planning…

…or lack thereof, is one of the biggest skill gaps in the Tanzanian workforce, in my opinion. People are used to living from day to day, hand to mouth, so it’s not surprising at such but it just causes so many problems at work – both at micro & macro level.

Tuesday was a prime example!

I was due to travel to one of the camps at 1:30pm, together with three of my ‘students’. At 1:25pm I was told that there were another three people who needed  transport and because they had picked up a lot of produce etc for the camp, there was no room. So they wanted to leave two of my students behind… what?!? 

I had arranged the transport three days ago, so how did this happen, I asked. I got a ton of excuses… and very different stories. Ultimately, it was shitty planning or favours promised or or or. However, every problem & issue has its learning moment, so we had a good chat about it. Whether they learnt to do better next time, I don’t know, but I tried! 

Anyway, we set off with me sharing the front seat with one of the security guys coming back from the doctor (not comfortable for either of us!) and we left two chefs behind in the village.

This is normally a drive I enjoy very much as we drive through ‘real’ Tanzania incl. some lovely villages… but the uncomfy seating arrangements really put a dampener on the experience. It was quite an eventful drive, though! 

All of a sudden, the driver (Geoff) stopped next to a guy on a bicycle who had a goat tied to the back of the bike. Geoff demanded that the young man untied the goat – this was when I realised that this poor goat was still alive!

We took photos to shame him… and when the goat was untied it understandably ran away as fast as it could. The guy then dropped his bike to run after the goat… we left, so didn’t see if the goat got away, but I sort of hope so even though that was probably food for this guy’s family… but really no need to make the animal suffer in that way!

Just an hour later, we saw a car suddenly turning from the left hand side of the (dirt) road and straight into the bushes on the right side of the road. The driver had definitely fallen asleep. We stopped to see if all was OK. Nobody injured, all good apart from some damage to the car.

We finally arrived at Mara River Tented Camp. There has been so much rain up here. The grass is super tall so the game viewing is tough. But this is still my favourite camp and I picked up wine on the way in Mugumu, so all is good!

It won’t be a surprise to any of you that I have visited that wine store before. And when I walked in, the lady manager gave me a big smile and a ‘hello, madam ‘I believe in science’ 😃 We had a conversation about religion and beliefs last year, so now that’s my name! Haha

I’ll be here for ten days, which makes me very happy! The first four days at Singita was spent in the classroom doing workshop after workshop! I was so exhausted so had been looking forward to some lovely one-to-one coaching! And a little down time in between to enjoy the wonderful nature!