We Remember When …

• I remember the call from Gov. Tunai asking if I still wanted Olkurruk
• I remember visiting every bank in Nairobi to raise our debt
• I remember putting together the most amazing contractor team – best ever
• I remember digging the first hole on site with Shadrack – North Camp guest area
• I remember the mountains of paperwork and legal procedures
• I remember reading the whole Swahili to English Dictionary looking for a name
• I remember watching Out of Africa 30 times just to make sure we spotted every tiny detail-
• I remember registering Angama.com and the day the new website went live
• I remember seeing hundreds of builders on arrival
• I remember offloading the endless chain of trucks with no time in-between – the best team ever
• I remember Cyrus putting up an entire new go-down (warehouse) in a day
• I remember Nicky trimming toilet brushes
• I remember Annemarie seated on the back of the tractor trailer delivering bed boards to North Camp
• I remember mud and more mud
• I remember cancelling my first food order because the cold room was not ready
• I remember the wine arriving 15 minutes before the first guest arrival
• I remember scrambling to source and send from South Africa, and then clear, Kosher food for our first Jewish guests

• I remember 500 interviews for 85 starting positions
• I remember the thrill of putting the management team together and then meeting all the staff one by one
• I remember meeting the team for the first time and feeling like I had met and made a new family
• I remember learning Maasai greetings ‘Sopa’ & ‘Epa’
• I remember when our butlers could not differentiate between Penne and Paneer
• I remember Josephat announcing that he was a senior bachelor – instead of senior butler
• I remember when a staff member tipped their fellow staff during their Staff Guest Experience
• I remember the first taka taka clean up – and how many bags of nails, metal strips, loose debris, old decrepit gloves, facemasks and shirts we found
• I remember beading with the Maasai ladies for the first time and teaching each other songs from our different cultures
• I remember when we could work in the kitchen from 6am to 11 pm without a break (now three chefs can do it and still have a break)
• I remember every single sales presentation – close on 2000 agents
• I remember Black Tuesday aka Arancini Day – so far the worst day in our kitchen

• I remember taking our first reservation (still to travel – RIP Mike Ross)
• I remember the first time I saw the view where North Camp now stands and thinking please hire me!
• I remember seeing Angama Mara’s logo for the first time, and thinking 'there it is'
• I remember the first time a scheduled flight arrived at Angama Mara Airstrip
• I remember our first morning meetings and fumbling our way through arrivals, departures, and asking who were these guests?
• I remember how nervous we were about welcoming our first guests and serving them on staff canteen tables
• I remember our first guest crying no less than four times in the first half an hour after arriving
• I remember being full on Day Three
• I remember when a guest tried to warm their food up in the safe thinking it was a microwave
• I remember when a tent steward sewed a guest’s designer jeans thinking they were torn and decided to mend them for her
• I remember the first time a tent steward put a good night note in a guest tent saying ‘Lala unono’ (translation from Swahili is sleep fat-ly)
• I remember our first guest engagement on the Out of Africa kopje
• I remember when our first sales consultant passed $1M in confirmed bookings
• I remember panicking when we were overbooked for the very first time
• I remember our butlers being so nervous when introducing food that they’d never even seen before that they gave a guest a Cheese Platter and announced 'Chocolate Brownie'

• I remember our first soccer match – and first victory – of the AFC at the Angama Football Pitch, aka “The Slaughterhouse,” and the crowd going wild
• I remember when a guest tried to warm their food up in the safe thinking it was a microwave
• I remember Josephat announcing that he was a senior bachelor – instead of senior butler

• I remember the very first USA sales trip with raging flu while Ebola warnings were splattered across any kind of travel to Africa
• I remember the 2am landings at JKIA and singing in the back of Bosco’s cab delirious with exhaustion but ready to crack on with project Angama Mara at 8am the next morning
• I remember feeling amazed when European football royalty came to stay at the lodge
• I remember hosting the President of our country at Angama Mara and shaking his hand

• I remember a leopard crossing in front of me as I was heading to North Camp in the morning on my third day
• I remember the first time a hippo showed up in our dam, and has since refused to leave
• I remember when we had a leopard living at our workshop
• I remember a pride of lions that held the Out of Africa kopje hostage for a week

• I remember my first Angama Mara picnic
• I remember my Maasai wedding
• I remember spending two nights in a tent with my dear wife as a guest
• I remember saying goodbye to Foxy
• I remember the tears, the laughs, the frustrations and the celebrations
• I remember the first time I looked up at that escarpment and saw a completed lodge looking back at me and thinking, 'there it is!!!'

Note from the Editor: