Meeting Obert

Seeing the world through the eyes of a migrant worker from Zimbabwe underscored the importance of personal freedom

- Heather Kinley

I never met a person who was not free. That is, until I met Obert, originally of Zimbabwe. We met Obert in 2008 when my husband, Roger, and I lived in a camp in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana, where Roger trained nationals on new drilling rigs. Obert was one of four workers whose job it was to cut brush and firewood and keep the sand swept so we could see tracks from snakes.

Over the course of five months, he became much more than that to us. Obert was a quiet, gentle man who was a hard worker, a conservationist, teacher, protector and dear friend.