Graduate gets opportunity to learn about the Geotrail
At the end of the training, the professors told Christianson that Mashele was a hard-working and dedicated student who asked all the right questions and was interested in many aspects of the history and geology of the region.
A young woman, who graduated in geology, Phumelele Mashele, was afforded an opportunity of a lifetime when she was accepted to spend a week with world-renowned geotrail guides in the surrounding region.
According to Astrid Christianson, Barberton Community Tourism marketing manager, it was a fortnight ago when Mashele approached their offices and asked them whether there were any career possibilities available for geology graduates interested in tourism.
Christianson said she not only took Mashele’s name down right away for the upcoming trainee course for geotrail guides, but she also put her in touch with Prof Christoph Heubeck.
Heubeck is a professor from Jena University in Germany who was due to arrive in Barberton with his colleague
Prof Lothar Viereckand and MSc student, Paul Fugmann.
“I asked them if Mashele could join them for their yearly research fieldwork in the Makhonjwa Mountains for informal training. The professors accepted immediately and Mashele accompanied them for a week into the mountains between Tjakastad and Shiyalongubo,” said Christianson.
During the training, Mashele learned how natural scientists collected data, why the Makhonjwa Mountains were unique and famous among geoscientists worldwide and how the geotrail provided easy and well-prepared access to information on the early history of the planet.
At the end of the training, the professors told Christianson that Mashele was a hard-working and dedicated student who asked all the right questions and was interested in many aspects of the history and geology of the region.
“I would like to thank the foreign visitors for providing Mashele with this rare opportunity and I expressed my hope that they would again be open to train more of the town’s future geoguides,” said Christianson.
Mashele said she thoroughly enjoyed exploring the Barberton Makhonjwa Geotrail in the company of the three experts.
“The information they shared was not confined to the geotrail stops only, they also exposed me to the background fieldwork that goes into making scientific publications such as academic texts and geological maps. I had the privilege of seeing them reconstruct the impressive history of our rocks using textures and minerals present within them, much like a detective would use crime-scene evidence to unravel a mystery,” said Mashele.
She said she has definitely learned more about the Barberton mountain-land, and she looked forward to sharing this knowledge with local people.
“Our region is truly a natural wonder deserving of appreciation from both local people and those from faraway lands,” said Mashele.
