Ulendo Safaris

Placement organization

Name of organization: Ulendo Safaris
Town/city: Lilongwe
Country: Malawi
Website: http://www.ulendo.net

Student

Name of student: Niek Perik

Specialist area: MTT
Placement period: 2013-2014

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour operator, airline and ground handler
Organization’s activities: Ulendo Travel Group is an inbound and outbound tour operator and ground handler mainly operating in Malawi and Zambia and is headquartered in the capital of Malawi, Lilongwe.
The company offers tailor-made tours through southern Africa designed for any clients’ specifics needs. They focus mainly on generating inbound tourism for the upper class customers of the western markets by offering relatively high standards of service and luxury.

Target group of the organization: High end
Company culture: The ambience in the company is mainly informal but hierarchy is clearly visible.
Number of employees: 30
Dress code: formal
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? Marketing
Brief description of your daily activities: Updating the facebookpages, writing property information, sending out newsletters, updating the sales manual, making appointments with agents…
Brief description of your company assignment: Whether Ulendo should do more on mobile services and how this should be done.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I was hired by Kim, but most of the work I did was under the supervision of Rosebill (marketing manager) and Rob (owner of the company).

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? independent, sociable, flexible, representable
Additional company requirements for this placement? MS office, photoshop (very useful but not necessary)
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages:

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? company
How did you go to work every day? company car

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Company gets you a tourist visa
Do you need a work permit? no
How did you arrange the necessary documents:
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? Talk with your doctor 2 months prior to the trip to be sure you get everything you need, also not every vaccination is always availlable so you have to keep that in mind as well.

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? no

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 900
Accommodation (monthly): € 0
Local transport (monthly): € 20
General costs of living (monthly): € 150
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? $250,- a month paid in Malawi Kwacha
Accommodation in the crew house or in burley house
15.000 MWK weekly allowance for food (only if you stay in the crew house, if you stay in burley house food is included)
Driver and car to drive you to work every day and you get a certain amount of km’s a month for private use.
Trips to extend your stay in Malawi to for example South Luangwa in Zambia and sometimes educational trips through Malawi (everything is usually included)

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Not, but I’m not saying you shouldn’t 😉
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes definitely. I’ve learned that Malawians have a totally different attitude towards work than Europeans do. Malawians in general work a bit slower than Europeans.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: niekerd93@gmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Do not walk or cycle on the streets at night. Also you should avoid places even during daytime where you are alone, try to stay in crowded places. Especially avoid the street to MASM clinic Lingadzi near the nature sanctuary since there are robbers active there and there is no one else around.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: The best thing is not to expect too much from Lilongwe since there isn’t that much to do.
When you’re new it might be fun to visit the wildlife sanctuary once where you can get a tour for 1500 MWK.
Places to go out are the shack on wednesday evening, Chameleons after work on friday, Harry’s bar on fridaynight. And if you’re into being the only white person in the most disgusting club ever, chez ntemba on saturday night might be something for you (much fun from time to time).

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link