Kevin Bogner - up close and personal with wild animals

Been any place exciting lately? Kevin Bogner can answer that one with a resounding yes, after spending some time this summer in South Africa, and visiting the Madikwe Game Reserve.

Kevin Bogner acting brave with lions nearby

Kevin actually was in South Africa to work. He is a project controls manager with a local global and engineering company, which sounds like a dull, detail-oriented desk job. It kind of is, but Kevin also has the option to help on certain projects throughout the world. In the past three years, he said, he has traveled to South Africa about nine times. “We are helping them build a power facility,” Kevin said. “The goal of the South African government is to have electricity in every home.”

With reliable power, Kevin said, jobs would be available in such places as the copper mines, and there wouldn’t be continual power outages that disrupt what little electricity there is. Kevin has also worked on air quality control equipment, and refurbishing a school for New Jerusalem Children’s Home, a local orphanage.

A rhinoceros

This summer, when he found himself in South Africa with a free weekend, he and a couple of other guys headed to Madikwe, about a 3 ½ hours-drive from Johannesburg. The park, situated against the Botswana border close to the Kalahari Desert, is home to approximately 66 large mammals and 300 bird species, including what is known in Africa as the Big Five: lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and cape buffalo. It allows visitors to observe animals in their natural habitat, primitive and wild.

Kevin was skeptical at first, wondering if he would really see any animals. “We had been driving about 20 minutes,” he said, “and I thought this is boring, we won’t see anything.” Next thing he knows, he’s looking at a herd of cape buffalo. Cape buffalo have big curled horns, an unpredictable nature, and they don’t give any warning before they attack. That’s scary to know when you’re sitting in an open jeep, feeling just a little vulnerable. And at times, Kevin said, the driver rolled right up to animals, which felt too close for comfort.

African elephants

Safari jeep

Later into the drive, Kevin’s group spotted a group of elephants drinking from a small stream. Elephants can be dangerous too, but maybe not as much as the lions that suddenly appeared, circling and stalking the elephants.

Kevin explained that he had learned that predators know to look for the weakest. That could be a baby elephant, or the animals that are the last in line because they’re the oldest and slowest. They didn’t see a lion kill an elephant, but they did see lions take down a giraffe and a wildebeest, and a pack of wild dogs take down a deer and chase a warthog, which got away. Did it bother him, to see something like that? “Well, you have to realize, I’m a guy,” Kevin said, grinning. “And I was with two other guys.” He added that the ranger who drives the jeep carries a rifle, and they are all instructed about what to do and not to do. “If you fall out of a vehicle,” Kevin said, “stay on the ground. If you run, you’re food.”

Cheetah

Kevin has been to the game reserve twice, and said each experience was completely different, because he never knew what animals he would see. He has photographs of a hyena (“scary and ugly”) a cheetah, a giraffe, birds, baboons, a pack of wild dogs, rhinos and lots of lions. When his group saw these animals, they knew to sit quietly and not move. That way, they and the jeep were just one big object not posing any kind of threat, or enticement. Kevin explained that even so, you suddenly realize you’re not at the zoo where there are fences and barriers, and that all the lion needs to do is leap at you. He also mentioned the sounds that you hear in the African wild, such as the growling of the animals as they fight over a kill, or the eerie laugh of the hyena.

Kevin said that Johannesburg has a European feel to it, with outdoor cafes and decent lodgings. One evening, he ate at a wild game buffet, sampling zebra, crocodile, venison meatballs and hartebeest. “The crocodile was good but I wouldn’t have it again,” Kevin said, “and the zebra was tough. I liked the deer meat.”

African lions

Kevin’s first international business trip was to Malaysia, a journey that also took him through Hong Kong and Tokyo. In late 1999, he moved to Saudi Arabia for six months to work on a project. There, he said, he saw a man with a donkey, carrying a staff, and herding sheep, just like a Biblical character come alive.

Before the Saudi Arabia trip, he went on a blind date with a girl named Julie that was set up by a high school friend. The two hit it off, so when Kevin told her that in a mere two weeks he would be leaving for six months to live in the Middle East, they agreed to keep in touch. Kevin and Julie have been married for 13 years, and have two daughters.

Kevin & Julie Bogner and daughters

Kevin grew up in a small community, where he learned building skills from his dad and compassion through everyday life. He uses both as a volunteer with HopeBUILDERS, building wheelchair ramps and doing small home renovations for people with little to no income. He and his wife also give a lot of time to Holy Cross, teaching children and helping in a variety of other ways.

For Kevin, it’s all about giving back, or rather sharing what he has been given. “When you’ve been to a poor country,” he said, “you see how good you have it here. It’s something we often take for granted.”