The Guesthouse

My first working weekend I was told that I'll be working in our 5-star guesthouse with a lot of nervous feelings shooting through me I went and changed to my all black outfit. I got there not knowing what to do and where to go.Being a first year in this industry you have to be able to learn very very fast, in the guesthouse there is no time for a training when the main gate calls you and says that the first guests are on their way. Everything must be checked AGAIN, just to make sure it's perfect. After all that's what 5 star service is all about.


Tsholo and I started setting up for lunch
and waiting for the guests to arrive.
Everything had to be perfect.











JUST A COUPLE OF PHOTO'S


Outside area & Reception





The kitchen



The rooms
Every night while the guest were having dinner I went in to do turn downs, basically just checking that everything is perfect, that they have milk for the next morning as well as coffee and tea and that their towls are neatly rolled up, their slippers are next to their beds and the gowns are neatly folded on the bed. Every room has something else a couple of examples: room 2 has a bath and a shower outside and room 3 has a jacuzzi outside there are 7 rooms.




Breakfast at the wildlife centre
Every Sunday the guest has an outside breakfast at the wildlife centre, we start setting up very early and the guests joins us after they had their tour around 08h00!





JUST A COUPLE OF ANIMALS THAT CAN BE SEEN AT THE WILDLIFE CENTRE




It was a tough weekend, but I survived, my feet were killing me, but hey HOSPITALITY NEVER SLEEPS!!

Basic communication & teamwork

8 RULES OF COMMUNICATION

• Talk
• Listen
• Understand
• Body language
• Interpret
• Ask Questions
• Repeat
• Eye contact

Communication is everyone's most important and valued asset. Without communication, no company, no friendship and no relationship will succeed. Its important to understand how to communicate, always send out the right body language, always maintain eye contact, make sure you understand the tasks (repeat), listen closely and ASK AS MANY QUESTIONS AS POSSIBLE

Today we did teamwork exercises, and by succeeding in each exercise we had to communicate. First up was our cat. We got orders to draw a cat and give it a name, everyone was doing fine until we found out that it needed to be a specific cat and a specific colour, and we all ended up drawing a simple house cat, instead of a tiger which had to be brown.

Next we had the string game, 4 team members had to choose a leader for this game, in our case it was Jason. Three of the team members were blind folded, and a paperclip with a string attached to it were tied to the back of their pants. All the strings lead to the middle where there was a key tied to a separate string. The object of the game was to follow instruction from our team leader to work together and drop the key into a cup which was a walking distance of about 6meters from us. Sadly our team did not succeed, maybe poor communication from our team leader or maybe the team members just not asking enough questions, like how far or am I walking to fast? I'm sure if we got a second chance we will be able to pull it through.

Build me a tower followed straight after. Every team got the same resources to build any kind of tower, the aim of the game was that it should be able to uphold 500g. Everyone started with their own ideas our team decide to keep it small and simple and use alot of support (which in the end counted in our favour). We went outside and we found out the 500g will be dropped on the tower and no one expected that. Our team was confident, we used alot of support. Again we had to learn the hard way because NO ONE ASKED how its going to be placed on the tower. After we softly placed it on the tower everyone succeeded, the big drop followed and all the towers were still standing. I don't think we did to bad even though we didn't ask alot of questions.

Our last game for the day was called the egg game. The object was to drop the egg from any given height without it breaking or cracking. Our team decided on the Yo-Yo trick. We tied the string to the straw and the cup and we gently rolled it down for a good safe landing. All of the teams had different methods but everyone worked. WE DID IT!!!!

Policies and Procedures

Policy

Policy is typically described as a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes, however the term may also be used to donate what is actually done, even though it is unplanned

Procedures

Fixed, step by step sequence of activities or couse of action that must be followed in the same order to correcly perform a task or to make a system or a company work

Why it's important

Policies and prosedures are the strategic link between the company's vision and it's day to day operations. Well written policies and procedures allow employees to understand their roles and responsibilities within predefined limits. Basically policies & procedures allow management to guide operations without constant management intervention

Who am I this year and what are my responsibilities?

