Background cont'd: Grant is the project manager for Mwiba, which includes managing a law enforcement team (scouts have been trained to protect the area from poachers and other encroachers for the benefit of the wildlife), construction projects, conservation/village relations, wildlife monitoring/research, etc. I am a newbie and have only been in Mwiba for a couple months, but am slowly learning the ropes. My main concentration is on overseeing camp staff, doing a monthly newsletter and working on various wildlife monitoring projects and community development…a bit of a mish mash, which helps keep my attention. Mwiba is a beautiful area and although living in a tent with no running water and broken zippers tests ones patience, I still am infatuated with the bush. What I love most about living in a remote area is the exposure you get to how life probably used to feel…amazing highs and incredible lows…it kind of makes you an addict! However, what is actually important is the bigger picture, i.e. the effort to sustain this type of wilderness and wildlife, while simultaneously improving the surrounding communities ways of life…a challenge to say the least.
I grew up on a farm in Middleburg, Virginia. My parents (Walter and Franny Kansteiner) are amazing and exposed my brother (Chalker) and me to Africa from a young age, and I loved it. When I was 14, I went to St. Georges, an awesome boarding school in Newport, RI. Following St. Georges was Sewanee (The University of the South)….heaven on earth. I studied Int’l Studies, focused on Africa and about a year after I graduated found myself in Tanzania and then Zambia and South Africa and back to Tanzania and somewhere in there got my pilots license in Virginia. It was in Tanzania that I met my husband, Grant Burden. We just got married and had the best time at our wedding and still cannot describe the total bliss of having all of our family and friends from both sides of the world, in one place. Grant and I live in Mwiba, which is a private wildlife conservation concession south of the Serengeti National Park. Mwiba is being protected as a wildlife area and offered as a premier safari destination, by Ker & Downey Tanzania (www.legendaryadventure.com).
I grew up on a farm in Middleburg, Virginia. My parents (Walter and Franny Kansteiner) are amazing and exposed my brother (Chalker) and me to Africa from a young age, and I loved it. When I was 14, I went to St. Georges, an awesome boarding school in Newport, RI. Following St. Georges was Sewanee (The University of the South)….heaven on earth. I studied Int’l Studies, focused on Africa and about a year after I graduated found myself in Tanzania and then Zambia and South Africa and back to Tanzania and somewhere in there got my pilots license in Virginia. It was in Tanzania that I met my husband, Grant Burden. We just got married and had the best time at our wedding and still cannot describe the total bliss of having all of our family and friends from both sides of the world, in one place. Grant and I live in Mwiba, which is a private wildlife conservation concession south of the Serengeti National Park. Mwiba is being protected as a wildlife area and offered as a premier safari destination, by Ker & Downey Tanzania (www.legendaryadventure.com).
