Kaiser Rams
I reckon you could almost write a short story (or maybe a novel) about Kaiser - our guide in Botswana. He set the scene for the rest of the trip very early on - when he met us at the small airstrip in Xakanaxa he introduced himself as our garden/camp boy who would be setting up our camp and doing our washing. That had the 4 of us fooled most of the trip to camp and after changing his story more than once he had to work hard to convince us eventually that he was our guide. Kaiser is:
- a joker (as seemed to be all our guides, I think it's an African thing to so enjoy a "trick" - there were ongoing jokes about lollipops, paved roads, paying for the experience and lots more)
- a great cook
- an extremely knowledgeable guide
- an excellent tracker
- a first class organiser
- a father of two boys
- a HUGE story teller (half the time you don't know what to believe)
- very entertaining
- a local Motswana (from Khwai village) whose totem is the elephant
- an all-round "good bloke"
Kaiser certainly played a big part in making our Botswana journey the amazing time it was and for me he's certainly unforgettable.
Steve Murugu Ndaiga
Steve, a Kikuyu man and resident of Nairobi, was my guide in Kenya. He is, as he tells me, older than he looks, and is an experienced and knowledgeable guide and fascinating companion. He completed a four year university degree to be what he is today, and has a family, with one baby daughter named Amani, the Swahili word for "peace". I've learned so much about Africa and Kenya and its peoples from Steve. He's both intelligent and astute, and our conversations ranged from politics (Kenya, Australia, the US), through current affairs, history (where exactly was the Garden of Eden?), cultural practices, marriage customs, indigenous peoples of the world and their cultures, food, wildlife, conservation, climate change, health care and the AIDS crisis in Africa, language lessons (asanti sana Steve), to varied aspects of Australian life, and many more topics, all enlivened with a fine sense of humour, an open honesty and a gentle manner. As well as that I'm sure he could drive in the London to Dakkar rally! And doesn't he have a great smile?
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