Tuesday 6 April 2010

Back to work after a long weekend...

was a great little holiday, feeling refreshed..kind of!

The new addition to the team at Neosho, Lana Botha, has officially been hired...

She starts on Monday next week, it's gonna be interesting to work with her on the websites and see how everything goes!

The weekend past was great, a friend of mine went to Cape Town to visit family, and as is always the case with Cape Town visits..he didn't want to come back, can't blame him! I'm totally a traitor to Jo'burg and surrounding areas...I am 100% for C.T ! Love it there!!

My younger brother stays there still and was supposed to come visit, but guess he couldn't even leave it for a long weekend!!

Just incase anyone didn't feel too bad about work this morning...the weather came to play..first day back at work and raining... though the weekends weather wasn't too great either! I've been keeping myself busy with studying for my learners, second time writing (failed by one mark the first time, nearly died!) and hopefully going to be mobile by the end of the month! I bought myself a new novel this weekend, Angel Time by Anne Rice, the author of the Vampire Chronicles such as Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned..classics!

Once mobile i'll be travelling alot by myself to keep tabs on the intakes and arranging meeting with new intakes, can't wait!

Today, working from the office, i managed to sort through a few things, i've updated the neosho119 site with a new intro for the Vuka Mentorship Programme, check it out!

Otherwise thats all from me today!

Enjoy the rest!

Tuesday 30th March

Today and yesterday i was able to work from home, which has given me time to sort through a few things that i needed to complete.
The work i do usually involves taking pictures of things that are happening,people and places mostly. Loving photography, this is a really cool bonus (I just have to get into the habit of posting more pictures!) while some of my pics get used for website stuff, others have been used for slideshow presentations,now, as the photographer and as part of the company, it's a point of pride that people know where they're from, so I've just recently learned how to "copyright" these pics with our names, which was pretty easy once it was explained..
The web work that i'm busy with at the moment is just basically the beautifying of the webpage, Buygerine, it's a work in progress and we're just changing the feel of the site for now. We may be getting a new addition to the Neosho119 staff soon on the Web side, which will be nice as i won't be the most junior employee anymore ( Yay! )But i'll still be the only male member, feeling outnumbered? I might be going through with Hanolet tomorrow, not too sure yet, might be nice to get out the flat..I'm in danger of getting cabin fever, i'm sure of it

Thursday 25 March 2010

We head out this morning Heidelberg , the line up for today in Ratanda is basically the interviewing of several new businesses , after surviving the traffic ( we were almost taken out by some random in a busted-up delivery truck!) We managed to stop for a take-away coffee Yay!) and were in Ratanda just after nine a.m.
The few guys (and one woman) that met us have promising businesses varying from a DJ to a courrier company, we added their info to our ever expanding database, basically it's last year all over again! Finding the entrepreneurs, whittling the many down to the promising few, interviews,acceptance,induction and training! It's a good thing that we enjoy this line of work, anyone who didn't wouldn't be able to find the patience to deal with alot of these people, it's a long process but knowing what the outcome could be ( a life changing event for some) makes it worthwhile in the end. We met with a caterer from Ratanda who will be supplying all the meals for the trainees over the course of their training, keeping it local is a good move as it's all about empowering less fortuate individuals! The sessions will be held at the Ratanda community centre.
Our next mission was to travel across the border into the Freestate, to Maccauvlei.
We found Kristy Blackbeard and had a quick discussion with regards to all the work still being finalised, they're busy registering our programme with the seta's, it's all coming right!
The next few weeks will be centred around introducing more people to the programme and hopefully getting more areas to participate, it will be alot of hard work but i'll get to see areas such as Soweto! very exciting!!

