On tour with the BIG BOSSES!

Good morning to you all.

Wow,so the past week has been hecticaly busy. With all the assesments, preparation for our sponsors visit and planning outfits and speechI unfortunatly did not get the opportunity to be assed so i will have to wait for about a month to be assesd and i wil then qualify to be a tourist guide. i would firstly like to say a few thank yous before i tell you more about our visit with the big bosses to the mountains of magaliesberg. energy guides and the facilitators mr fred pearce, ms inna pretorious russouw nd tersia muller for the patience, love and dedication to groom us to be the best in the guiding field. to our mama,mrs erica kempken who has potrayed al elements and ingredients of a woman with a big heart. last but not least, continental tyres,the team that changed our lives forever and have brightend our futures,we promise to make you proud during the world cup. last night we arrived at magaliesberg to meet the big bosses and like always, we were recieved in style with cute branded coffee mugs with chocolates inside. we met the rest of of the team from europe and were briefed on grand expectations for the 2010 fifa world cup, i must say i am literaly counting down the days til the 1st whistle is blown and the vuvuzelas excites the crowd. after dinner, we settled in our rooms aswel as taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of south africa,you just gotta love this country. today is a tour around soweto and if you keeping loggin on to this website,you can catch my blogg much later.so much to talk about and such little time. until next time...im signing off thola
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Energy Guides

Before the 31st of May 2009, I have never heard of Energy Guides. Today I am proud to be associated with this college. Because today I was declared competent as a tourist guide by one of the best guides in the industry, Mr. Fred Pearce. Ja you read right I PASSSED.

I am now a proud ambassador of South Africa,(not the diplomatic type though) I will be getting my badge in a couple of weeks and I will be able to show off my country and more specifically the Gauteng province to adoring tourists from all over the globe.

I found myself guiding my cousin around the other day, it felt so good. the whole concept of knowing about the extra bits that makes our country different from the rest of the world, but we will get into that in another blog, for now I am just happy that I am competent after weeks of stressing and preparation.

But I must let you in on a little secret *if it wasn't for the proffesionalism and unlimited support I got from all the facilitators I would have taken longer to get my qualification.*

Now for the thanks. . .

1. Continental AG for offering this brilliant opportunity

2. Energy Guides for having such brilliant facilitators and modules

3. My colleagues for helping me in the preparation of my portfolio

4. My Baby for putting up with the long nights and the reprints

Oh and thank you for reading my blog.
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First Aid training

Now last year before schools went on holidays, The group did a First aid course to get us all geared up for the world cup preparation. It was so much fun and interesting as we practised mouth-to-mouth/CPR and how to help a bleeding person and so forth.

Working on a dummy is a whole lot different from doing the actual first Aid performance on a living person. So I thought I can share with you my experience shortly after the course.

So I'm walking down the streets of Soweto on my way home. I see a group of people Surrounding an old man and as I approached the group, this man is lying on the floor, bleeding and very drowsy.This man happens to be in his late 60s and had just been bumped by a van and apparently flew about half a metre high and landed flat on his back. So I offer my help and immediately called the emergency number and I am instructed to just support the bleeding and keep him still until the ambulance arrives. I do that, and bear in mind that I look extremely young and surrounded by older people who most probably know better than I do. So I tell the people not to move this man as I kept re assuring him and the ambulance is delayed, but is definitely on its way. next thing the mob gets angry and decides to pick this man up and put him in the van sitting up straight knowing very well this man could have a broken spine. As the van drove away the ambulance came and all i wanted to do is cry. I was so sad but I got over it,at least I tried. It was better than walking away with all the knowledge I gained during the course. Once again, thank you to the sponsors.

I have attached pictures of the course and hope you too will not walk away from a life saving moment.

Until next time...I'm signing off!

Thola!
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KHAYALAMI (MY HOME)

I had the most exhausting weekend, moving houses is not as fun as it looks on tv. till now the major moves that I did was going back to the boarding school with two large bags. The past weeks we've been collecting boxes from retail stores and finally filled them up with most of our stuff. It took us 3 loads in the clio and 1 truck load to get everything to our new home.