Bela Bela Tour

We left Sondela to go on a tour to Bela Bela, as we got into the bus Cobus told us how to interact with guest on a tour bus that should talk about everything around you and that you should always be proud of South Africa

We started of at Information around where we got all the necessary info and pamphlets that we needed about Bela Bela and all the tourist sites around it


At 09:51 we went to the old cemetary and Cobus gave us a short briefing of who was put to rest there


At 10:00 we stopped at the African Market
which is a big tourist attraction. There you will find handmade itemswhich has been carefully
crafted by our entrepeneurs from all over South Africa






At 10:30 we arrived at the block houses it was built in 1899 and they finished it in 1902. The reason for the block houses was to protect the railway which ran straight through Zimbabwe.


Our last stop was the Silo's which are owned by NKT. There are 7 big Silo's and 5 smaller Silo's, storage of grain and maize which hold up to 48 000 tons.

CONTROLING OF THE QUELEA BIRD SPECIES

Why do we do this?

This is mostly about food security to make sure that the birds doesn’t take over the farmers crops, our populations is growing faster than our production. It’s a conservation issue

How the planning goes

· Interested and effected parties

· Briefing Stefan - department of agri-culture professional and efficient

· Identify and chase away all non targeted species

· Put out the torches to have an indication of where the specified area is that the plane will be targeting

· No labour from Sondela’s side they provide the labour this is just for experience

· Evacuate the area the winds might change and everyone will be affected

· The following morning everyone will start at 5 o’clock to start with the cleaning process and find the non targeting species to take them to the rehab centre if they had been poisoned

· Log all identified non target species they will receive treatment

· Debriefing and reporting will follow after the cleaning process and will be added to each student’s blog

· Feelings and emotions are very important in a blog and what you will do different in the future

· The flairs will be put up at 6 and the spraying will commence at 8 o’clock

· Be on site just before the spraying starts

· Students will not be dealing will the birds after the spraying due to the health violation and that no safety gloves will be given to them

· The poison is called falcolan the instructions are printed on the bottle it’s made only for Aquelea’s and it may only be used by the department of agri culture

· They use 10 litre per hectare they use special nozzles that turns into a vapour that the birds inhale its takes a while before it kicks in the animals and insects on the ground may not be effected as much accept when they may eat some of the birds that were all ready infected

· The planning around this operation is very important we have to do this on a specific time when that babies are out of the nest but cannot yet fly because the parents will them keep coming back to get their offspring

· Sondela – it has been done here 8 years ago

· Non target species that may be affected- ox pecker (renoster voël)

Bull frogs

Owls

· MAKE SURE ALL THE NECCISARY PRECAUTIONS ARE MADE

· Company’s side – medic (first aid)

Indemnity form

Debriefing

Fire trucks

Indication of power lines for the plane

· Departments – agri-culture

Nature conservation

Poison control

· Follow up if the necessary risks have been made clear and if no one has been seriously contaminated the following morning

· The cleaning process will begin and all non targeted animals will be taken to our wildlife centre

Life on Sondela

My life on Sondela started on the 30th of November 2009 when I came for the entertainment. We worked under Mark McGuire who is the owner of Blue Hat Entertainment. There we learned how to entertain guests of all ages.

They introduced us to the Baby five (ages 3-6), the Ugly five (ages 7-12), the Teens (ages 13-17), and of course the hardest group to entertain the ADULTS! We had a very well organised program which included an activity for every group that followed every hour. Late nights which included Kareoke, Nintendo Wii nights, Movie nights in the caravan park, bring and braai and last but not least, the welcoming of the guests that happens every friday and monday.

We worked right through December including our Carols By Candle Light on Christmas eve and our very interesting New Years Party until 4 0'clock. Its was a great month and now I have alot more experience on the farm than the other new students who just got in.