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Evening everyone!
after a good nights rest i felt great today! While on the farm this weekend, riding bikes, i managed to crash the bike, taking a long slide off a short road! As a result, my knees have a lot less skin than they used to and i'm limping around, to some peoples amusement.
Hanolet and myself had to go drop off Mentorship training dates and times in Sharpeville and Ratanda. As we were leaving Edenvale Hanolet realised that she had left the documents behind! Luckily they were on her flash drive, so we got them all re-printed and started off to Ratanda a few minutes behind schedule, The guys at the internet cafe must make a killing! Charging us R2 per page when it costs them roughly 15c! Good business to go into! After quick stops in Ratanda and Sharpeville, where we were able to get some new profiles for intakes, we headed out into Evaton to meet up with a group of women from different buinesses who were interested in our programme, unfortunately, out of the twenty-odd profiles we wrote up only two so far are worth using! Many had a problem with english and others just had no real idea as to what business is! By the time we got home today i was tired gain, think i should start going to bed earlier!!

Tuesday 23 March 2010

Hey all!

Hope everyone had a relaxing long weekend! My time on the farm was great, today still felt like a monday though! Even an extended weekend still feels too short, one of my friends thinks that every weekend should include a Monday, i don't disagree! We headed out to Witbank to the '4 LIFE' water plant, i managed to get the information on the people working there and watched them at work, it really is an interesting process,bottling water! This past weekend at the farm, although relaxing, was exhausting! We had a great time though, offroad biking and grooming horses and such, one thing that can be said is that although the 'farmhands' don't earn as much as peope living closer to the cities, they are probably living better on account of being able to live off the land! the vegetables growing up there are amazing!! i made sure i got my share of chillies,jalapenos, tomatoes and butternut! Being able to sustain yourself and your family is a huge responsibility that all people live with, the entrepreneurs we have dealt with sometimes only earn R500 per month, yet they survive! it definately is a skill, being a survivalist!

From tomorrow i'll be working with Hanolet, She has been really busy recently, so ill get to catch up on whats happening with the mentorship intakes and any new interviews coming up!

Fri 19 March 2010

What a great day! Firstly, let me say thanks to our saviours, Redbull and good coffee!

We started out early this morning, arriving in Sharpeville just after six. Three people didn’t turn up for registration, at this point it’s really a matter of ‘your loss, not ours’ what else can we do?? Once we’d arrived at Maccauvlei and all our entrepreneurs had settled down, Hanolet gave the opening welcome speech, she was followed by a new Facilitator, Desia Block, who spoke about the importance of being dedicated and committed during this programme! Desia paved the way beautifully for Mondli, whose presentation and explanation of the contracts was received really well by the Sharpeville guys and girls, there was the inevitable stressed silence when he mentioned the liability section (if the intakes drop the course after signing they are liable for the money Maccauvlei has spent on them, roughly R16,000) but that was quickly explained and everyone could breathe again! Once again, guest speaker- Zodwa Maleka- blew the audience away with her stunning success story, exciting our learners and giving them a taste of things to come. Thank you to Maccauvlei, its facilitators and all the entities involved in helping this project take shape!

The day went along without a problem, the Sharpeville crowd seem a little more restless than the Ratanda intakes but just as eager! Only great things can come from this!

Thankfully this weekend is a long one, we are all feeling the need for a holiday by now, I’m sure! We’re at a farm for a few days, on the drive up we were caught in a hailstorm, awesome!

It’s like getting caught in a sudden, furious downpour of rain… gotta love it! I know I have been waiting for this weekend since Monday, enjoy it to the fullest and have a great one!

Wednesday 17 March 2010

Monday and Tuesday this week were pretty uneventful, i worked at the office touching up the site and editing the last profiles, however on Monday i recieved an e-mail saying that our press release was sent through to the paper, yay! thanks to Mondli and Hanolet for their attention to details! On friday this week Sharpeville start their course! really excited about that! Wonder if they'll be as motivated as last weeks intakes?! I worked from home today, lucky me! the new front page of our neosho119 website is worth a look! (http://www.neosho119.com/) and the intakes' profiles are completed, check it out! Otherwise today has been great (partly because i got to work from home..) i let my Bearded dragon out of its tank for a walk, which ended up in me trying to lure him out from under the fridge with a piece of apple and a broom-handle! Also, Happy st. patricks day! enjoy!