Afrika, the real life

Friday 20

17:20:                  2 guests ask me to organise a safari fort hem. I call Geroleen and ask for availability. It is late and not possible anymore to contact Coastal (Biubwa), she will do it tomorrow morning.
I agree with the guests to meet again tomorrow morning at 10:30 to finalise the booking.

Saturday 21

10:00                   Geroleen informs me that the Lake Manze lodge is booked out, but there is availability in the Wilderness lodge, any day of the week.
She is also waiting for an e-mail from Biubwa (Coastal) with the link to the website of that lodge.

10:30                   Still no link/e-mail. I google and find, and together with the guests we look at the website. In less than half an hour I send an e-mail & sms to confirm the safari on Thursday 26/Friday 27.
Geroleen confirms the safari (lodge & date).

12:22                   I receive a message that also the Wilderness lodge is booked out but EVENTUALLY  the Mbuyu lodge has still availability.
Or the guests could go on Tuesday or Wednesday.
I know this is no longer an option for the guests as after confirming the safari with me they have confirmed other excursions/activities.
Moreover, asking them NOW to change the date is impossible: I don’t know where they are and… today is my day off and I would like to enjoy it.

                           I ask Geroleen to insist with Biubwa to organise the safari on 26/27; in the end she has created the problems …

Sunday 22

17:30                   I still don’t have any confirmation for this safari.
2 more guests ask me to go on safari, together with those guests. For now I cannot confirm, today is Sunday.

Monday 23

Airport                 Tonino is at the airport and confirms me the safari I had booked last Saturday.
I ask availability for 2 more guests.

Office                   Tonino calls me back: availability ok, he asks for the names.
I call the hotel and ask the guests permission to continue with the booking. They agree and will come by at 17:00 for the payment.
I communicate the names to Geroleen (Naissi)

Voormiddag          hotel Sea Cliff: 2 more guests are interested in making a safari; I ask Geroleen to check for availability.

12:38                   SMS from Geroleen “Hi Ilse, clients Naissi x2 on their returning date, their flight fr. Dar to znz wl be at 17:45 landing in znz 18:00. Other 2 pax wl arrive early at 17:30. Pls inform the clients about the changes. Txs.

17:00                   Guests Naissi come to tell me they can’t find their credit card (Forgotten? Lost? Stolen?). In any case, they can’t pay the safari.
I call Geroleen: guests cannot pay the safari, but tomorrow I will try to convince the guests from Sea Cliff to go on Safari on Thursday, so we don’t need to cancel the flight tickets/lodge, we just need to change the names.

Tuesday 24

morning               Geroleen calls me to inform me that we have to pay, weather we have guests or not.
I repeat to ask for an option till 16:00 as I have more interested guests…

15:00                   I convince the guests, they will go on safari on Thursday and they pay.

15:38                   SMS to Geroleen “Hi Geroleen, guest ROSSBACHER Ernst & Elke have paid Selous Safari for 26/9. Ilse”

±10 min later        Still no reaction from Geroleen, I call her. She hasn’t read yet the message but she will confirm immediately.

10 more min         call from Tonino: how i dare to confirm a safari (that had been cancelled). I explain I had asked for an option till 16:00 uur, so now it is 15:58 still in time to confirm. He doesn’t know of any time limit and says he only received an e-mail from Geroleen with the request to cancel as the guests couldn’t pay. (Geroleen will tell me later she indeed has asked for the option till 16:00).
I explain that these guests have paid, so we need to find a solution. He says he will check and inform me.

Wednesday 25

8:20                    SMS to Tonino with the request to answer.

± 9:30                 still no answer from Tonino (and he even doesn’t answer his mobile phone) so
I call Geroleen and ask if she can check.

after ± 20 min      Tel from Geroleen: safari is not possible, there are no seats available on the plane

10 min later          again a call from Geroleen: according to Biubwa they cannot cancel the lodge otherwise they have to pay the cancellation fee so they will book a flight with ZanAir.

10 min later          tel from Tonino: everything is cancelled; there are no seats on the plane.  I don’t understand it and refer to what Biubwa has said to Geroleen concerning  the flight company and the cancellation fee. He says that that is impossible, but he will ask for information. He promises me he will let me know before 12:00 if the guests can go on safari on 26, 29 or 30 (so 26 is not excluded yet).

10:53                   sms from Geroleen “Hi Ilse! I think u had spoken to Tonino that Rossbacher booking is canceled. Thx.

For half an hour I can’t reach anybody: I am driving from Pingwe to Nungwi, in the woods of Zanzibar, there is no signal for the mobile Phone.

11:40                   back into “civilisation”, SMS from Tonino: “Safari for tomorrow confirmed ciao tonino”

13:08                   SMS from Geroleen ”Dear Ilse booking for rossbacher is well confirmed for tommorow. Pick up time is 08.00 by Zanair. Pick up fr hotel is 06:00 am. Thx.

At that moment I started breathing again… At what point would you have gone mad????