If she could drive across the Nullarbor Plain from Melbourne to Perth, the least we could do was travel the 200 km from Margaret River to meet her. Granted, she was delivering a friend's car, not making a special trip to see us. But Emma is worth the effort.
She was the youngest, hardest working and least paid of the Jane Goodall staff in Uganda - except for us if you leave out the "younger" part. Emma did whatever needed to be done, even going so far as making management decisions when her bosses were away. She lived, uncomplaining, in a coffin-sized room in the "Chimp House," JGI HQ, and never seemed to have enough money for food. We saw her on her occasional visits to our field site and our even less frequent trips to headquarters, but Emma was by far our favorite.
A single afternoon is hardly time enough to catch up on six years but we gave it a go at lunch and in the park on the foreshore in Madurah afterwards. She ended the mystery of how Ben and Stewart, our JGI co-workers, managed to burn down the banda, a story we have been waiting forever to hear.
And Emma has been a busy girl. The Melbourne Zoo, Green Chimneys in New York, school and working with at-risk youth. She is hopeful for a posting in East Timor combining her interest in wildlife with her desire to work with kids. Big plans and a bright future for a great young woman.