When we got to our new place, the maintenance guys were still busy checking for faults and cleaning the place. You know you are in good hands when you find people doing their best to see you settled in. The new apartment is on the ground floor, we have a cute garden that my baby just loves.

As we finished packing most of the boxes and our place started looking normal, our friends rocked up, they wanted to view the new place. and they also liked it as they were back the following morning again. their complain though was that it is no longer close to the clubs in Melville, but that's how we like it.

I am glad to have moved to my new place, now the next move will have to be my own place now I must start hustling.
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first for 2010

Dumelang!!
thats a greeting in one of our 11 official languages yet to be experienced by the world on their long awaited visit to south africa during the 2010 fifa world cup. this year sure has started off with a big bang for me. we back at school and that only means more work, more training tours in preparation for the 2010 fifa world cup. last week we toured 2 different cities in the province,joburg and pretoria aswel as one of the most famous townships in the province,soweto. we had so much and learnd new things everytime you visit the same place. you know the phrase- practise makes perfect?? yep thats exactly how you become a superb tourist guide in any country. with all the touring, a few of our fellow classmates had to test for their drivers license and im happy to say i to testd and is officialy a legal driver on the roads,all thanx to our sponsor. 2010 has finally arrived and boy can we not sleep,the excitement to see what each new day wil bring is beyond and ofcourse the countdown to the 2010 fifa world cup brings so much joy into our lives, lives that will never be the same again after it has al ended. but thats ohk, because nobody can ever take away yesterday. im enjoying blogging again so i cant wait to write again. until then- happy 2010! thola.
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THE AFFAIR

The affair

On the 31st I had an argument with my better half because I have been to Pretoria everyday since 27th and hints of a suspected infidelity were dropped and the fact that I had already spend over R200 on transport to Pretoria and I was still planning to go again.

The reason I was doing Pretoria yet again, I had to shave my head, I have been going to the same barber for the past 4 years he is the only guy that touches my head, my baby thinks I am being silly by travelling all this way for a hair cut.

I also had to collect a pair of sandals I had ordered from this shoemaker I discovered in the most dingiest part of Pretoria, known as marabastad, now this is were you find everything from muti to fine threads, you can negotiate the price on anything in the many Indian owned stores. If you are looking for a bargain this is the place to go hunting.
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I waited for the guy to put on the last stitches on the sandals. From there I had to go and meet up with swanky a friend of mine who was going to join me at the new year’s eve celebration party. When my shoes were ready I headed to Sunnyside (suburb of Pretoria) for my haircut only to find the hair salon packed and a queue of about 8 people waiting for my barber, at that moment I decided to find another salon were I could be cut without waiting forever because I still had to return to Jo’burg.

This is one decision I have come to regret, from the moment I sat on the chair I felt like I was cheating. Since this guy didn’t understand the contours of my big head, he cut a piece of my ear. At that point I wanted to get out of the seat and go wait in the queue for Mohamed to be done with all the people in the queue. When he was done I felt like I was shaved by my grandmother with a pair of scissors, like she used to when I was younger.

Now I must wait a full month for my hair to grow so Mohamed doesn’t see the scar, I feel real bad for going to someone else.
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TO LET

After showing my place off to numerous strangers, I finally found one to take over my lease, she looks stable and she is not a student, so she is not going to mess the place up. she got the concept of bachelor unit, the fisrt lady said the place was too small, the third guy said it was too high, and then every third one from there wants to negotiate the price(signs that they won’t pay the rent on time)

My best was one of the ladies who asked how many bedrooms there were and the ad clearly states Bachelor, after she walked the apartment she says isn’t it it too small for R3000? So I explain this is the best price for a bachelor unit in Auckland Park with free water and lights, as I walk her out she suggests that she is willing to pay half the price because the place is not that big.

The silly thing about our apartment is that the balcony is bigger than the apartment, but it’s great for hosting braais and parties. I managed to find someone to takeover my lease, before I even found a place for myself.

However there is this complex I have been eyeing for a while not too far from Energy Guides, so I will only catch 1 taxi to class, and guess what? there is a unit available but can only be occupied mid Jan. so I had to convince my tenant to move in during the month as well due to maintenance and upgrading of the unit.

It feels good, to know that I will be starting the new year in a new place
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