becoming a chefie

fresh shaux

cleaning all day long

first course of sondela and i started with kicthen skills.we started on the tuesday with just an introduction to the course with our training manager Natalie. we had to do a role play on bad customer service and fortunatly Daniel and i had to be the angry customers. after that it was lunch which is always my favourite part of the day. during the afternoon we had a sondela sports day where all the staff on the farm had to participate in different sports on the farm. we played volley ball which was so much fun and soccer and tug of war.Wednesday was here and it was our day to start in the kitchen. we had to litrally clean our training kitchen from the roof to the floor. then we had to clean the equipment out and clean every single  piece od equipment. this took us all day to clean this kitchen and when we finally finished, it was so lovley to go home and sleep. then on the thursday and friday we worked in the pastry kitchen and made or differnt types of things. we made a lemon cheese cake, custard, shaux and declairs. i also had to make 500 pancakes for the friday welcoming which was very differnt but my hands hurt in weird places but im always happy to help out. im excited to carry on with the skills course and excited to learn all the differnt things one needs to know in the kitchen.ps-this doesnt mean ill cook for family and friends now.

WOP is finally over

so far everything has been so much fun and the orientation program is over. the last week has been very relaxed in terms of work but we are never out to rest. we have been classes all week intill friday was here. on the friday we all had to sit with great patience waiting to write the tests that they had waiting for us. we waited from 8:00 intill 13:00 well all the other groups wrote the tests. everybody walked out the room with there heads down in disappointment when not one person in the 1st year passed the tests. but we learnt very quickly how the high standards of sondela is. we worked the whole weekend.firday i had to stand at the pancake stand and had serve the guests wine and juice. this was a long day but felt good to go home at the end of the day. saturday we had to work at the wild life center which was an experiance and a half. we did lion interactions,food preperations and cleaning cages which was so much fun. sunday i did another game drive at the caravanpark with the site guide james which was an amazing experiance and just took in so many new aspects to my new life in the bush.

2nd week of the WOP course

second week of the WOP course has been more relaxed but have still been hard at work. on the first weekend of working properly we had to work Friday, Saturday and Sunday. on the Friday i worked at the main gate. we started at 13.00 in the afternoon and worked till 21.00 at night. i had to write down the name of the car and color, the surname and where they staying for the weekend. then i had to radio the different welcoming and give them the different information they needed to do their jobs. Saturday we did hard labor which was very intense work but did have a problem doing it. Sunday i woke up and they told me i had to do a game drive at 9 in the morning which stressed me out but once i had started it went fine. in the week we have just been doing unpacking of different unit standards(mind maps). last night we saw our first snake by the house it was very interesting. it was just under 1m long and was a cape file snake. its been a long time away from home but its Friday and is finally time to go home,cant wait

the life of WOP(workplace oriention program)

WOP started on the 23rd of January. we went through a crash course of all the rules and how the farm works. we learn't about all the names that we had to know like the head departments and training mangers. we learn't all the different departments that are ran on Sondela for example life style center and resource guardianship. then we got split up into 3 group and i was placed into the 3rd group and then we started with our official WOP. We had to do 3 courses of which each took 2 days each. we started our first day by sitting the whole day in the class getting introduced to most the staff on the farm. then the next day we walked around the farm yard and learn't about important tree's,grass's and birds that are inhabited on the farm. then we experienced a basic fire fighting course and then were taught what would take place in the experience of a fire on the farm. then the last course we did was a first aid course which i think was the hardest out of all the courses. its been a little over a week and we have been hard at work ever since we arrived and the hours are long but im not scared....yet