting behind big projects like Prodigy in the early 1990′s. Today, he has committed 20 years to Gorongosa, and is continuously seeking public-private partnerships to expand Gorongosa’s reconstruction effort.

We were lucky enough (the perks of being married to a Mozambican) to talk to Carr and some ministers from Mozambique, including the Minister of Tourism before the film was screened last night. Afterwards, a panel discussion allowed everyone to deconstruct the issues around environmentalism.

This national park has the power to transform Mozambique into a thriving tourist hub – it has the beauty, the safety, and the amazing story. It has everything. For the first time, I saw a large room of Americans really captivated by my husband’s home country, and I felt really proud.

It also made me think about networking. I felt totally overwhelmed, networking face-to-face with important people – people that actually HAD changed the world and not just blogged about it. It isn’t easy. I will admit, I am sometimes that girl that uses a cell phone as a crutch. Oh! Excuse me for a minute while I awkwardly play with my cell phone while Brunno talks to people. Sigh.

Either way, it also made me acutely aware that the way people do good things BETTER is by talking to each other. Best practices, stories of a feel-good nature — these things all enhance people’s ability to get involved and feel like they are making a difference. Conservation is no different.

Chris Matthews, the “Hardball” host in all his glory, moderated the panel after the movie – and he told Greg Carr that his mother should be proud of him. He “did well and then did good,” as opposed to what a lot of people tend to do with their lives.

I think I like that.