Guides and Their Families

Guides serving morning coffee on game drive

We talked a lot to our guides about their families.  All had 1 to 3 children, mostly quite young.  Their work keeps them away from their families, off in the bush, for weeks at a time--ranging from 6 weeks on and 2 weeks off to 3 months on and 3 weeks off.

Some guides have to travel for 1 to 2 days to get home during their days off, so that really cuts into their time with their kids.  One guide has a 10 month old baby, his first child, and he's missing most of his son's early milestones.  But, he makes good money as a guide and can support his family reasonably well.

Guides serve snacks on front of truck

One guide has 5 and 2-year-old daughters.  He told us that pre-school is critical for kids to be ready for school.  All our guides send their children to pre-school, where they start to learn English, a little writing, colors, numbers and so on.  The guide with the 2 daughters did not go to pre-school himself and, when he started regular school at the age of 6, he was way behind his classmates who had gone to pre-school.  He wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to his daughters.

Guide negotiating river on game drive

This guide’s classmates who’d been to pre-school all spoke English, the language of many of the classes, could write their names and knew how to listen and learn.  He knew none of the above, so felt very disadvantaged.  His daughter started pre-school at 3, as will his younger daughter, at a cost of $100 per month since pre-schools are all private.  That is a fortune here.  One of the reasons the guides take jobs away from their families is to make sure they can provide their children with a good education.  They all think the government schools are fine, but just don't provide preschool, which they believe is essential to the kids' success in school and life.