Khutse Game Reserve

So some women from the Embassy decided to have a "girls only" weekend at a spa in South Africa. Why not? But since it was only for one gender I decided to have "Man Weekend". The original intent was to get in a car and drive north with beer and cook with fire. Needless to say what started out as 7 guys going ended up as 2 men going.

Man Weekend was enjoyable and we did some geocaching http://www.geocaching.com. We found both cache's in Kutse part. The car got a little beat up by some branches but all in all it was worth it.

We saw a lot of DLC's (deer like creatures). Flying Birds (some walking), Squirels, and a group of Giraffe. I heard a lion on Friday night, and we saw some tracks on Sunday, but nothing close for us to find.

The drive out there was something else. About 50% of it was a two lane road, then it morphed into 1 1/2 lane road shared. Next in the evalution of travel came the sand, which when hitting a town turns to dirt. Then back to sand until you hit the park.

Khutse Game Reserve is about 2500 sq Kilometers (about 1553.4221890825488 miles) There are no tourist lodges, no chalets nor rest camps in Khutse (a major plus in my book). Nor are there any shops, gas stations, trinket stands or Mom& Pop supply store. Khutse is a protected area where development has been kept to a minimum and where the wilderness atmosphere has been carefully preserved. There are areas that have been designated as campsites, some of which have pit latrines and bucket showers (bring your own wanter because there is no place to get it here) but no other form of development.

It was really nice to get back to nature, cook with fire, and just enjoy nothing. Unlike parks in the US there was no real geographical type features. It was flat land with trees, bushes, and things like that.

The only thing I forgot this trip was my salad dressing. If I go back (not much to see really) I will bring it with me. Oh and I might bring something more then water to drink as well. I really wanted an Orange soda while I was there. But I got a shipment of Malted Milk balls before I left and brought some.

Customer Service? Who needs it

Funny thing about me. I came from a highly customer service world. I sold Customer Service software (ok, its nothing more then an FAQ list with a decent backend, but I won't rant on that now) and think I know more then the average person about customer service and what it takes.

But I have found out that you don't need customer service. You can still run your business and blow off your customers. Where else are they going to go? To the competition? They will get the same level of service or worse!

Botswana is a dieing country. The HIV/AIDS rate is around 38%, most children don't have safety seats in the car, there is not a whole lot of industry, they have a migrant problem from Zimbabwe so I think customer service is the last thing on most people's minds.

Not to mention that the government will just give money if you don't work. Heck, you can apply and 3-5 years later get a free plot of land (in a new sub-division with utilies to it already) and build your own house there. I haven't really seen much in the way of code regulations or design planning. I mean house here are bad. They are just not good. Not much thought it put into them.

Also people don't believe in my personal motto of "work smarter, not harder". I watch people every day dig up the road by hand, cut grass by hand, and other similar tasks that could be automated with simple machinary. Its not like they can't afford it (I have a cola of 5% here, one of the highest for Africa) and with South Africa being 40 minutes away they can get the stuff they need.

I would love to scream "WAKE UP BOTSWANNA" but they are awake, but don't want to get out of bed.......

I won't even go into how long it has taken a car to go 9 hours on the road (it actully took 6 days) and to register it (currently taking 6 days where the avg is 3).

Oh well this is part of the adventure, and to be honest I am really learning how to be more patient which is something we all could work on..