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.