Isaac's Business - August 2026

ISAAC

Damaris Gomez

9/10/20264 min read

Isaac’s Story: From the Okavango to a Vision for Change

Isaac is a 50-year-old Moyei family man whose life has been deeply shaped by the Okavango Delta. Originally from Jedibe, a small island community within the Delta, he grew up surrounded by water, wildlife, cattle and the rhythms of life in the wilderness. From an early age, the Delta was not simply the place where he lived—it was the environment in which he learned, explored and developed a deep connection with nature.

Isaac remembers his childhood as one filled with curiosity and adventure. He spent time fishing, setting fishing-net traps and riding donkeys, while his naturally explorative personality often led him beyond the familiar. He recalls wandering into the bush, swimming in the local rivers and even holding onto the tails of cows as they crossed the water. These experiences gave him an intimate understanding of the landscape and a confidence in moving through it that would later become valuable in his career as a guide.

His early experiences also included exposure to his family’s hunting traditions, particularly through his uncles. Hunting was part of the way of life he encountered growing up, and although he participated, he remembers having killed only two impalas. With time, however, his relationship with wildlife changed. As he grew older and gained a different perspective on nature and conservation, he began to feel regret about those experiences. This change reflects an important part of Isaac’s journey: his understanding of the wilderness has continued to evolve throughout his life.

After completing his schooling, Isaac explored a path in construction, undertaking a six-month apprenticeship. He had hoped to build a career in the field, but limited opportunities eventually made it difficult to continue. He attended primary school in Ikoga before completing his junior and secondary education in Etsha 6. Although his journey did not continue into college or university, Isaac’s education did not end in the classroom. Much of his knowledge was developed through practical experience, learning from the people around him, working in the Delta and spending decades immersed in the tourism industry.

In 1993, Isaac’s relationship with the Okavango took a new direction when he entered the tourism industry as a professional mokoro guide. What began as a way of earning a living gradually became a long-term career and a source of knowledge that would shape much of his life. He later joined a safari company, an opportunity that eventually brought him to Maun, where he settled and continued to build his experience in tourism.

Over the years, Isaac moved beyond guiding and into entrepreneurship. Together with some partners, he invested in a mobile-safari business that operated for approximately ten years. The business offered visitors a more hands-on wilderness experience. Rather than simply arriving at a prepared camp, guests moved from one location to another and took part in setting up tents, making fires and preparing their own meals.

For Isaac, this approach reflected the kind of close, authentic relationship with the wilderness that he had known since childhood.

Although the business eventually came to an end, Isaac does not view the experience simply as a failure. Instead, it became an important lesson in entrepreneurship and partnership. He believes that poor engagement among the partners and a failure to properly assess the time and demands involved contributed to the business struggling. The experience gave him a clearer understanding of what it takes to build and sustain a business, and those lessons continue to influence the way he thinks about his next venture.

Today, Isaac is working toward establishing his own safari company, currently called Okavango Water Drifters. His vision for the company is rooted in more than his years of guiding and his knowledge of the Delta. It is also connected to the people he has met and worked alongside throughout his tourism career.

Isaac describes himself as a “people’s person.” Over the years, he has watched the tourism industry grow and has seen the value that visitors place on the Okavango experience. At the same time, he has noticed a difficult contradiction: many people working within this profitable industry continue to struggle to improve their own lives and those of their families. Some struggle to secure proper housing, while others find it difficult to afford opportunities such as sending their children to school.

This observation has become one of the strongest motivations behind Isaac’s vision for Okavango Water Drifters. He wants the company to become more than a safari business. He wants it to create opportunities that have a meaningful effect on the people who work within it. His ambition is personal and practical: if the company succeeds, he hopes to change at least two people’s lives in a tangible way, including by helping employees obtain or build homes and improve the circumstances of their families.

Isaac’s journey is therefore one that stretches from the waterways and islands of the Okavango Delta to the world of tourism and entrepreneurship. His strength lies not only in formal qualifications, but in the knowledge accumulated through a lifetime of experience: growing up in the Delta, learning from his community, guiding visitors through the wilderness, working in tourism, building a business, experiencing its challenges and reflecting on what he would do differently.

At 50, Isaac is not starting from the beginning. He is building on decades of lived experience. Okavango Water Drifters represents his next chapter—a chance to bring together his knowledge of the wilderness, his experience in tourism, his lessons from entrepreneurship and, most importantly, his desire to create opportunities for others. His story is ultimately about turning experience into purpose and using what he has learned along the way to create a better future for the people around him.

Isaac's Business - August 2026

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