STUDENT PHOTOGRAPHY

Ole Miss and the closely watched, government-owned media in Zimbabwe. Even though he was uncertain about everything else, he knew one thing for sure. He knew he wanted to go home.

“I already knew nearly 100 percent that I wanted to spend my life (in Zimbabwe),” Waters said. “It was my home and it’s still my home. I still completely feel the same way. This is a place where I hope to spread my ashes or bury my bones, whatever the case may be.”

After touring through Britain and passing through Australia as pit stops, Waters returned to Zimbabwe, a landlocked country in the southeast portion of Africa. He applied for jobs and was even short-listed for one in commerce. It was a good job, but it wasn’t what he wanted to do the rest of his life.

Fate lent a hand and Waters stumbled across an advertisement in a local newspaper. A young safari guide was needed, and no experience was necessary.

Waters fit the bill perfectly.

“I applied and was given a job, so my first salary-paid job was actually as a safari guide. Hallelujah,” Waters said. “What a privilege it was to be a guide and to be out in the bush, as we call it. I was outdoors and enjoying my life.”

The job was in Hwange National Park, where he still spends a lot of time. He learned mostly from on-the-job training and interacting with the other guides, especially his boss. He went to work wanting to learn more and absorbed everything he could.

Waters has always been fascinated with wildlife; it’s a huge part of who he is.

Born in Bulawayo but raised and educated in Salisbury, the capital of Rhodesia — now known as Harare, capital of Zimbabwe — Waters’s home was in a rural, scenic area. He was coming of age at the end of an era in his country, but is conscious that he had a privileged childhood and upbringing.

Waters lights up when he talks about his childhood, especially in school. School was where the teachers cared about him and were heavily involved with the students, “filling their lives up with opportunities indoors and outdoors.”

Indoors, Waters was a writer with a talent in English, but outdoors he was a wildlife guide in training.

As soon as he was old enough, he read all sorts of wildlife magazines and shared a pastime of reading books about birds or trees or flowers with his mother.

“It’s something that’s in your system,” Waters said. “I think growing up in that outdoorsy, rural environment sparked something in me.”

The spark is still burning after more than a decade in nonhunting safari operations, although he is careful to point out that ethical hunting camps are important to wildlife management and preservation, too. Waters has also had work experience in hotel management, as an inbound tour operator, and in venues of public relations and journalism.

Now he is the operations and projects manager for Imvelo Safari Lodges. Imvelo’s slogan is “connecting people with nature” and aims to boost tourism in Zimbabwe through photographic safaris. Several of its small, luxury lodges are in Hwange, where animals roam free and hunting is forbidden. Waters believes the development of tourism is critical to the survival of wild areas. He said the tourism industry in Zimbabwe hit a major peak in the late 1990s after Nelson Mandela came to power in next-door South Africa, attracting international visitors. He hopes Zimbabwe tourism will grow and expand once more. “It’s a hard sale to sell Zimbabwe in America right now, but it’s not as bad as it used to be,” Waters said. “Attitudes are changing and we really are in an interesting situation right now where the future could be very, very bright very, very soon.”

The author is a junior, print journalism major from Mechanicsville, Virginia.

Waters, right, talks with Assistant Professor Mikki Harris as the moon rises behind a termite mound in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Harris led students on a photo expedition to explore the relationships between the people of the region and the abundant wildlife.

Waters joins Ole Miss students on a photo safari in Hwange National Park, where he was once a guide.

Waters introduces Ole Miss students to Johnson Ncube, center, head man of the village, and his wife, Dorothy. They explained local culture as well as the relationship of the 1,000 subsistence farmers and their families with the wild animals in an adjacent national park in central Zimbabwe.

Waters, left, relaxes with the manager of Camelthorn, one of several Imvelo Safari Lodges. Waters is an executive for the company that promotes tourism as as tool to protect wildlife and help the people in his homeland, Zimbabwe. The resort is named for the giant camelthorn tree in the photo.

Days at Imvelo Safari Lodges begin and end at the fire pit, with tea and conversation.