It’s always incredibly exciting when we take on interns. They are often young people with little or no experience in the safari industry. Although it can be a bit scary (as well as super exciting) for the interns, we absolutely love having the opportunity to help young people from our communities learn and grow, while assisting them in reaching their full potential.
This is exactly the case with Joseph Khosa who joined the Tanda Tula familyalmost a year ago and has gone from strength to strength within camp life. Joseph arrived with a couple of qualifications under his belt, but had never worked in the safari industry. He has several IT qualifications, including NQF4, as well as experience in programming, systems analysis and networking. Joseph has even been involved in setting up IT centers in his local community.
Over time, he developed a real interest in wildlife and various conservation practices. Joseph had a desire to engage with local communities by appealing to their heritage and traditions, all the while, educating them on best practices in conservation and the wilderness areas that lie on their very doorstep.
His initial visit to Tanda Tula, with Wild Shots,allowed him the opportunity to understand a real guest experience. In his words: “It was an amazing tour if I may say so. I think it connected and brought me close to the heart of conservation and to my love of animals. It also changed my mentality of not caring about who kills our animals. Today, I know how important it is for me to love and protect them. The Tanda Tula family is the best. They know their position and they know what to do. I have never seen the unity and the love that I have seen at this lodge. For me, being part of Tanda Tula is a great achievement”.
His goal was set and amazingly, it has been achieved. We are so thrilled to have this young, ambitious man as part of our team. We love showing him how the operation runs and he has worked in almost all departments – learning and gaining knowledge which he can use to keep moving forward. He has also been taught how to make a mean cup of coffee by Vusi (our unofficial lodge barista) and as most of you know at Tanda Tula, that means everything!
