All the wildebeest in the Serengeti

Here’s a late addition, and final post, for our African Trip. It’s a story I’ve been meaning to write for a while… but I was writing the Real Housewives of the Serengeti when this happened, and this story just fell through the cracks.

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22 December, 2018. Mbugani Migration Camp, Lake Ndutu, Tanzania. Written 22 Jan 2019 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada!

We were just leaving the Mbugani Migration camp, and Heather and I were carrying our luggage around the corner of the dining tent towards the truck. Salim and three of the camp staff were at the truck, laughing. Salim said “Oh good, the father needs to be here for this”

Apparently one of the young staff members had told Salim that he found Heather quite attractive. Salim had relayed the story to the group about Kirsten’s 400 cow dowry recommendation.

Heather jumped into the negotiations, and quickly upped the price to 500 cows, so that she could give 400 to Mark.

The staff member considered this and then lit up with an idea: “how about 500 wildebeest? ” Being the migration camp, they move the camp seasonally with the migration, and we were probably surrounded by 500 wildebeest at the time, with more arriving every hour. He quickly escalated his offer: “No wait…All the wildebeest in the Serengeti!!”

Hmmm. There’s well over a million wildebeest in the Serengeti.

Heather is not getting any younger, so maybe next year I’d only be offered half of the wildebeest in the Serengeti. I’ll have to consider this proposal carefully.

This whole ‘old world dowry’ thing certainly provides new opportunities in capitalistic parenting. Up to now, the kids have just been a highly lovable money pit….

That’s a lot of wildebeest

One thought on “All the wildebeest in the Serengeti”

  1. gift of a book on ski touring in Haute Savoie > all the wildebeest in Serengeti. One of these can sit comfortably on my bookshelf! 🙂

    You managed to gloss over your part! One of the staff (I think it was Peter), at a loss as to why you would want such a selfishly large number of cows, asked what you would do with 500 of them. And you said “Good question… but what would I do with one daughter?”

    -_-

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