Name: Khari Obobanjo
Gender: Male
Age: 29
Nationality: West African
Role: Conservation officer. He patrols the area and arrests/chases off poachers. He has been assigned to the area the sanctuary resides in, and as such, he tends to show up there a lot. Sometimes he stays the night at the Orchid or another station before going back out into the bush in the morning. He always seems to be pretty welcome.
Hair: Dark brown and black, worn in dreadlocks.
Eyes: Dark brown
Appearance: Khari is a fairly large man, standing at 6'2" and muscular. His skin is dark brown, his hair about shoulder length. Khari wears a uniform: dark green pants with a khaki top. He wears dark green army boots and is often seen with his rifle. While he'd never use it on an animal, unless he absolutely had to, he has no problem using it on vicious poachers. He also carries a large hunting knife, mostly as a tool, and a light back pack filled with essentials. His truck has all he needs to survive in the bush for several days.
Personality: Khari has a serious nature, and always has. Having been deprived of his childhood, one could say that he has always been an adult. He enjoys time alone, and thus enjoys his job out on the Savannah. But at the same time, he enjoys the company of the people at the sanctuary. He likes to visit often, sometimes staying and sometimes leaving. He's very intelligent, but unfortunately, he's never had a very proper schooling. Sometimes he can be seen reading old school books, trying to catch up on the education he was never given.
Skills: Khari is a very good fighter, although he'd rather solve his problems peacefully. He can start fires, hunt, cook, and build shelters all with the things found on the forest floor. He hasn't lived more than a handful of days inside in his life.
He speaks fluent Swahili, English, French, and bits and pieces of several other dialects.
Background:
It's not something Khari likes talking about, but he will if coaxed. He was born in a small village in West Africa, in a country plagued by the war. Their village was protected by government troops, until the troops fell and the rebel militia took over. It was a dark time: men and young boys were seized, forced to join the rebel troops, women were kidnapped and killed. Khari was only four when it began, and six when the government finally came and fought the rebels off. The village thought they were saved. They weren't.
Most of the villagers had already fled during the take over, and the government troops assumed whoever remained were aligned with the rebels. The massacre began. Khari's mother told him to run as fast and far as he could, and never to look back. He can only assume she was killed.
Khari escaped into the countryside and lived off the land for a little while. He wasn't happy, but he wasn't particularly unhappy either. He figured he'd live that way forever, until he came across a rebel military faction. They captured him and forced him into the ranks of their mercenary battalion; at age seven, Khari became a child soldier.
The next five years passed in a blur. The battalion took towns, ambushed troops, killed mercilessly and indiscriminately. Khari learned to shoot, kill, and become a monster. The absentminded killing is something that still haunted Khari to this day. How could he have ever been capable of such things?
He was twelve when his battalion was captured by government troops. The adults were detained, and the children were sent to missionary orphanages. He lived there until he was eighteen, when he left and found a job with the conservation program. He doesn't do so well with other people, but he seems to have a way with animals. Khari was lucky to be able to make something of himself; he knows so many others who have no such luck.