Ocean View Guest Lodge - Umkomaas

The past 2 weeks, i got to go to Umkomaas,(which means rivier of the whales in Zulu). We, meaning sondela, have another guest house there, and the lady who manages the place had to go on leave, so I ended up going to keep the lodge afloat.I arrived at durban airport at 08h00 in the morning, Jenny picked me up, and took me to the lodge, we first had a cup of coffee, and then it started, jenny took me through the house and explained everything, and showed me where everything is, and started to explain my duties for the next 2 weeks!

These duties included, getting up at 06:00 every morning to let the night security gaurd go and lock up behind him, then when the sun comes up, to turn off the lights and unlock the gate, then i had to set up for breakfast and make sure everything is clean and neat and ready for the guests, who usally starts having breakfast at 07:00.In the mornings customer care and service plays a big role, seeing as you entertaine your guests constantly.During the day moste guests go out, so i watered the garden and inside plants, made sure that all maintenence work is done, collect laundry and give it to Gavin, he is our laundry guy, if something is broken report it to the correct person, and get it fixed. Help and supervise the cleaning ladies. On welcoming, guests gets pancakes, coffee, tea and sherry, this all had to be set up before hand, then when guests arrive, you greet them done stairs at the car, take them through the whole house and inform them about all the procedures, after which they get their pancakes, pay their key deposit, and go to their room.

I had to make sure that the chef always knew what everyone wanted to eat, and that he is there in time to prepare the meals.Constant cleaning and up keep of the house is essencial, that was my job, to run the house, and entertaine the guests. I also did some admin work, keeping paper work, like stock sheets, cash floats and work schedules up to date, then of course answering phones, and keeping Erika back at Sondela up to date on bookings and other qauries.

Making sure that there is always enough stock and everything is in working order.For the guests who are there for lunch, it needs to be set up and ready.Some of the guests can make a request to have there meals at there room.At nights, some of the guests tend to come and sosialize on the communial veranda, then you have to entertaine them till whenever.

So, i had a few late nights and early mornings, hard work and relaxed here and there, it was a fantastic experience, and nice to see how another establishment works.

Parents day

Our first parents day of the year was a huge success.Us hotel and lodge management students baked 400 cookies and 8 bannana breads, during the week, for it to be ready on the Friday.The rest of the students and us, cleaned and organized everything at the boys house, we took down tables and chairs, table cloths and decorations, coffee station, sideplates, cutlery, you name it. Everything was set up there on the stoep of the boys house, and tables and chairs under the trees for the parents. They already started to arrive at 08h00. We welcomed them with a smile, they had coffee and relaxed under the trees, and watched a slide show of photos of us, that we put together.


Inside the class room, the brown hyiena, we set out tables with all our files. We have a Portfolio of evedence, a learner guide and a aide memoir.Each of which have a different purpose.The portfolio contains all my tasks, notes, assighnments, anything that i do or wright myself goes in there, for example:

My firts week at Sondela was a introduction week, they took us through the rops and showed us whats going on, we did a few excersizes and assighnments on communication, customer service, management and working in groups.After the introduction week, i started with my chef course....!The most important thing in a kitchen is to clean as you go!!!!!Health, safety and hygiene is very impotant in a kitchen.Thats why we where protective chefs uniform, a double breasted jacket, to protect us from heat and burns, non slippery shoes, n hat, that creates a air vent on the top of your head inside the hollow tall hat, because kitchens can get very hot.To clean as you go, is very important, it prevents cross contamination and bacteria to spread and grow, and it also ensures a neat and tidy work station, so that you have space to work, this also prevents cuts and bumps, and speeds up the work proccess.We work with diffirent colour cutting boards, green= vegetables and fruits, white=dairy, brown= cooked meats, red= raw meat, yellow= chicken, blue= fish.The reason for this is also to prevent cross contamination between the different foods.



The learner guide contains all of my study material, so we work out of it, learn and make notes of it.The aide memoir is exactly what it sounds like, its there as a aide.You can deside what you put in, everything that you feel is most important, or something you want close to you, like a recipe or french terms of different foods, so basicly all the things you want to remember and want close to you, for example: French terms, basicly all foods and supplies are french names and terms, to these terms are very important, it makes the work go faster and more sufficient, for example: Jullienne = matchstick size cut for vegetables like carrots, Brunoix = small blocks for stuff like onions, Chiffonade = thin slitthers for stuff like lettuce. There are 14 cooking methods which is used for preparing food:

Boiling
Baking
Deep fry
Shallow fry
Pot roasting
Grilling
Saute
Glazing
Braizing
Steaming
Stewing
Blanching
Poaching
Roasting

Over all the day was a success, the parents got to see what we do, and get to know the staff and persons responsible for us, a little better.And everyone enjoyed our cookies.