I first realized I wanted to become a guide when I was still young where I used to live adjacent to Mount Meru Forest. We used to see animals there all the time: monkeys, birds, antelope, dik-dik… we were enamored with them. My father also used to take me and my sister to Mount Meru Game Sanctuary where there are dozens of different species of animals. Whenever we went to the sanctuary, we were led by a local guide who gave us explanations of all the species. I was completely motivated by these experiences, and it pushed me to study guiding courses so I could explain to visitors about the different wildlife and attractions in Tanzania.

After I finished my secondary school in 1985, I got my driver’s license and applied for a post at a Tanzanian game tracking company where I got experience driving clients to Maswa Game Reserve, Kigozi Game Reserve, and Selous Game Reserve. During this phase of my career, I learned about animal footprints, tracking, and different habitats. The company I worked for at the time referred me to study tour guiding after they saw my interest in tracking and learning about the animals’ lives. I joined the Mount Meru Tour Guiding College for six months, learning about guiding ethics, birds, animal behavior, wildlife management, customer care, and hospitality. After this, I was an official safari driver guide!

I came to work for Easy Travel after moving to Arusha – they were a medium-size tour company that were growing well while still keeping a personal touch on the tours they run. They had an excellent company culture, good team spirit, and were great with scheduling. My favorite thing about being a guide is simply being able to see the nature and animals that our country is blessed with. This truly makes me feel like an ambassador for my country towards our guests and visitors – we give them incredible memories of Tanzania.

The most challenging part of being a guide is keeping your knowledge sharp – whenever a guest travels with me, I’ve got to make sure I can answer all of their questions as best as I can. Sometimes, they will ask a trick question or two (but I can usually spot those). Finding animals can also be difficult. Even though I have decades of experience, animals can be unpredictable – while they should be in a specific place, they can often be somewhere completely unexpected!

I have been described by my community and my working environment as polite, quiet, and friendly – I try to bring as much peace and harmony as I can to the world, and I hope that comes across. I am a father of five children, three girls and two boys. Two of them are adults but the younger three still live at home with my wife and me. We live in Ilboru Village in Arumeru district, Arusha.