Along the way, Xi encounters biologist Andrew Steyn, who is studying the manure of wildlife; Steyn's assistant and mechanic, M'pudi; Kate Thompson, a woman who quit her job as a journalist in Johannesburg to become a village school teacher; and a band of guerrillas led by Sam Boga, who are being pursued by government troops after a failed assassination attempt. Steyn is tasked with bringing Kate to the village where she will teach, but he is awkward and clumsy around her—he accidentally causes Kate to fall in a river, and she more than once mistakes his attempts to evade wild animals as advances towards her. Eventually, a snobbish safari tour guide named Jack Hind arrives, and takes Kate the rest of the way to the village.