hi there fellow guides .
this year is a fresh new start and this is why i am going to dedicate this blog to guides in south Africa  , we as guides always need new and fresh information to keep our brains going , so on this blog i will write and upload interesting things i come across on Sondela  nature reserve i would enjoy it if people from different country's participate and share there knowledge with us to. each week i will discuss a new finding or even something that is all ready known to man to juts refresh that memory of our. if there is any thing that any one would like to know we can create a group discussion and talk about things we find to be amazing .
in the last couple of years on Sondela  if have found things that would blow a persons minds and now i can share them with you all .

there is a good saying which my father always reminds me of " conservation starts with education " lets help each other and share knowledge that worth sharing , let us in this year become outstanding guides and show people of any age or colour what the true beautiful nature  and folklore of this  country .

i am looking forward to hearing from you all over the country and hearing about the wildside you came across.

kind regards Dean

certificate in reception operations.

good morning , this was my last course of the year , i was doing my nine weak certificate in reception or front office if you may , we started there on a Monday morning and within the first day we had to start working with guests, we had modules during our nine Weeks here is some just to name a few that we had covered , front office procedures, guest accounting , safety, advanced reservations, we had to study these modules and be able to put it into play when working with guests in reception.
we were showed how to great a guests in the correct manner according to a set standard that we use , we also had to practise a set greeting when answering a telephone call , reception is a lot of hard work and the paperwork involved can become somewhat difficult at times , we had to do things as registration cards fro guests , in house list , recons which we were helped with by fellow staff members, work with guests credits and even lost and found property , we also had training on the booking system called uni res man which is internationally used this system keeps a record of guests account were accounting comes into play , keeps all there personal details such as telephone numbers etc , the unit number and the status of the guest.
during our second weak we had to deal with a difficult customer which was something new to me in that department as reception is the main communicator of any guest related issue , guests always  complain at front office as we work closely with guests , when the customer came to complain  we had let the staff members handle it as we were nor sure how to handle such an issue raised by the guest.
at the end off the month we had to do customer care were we phone guests to ask them a few questions on how there stay was this way we can see were we need improvement.
front office also in voles working with money there is a standard procedure which we had to follow when booking an activity for a guest we need to receive the money and close the transaction ,at the end of the day we needed to do a cash up we needed to balance daily and the money then gets dropped into a safe for the financial department. we were able to scan a guest and open a sale ,close a sale , deal with enquiries , do a check in and check out , we learnt so much as to how the department works and how close we are with other departments around us , this course really helps develop Iyour unknown people skills.
i had a lot of fun working with fellow students and staff we were able to work together and be able to think as one team.
i want to thank all the people in reception for the great time and a great learning opportunity.

Food and beverage skills

good morning to all , this year has gone so fast and we had done so much as first year students, i would like to tell you about my experience at food and beverage skills, we had to do a four weak skills program on how this industry works we had to cover many modules such as, table service, all the serving styles we get, glass types and many more , we had to fisically work and serve guests and work with a program called plus point were would create a guest account so that we could keep track of the items guests would buy from the restaurant , working with guests broadens your communication skills and helps you read various types of customers whether it be friendly or difficult customers, serving the guests was a challenge at first as you need have a good posture and guests need to be served from the right side of the table , your language skills also came into play we needed to able to explain a menu to guests using the correct professional grammar, there were some challenges during our training as we had to deal with internal conflict between staff and students, on a weekend we were each giving a section of the restaurant to run all the  tables in that area was your responsibility to clean and keep the guests happy at all times, this course we did is the most nerve wreaking course of all due to the fact that we had to work with unknown guests and be able to be a team worker and a leader. the hour of this course becomes really tuff , ypu work very long hour at a time , for example we had to work a fumction called bring and braai which sometimes only ends at 10 o clock if you were working from 8 o clock that morning the hours become long and hard , but on the bright side it helps prepare you for the long hour in any job in the hospitallity indutrie , i had so much fun during my training as we had to do role plays and get a feeling of how it would really feel when dealing with a customer that wants to see real service.

food prep

this now my second week in the kitchen and i am enjoying it a lot we are learning so much in such a short time !! we are now cooking like crazy and becoming young chefs in the making !!,in these last two weeks i have seen what many people never see at all i have seen a head chef go crazy and i have seen a whole kitchen function under pressure , i have now worked in the hot kitchen and cold kitchen and in all areas of the kitchen , we have been busy and have been thought how to cook in a time that is not possible at home overall though we are not real chefs we get treated like one and we have been thought how to function as one and how the kitchen can treat you , it is a great experience so far i am enjoying the food and what we had been taught , i never thought i would be able to cook more then pasta but now i can !! this is great fun and must say I'm getting fatter by the day with all the food i eat on a daily basis !!

skills in food prep

kitchen!!!!!!!!!!! time !!  i am now in my second week in the kitchen were i am doing my basic skills this has been great fun so far we did our knife skills and work in the kitchen will the help of our head chef and staff we will be able to cook more then just an egg , we have been given tasks to do and collect 25 recipes.
in these last two weeks we have been cooking things from meat to a egg that has been poached ,we are 3 students at the moment so we each get put into a section such as cold kitchen were we have to prepare salads , do breakfasts etc we learn a great deal in the kitchen as we will need to cook for guests one day when working at a lodge , one thing that has really made me smile is the fact we learn things in the kitchen no other kid learns from his mom witch is great .
we also have a great pressure on us as the kitchen does get busy and we need to be able to handle the pressure at all times .
but so far the kitchen is great fun and we love learning about food and what we can do with it ,
our main concern at this stage is so keep up the hard work and keep our customers happy.

ssb sondela share block

this week at ssb was really fun as we did our last modules in this week it was customer care and house keeping we also had to work in the luandry room to be able to know how the fabricks etc are taken care off . this week we also did many varios things such as working with chmicals and what they are used for on a daily basis and how the different equipment is used , this week that had past we also did customer care and what it in tails !!. we also did aother nie thing such as how a furniture trimming can have an effect on the flow of dust , the control off dust and dirt and the restiction off bataria and dirt was also done with us this was very intresting in many ways as we never thought that we need to controldust in an esablishment !! these intresinting aspects we were tought off will help us in many ways as we need to able to run a place with no mess ups , we also we shown how to report and and act like a junior manager shoud in this industry!! as for the industrial iron we had to use now this was a first for most off the boys as we had to help was and iron the pillow cases etc this was a great fun day !! this was week was long but the most fun by far !!!!

oky as i said i was leaving conservation for now im at sondela share block or ssb as we know it were are busy with our with first module wich is health and safety around and in the works place ,so far its been not to bad we sit alot and work on our theorie wich is not to bad we also took some time to walk through our store rooms and we were shown how it works wintin these store rooms ,we were also shown how to ensure our safety an that off geusts and the procedures that go with this kind off work. we wrote test today aswell on our module 1 i must say it was a fun paper to write i got 100 percent and im am very pleased with my marks i got , ssb is a department like no other as this department ensures that geusts are safe and there always a clean chalet for them to walk into at all time this department is a lesson to be learnt as this were geust exspectation comes into play to ensure that our costumers come back each time !!!! ssb is a great way for a person to learnt and learn great new things if were geust we would like a safe place that is clean and feels like home so ssb super student here we are to help and improve our customer exspection!!! go ssb !!