WOP course (Part 4)

Week 4

We are currently in our fourth and last week of the WOP course, we are very busy planning the Meet the Management function to be held next week Thursday.  Our theme is going to be Country and we have to do a song and dance, the song we are using is Stand by me by John Lennon.  We have had a whole day of learning basic maths from Heidi, it wasn't too difficult but it was interesting to see how people understand maths in different ways.  By now, everyone knows everyone within the student group and personalities have started to clash but we were taught not to bring our personal lives to work but it isn't as easily done as said.  Today, Thursday I am working my first real shift.  A few of the students with previous waitering experience have been asked to waiter at a conference being held tonight.  Since I already have four and a half years of experience, I am part of this group. Today we will also be having our interviews with our principal Mr. Reinecke and our facilitator Chef Edward, where they give us feedback on our progress and ask us a few questions, I will let you know how it went...

 These pictures are of the welcoming table and the path to the conference centre.  There was a table with the cocktails but because of the jelly sugar on the rims of the glasses, bees attacked, so we had to pack up, move a few feet away and set up a new table without sugar coated glasses.  There were alcoholic drinks and non-alcoholic drinks served.  No waitering experience could have prepared me for the waitering part of the evening.  My feet were killing me by the end of the night but it was worth it since I gained certain knowledge of how things work at F and B here at Sondela.

I received good reviews about my work performance so far, the managers have reported that I'm a hard worker and willing and able.  They are very happy with me and have decided to put me in Site Guide first since I already have experience in the F&B part.  I am happy with what they decided and very eager to start my course.

WOP course (Part 3)

Week 3
Week three was all about health, hygiene and communication.

The picture on the left is of a communication project that we had to do.  We were given a few random pieces of equipment and we had to build a tower.  We failed at this task because the criteria of the project was to build the highest tower but since our communication skills aren't up to standard, we didn't ask so we didn't know.  We had an egg project, our egg survived after being thrown off a roof but we still failed since we didn't ask the important questions so we didn't really know what to do.  We had to create a song and dance about health or hygiene, this is our song:
Something sweet for your feet
Pluck your nose and scrub your toes
Use your hands to wash your pants
Wash your face and every private place
Clean your ear if you can't hear
Wash your breath, it smells like death
Take your time to wash the grime
Think before you stink
Use Dove before making love
Trim your hair, wash everywhere.

The boys sang the song and the girls did the movements, in my opinion our's was the best.
This week we also learned how to do Welcoming in the right way and what to do when things turn for the worst or you have a difficult customer.
The three important things of this week:
Acquire the guest
Maintain the guest
Exceed the guest's expectations

WOP course (Part 2)

Week 2

The second week we join Tromar EMS for our First Aid Level 1 training. It consisted of 3 days of theory, a little practical and a practical test on the third day.  The photos of previous injuries were gruesome and some of the people complained that it was too explicit but I found it overwhelmingly interesting.  I have so much more respect for paramedics and doctors, staying calm and not freaking out over a wound and having to fix it at the same time, is a lot more difficult that one would expect.  After the 3 days, I could do CPR, help a person that's choking and keep the person from bleeding out before actual paramedics can take over and get the person fixed up.  The most important thing to remember, H.H.H.,Hazards, Hallo, Help, we learned about different types of wounds and how each one should be treated differently.  On the Thursday of the 2nd week, the students did a fire prevention training, which I could not be apart of for personal reasons but from what I heard, the students had a blast (no pun intended) and learned a lot. Attached is an image of me being the patient, with a broken ankle and the other students having to fix it, of course, this is how it should NOT be done.  On one of the days, we did an simulation where a group had to make up a scene and people were injured in different ways, the other group had to act like the paramedics and figure out what was wrong with us.  In our simulation, we were in a taxi accident, I had hit my head against the chair in front of me and was supposed to have a brain injury.  My paramedic came and put a sponge neck brace around my head and went on with other patients, of course I died but at the end of the simulation, all the paramedics had died too because no one had bothered to make sure there were no hazards, in this case stop the oncoming traffic.  The weekend of the second week, I was on duty, I worked at SSB, which is the cleaning service for the chalets and Makhato houses on Sondela.  It was the hardest I've ever worked in my life and I have a lot more respect for all kinds of cleaners, it's not a fun job but somebody has to do it.

WOP course

The first month of our lives here at Sondela have consisted of four weeks of a pure Work-place Orientation Program.  This was to get us ready to interact with staff, management and most important guests, since our actions and interacting skills all lead back to Sondela.  I'll tell you about a few things we have done:

Week 1

On the first day, we each were given a partner whom we had to introduce to the student body, I introduced Gunther Venables.  The rest of the week we were introduced to the staff and management and made familiar with the grounds. We were also taught about the history of Sondela and one thing I will never forget is that Sondela means 'Come closer'.  During this week on one of our tours of the grounds, I learned that our facilitator, Chef Edward, walks so fast, I have to run to keep up.  We also made a turn at the Wild Life centre, where we saw the cutest lions, cutest being the wrong word to describe a wild animal.  We saw an array of different animals but one that really stood out for me was The Cheetah.  Mr. Sieg van Dyk walked into its cage and stroked it like it was a mere house cat and it actually purred like one.  One girl went into the cage and it was really interesting to see how the cheetah sized her up and read her fear, she didn't stay inside for long.  The funniest thing happened, Porkie, the Wildlife centre's 'village dog' as the Canadian girl said, walked past the cage and the cheetah forgot all about the other bystanders but prowled along the fence line because from his perspective, Porkie was food.  We were supposed to have a sports day but it rained out.  Something I definitely wanted to mention, the guesthouse at Sondela is so luxurious and fancy, we weren't even allowed to go in on the day of our tour.