We’ve all had first jobs. It’s that delicate time when you take your first steps into a ‘proper’ job, instead of the collection of casual jobs you might have done previously. You want to prove yourself, for the world to see you as seriously as you see yourself. And it can be a challenge. There is a lot to learn, and a lot of things you haven’t figured out yet. Mistakes will be made, but hopefully nothing too obvious.
Imagine then, if your first job was in the wild of Africa, amongst the wild animals that call it home.
As a first-year guide or camp staff member, there is a steep learning curve. You have your job to learn, plus the additional challenges of the location. And it’s never the animals you think it will be that cause the problems. Although it does happen, it’s rarely the elephant digging up water pipes that directly affects you. It isn’t your fault that the lion wants to call a chalet home. No, it’s always the smaller ones, the sneaky ones that make your life difficult.
Monkeys, for example, are very creative, opportunistic thieves. From baboons to vervet monkeys, they will seize any opportunity they have to get a forbidden feed. So, by extension, all things known to contain food will also become part of the thievery list, including camera bags, handbags and backpacks. In East Africa, the safari vehicle of choice is the pop-up 4x4 which provides a great viewing platform with the vehicle sides required to drive it along the highways. When approaching any stop on safari, that roof must come down. Any delay in doing so will result in the contents of the car becoming the property of any nearby monkey troop. We’ve witnessed a tourist leave her handbag in the vehicle as she went to check in at another national park, with the roof up. Within seconds the baboon troop took it high into the trees. Despite her cries and pleading, the baboons spent well over an hour picking through the bag looking for anything that took its interest. Numerous items were nibbled but, with nothing to their liking, they eventually discarded it all from their lofty perch down the steep hillside.
A particular lodge, an hour away from Victoria Falls on the river, had just had an extensive refurbishment. The designer had included in the main lounge some lovely glass jars that stored an assortment of various snacks for the guests to use. This lounge area wasn’t open to the elements but instead had sliding doors. One late afternoon a group of travel industry professionals arrived at the lodge and were treated to a generous welcome in the lounge. Drinks were poured, food was prepared, hands were shaken, and stories were told. The camp manager decided that, before he took them for a look around this pristine new lodge and have dinner, to allow the guests a chance to refresh themselves in their rooms first. The VIPs made their way to their rooms, with the new camp staff member in charge of cleaning up the lounge. But, in the hubbub around taking the VIPs to their room and keen to do a good job, they forgot to close the doors to the lounge.
20 minutes later, the staff member walked back to the lounge area to prepare for more snacks, only to find it a crime scene. Luckily for them, identifying the perpetrators was easy as they were still committing the crime: a troop of vervet monkeys. With much yelling, they were chased off but the room was trashed. All the food had been eaten, the bottles of fancy champagne were on the floor and those lovely glass jars were neither lovely nor recognisable as jars anymore. The newly refurbished, luxuriously decorated lounge was now a mess of food, glass, grass and a couple of surprise monkey nuggets left slowly melting into the brand-new couches.
The group had dinner outside by the river that night. The camp also installed some springs on the door to prevent a repeat occurrence. The staff member, still in the industry in an elevated position, has never forgotten the lesson.
But destroyed glass jars are a pittance compared to the next story.
This particular rookie was a junior guide, in his first season at a well-known lodge in the Kruger region, South Africa. As a first-year guide, his job was to soak up the day-to-day operations of the lodge and be responsible for a lot of the grunt work. If a vehicle got a flat tyre on safari, it was his job to drive out a replacement, give it to the other guide and guests, and then fix the flat tyre whilst they went about their day. If there was a night-time guard duty, it would be him shivering in the cold air. Not only was he learning more and more about the natural environment he was in but he was also learning more about the new world he was in, about wine and food and the other elements that make up a luxury lodge.
One night he came out to greet the guest upon their return from a game drive and direct them to dinner being served. Whilst out there, a senior guide mentioned that a young guest had been snacking in the car and spilled some hot chocolate on his seat. It needed to be cleaned before the car was put away for the night. “Of course”, he said.
Taking the car, he drove it to the yard where the cars are kept overnight but, before he could clean it, he was asked to come and help escort a guest from their room to the dinner. He left everything open and went to help the guest. And, unfortunately for him, forgot about the car. By the time he remembered, it was quite late. It was a clear night and not wanting to brave the darkness, he figured he’d do it early the next morning.
That night, as everyone slept, a hyena made its way into the mechanic's yard. Smelling the spilt cocoa, it climbed into the car and tried to find the source of the free food. It found crumbs and a half-eaten muffin, but nothing else. Surely the food, coming from the seat, must be inside the seat. So, with its sharp teeth and incredible strength, it grabbed a hold of the seat and ripped it open. It looked inside to find nothing. It must been in the other one. It ripped that too. Finding nothing, it ripped open the next row. Perhaps still hungry, or perhaps enjoying the new game, it ripped open the final row and the passenger seat. It chomped on a drink bottle. It ripped the cover off the gear stick. It even took a bite from the radio. Finding nothing to satisfy its hunger, and perhaps as a sign of its disappointment, it relieved itself inside the vehicle.
The next morning, the junior guide awoke early to finish the job and discovered the scene. There was no way to cover this up. Thankfully for him, there were other vehicles to transport the guests in and the senior team found the whole thing pretty funny. They were able to fix the car but left the deep cleaning of it to him, as a penance for his mistakes. The guide swears to this day, that as he was cleaning up the mess from the interior, he heard a distant hyena laugh.
