First Week on the Job

    Time here seems to both fly by and drag on at the same time sometimes....but, I've officially been a Cast Member at Walt Disney World for a week now! Pretty nuts. I had DAKlimation last Saturday, which was similar to Traditions in that everyone who was going to be working at Animal Kingdom went, and it was just sort of a basic introduction to the park and each of the different lands. I have to admit, I used to be pretty indifferent to Animal Kingdom; the one time we had gone here for vacation, it had started storming pretty heavily and we didn't stick around long.

     However, after hearing about the backgrounds of each of the lands, seeing the level of detail and care that went into the park....Animal Kingdom might be my favorite now (Biased? Nahhh.....:] ). As a Cast Member working Kilimanjaro Safaris, I work in the land of Africa....and holy crap, the amount of backstory put into that land is nuts. Specifically, Africa is focused on the village of Harambe, formerly a British fort that regained their independence peacefully, and now put their efforts towards the conservation of the endangered wildlife around them. Kilimanjaro Safaris (the best safaris in east Africa!) take place in the Harambe Wildlife Reserve, and it is Kilimanjaro that is the main attraction to tourists visiting Harambe.

   Seriously, I don't want to give all the little details away, but if you ever happen to visit Animal Kingdom someday, feel free to ask a Cast Member the story behind each section, and they will be happy to point out everything to you.

   My first day of Kilimanjaro training was Monday, and it definitely makes you realize that, although I'm working in Disney World, it's still very similar to any other job (lots and lots of filling out paperwork; really dull e-learning about fire safety....). I was prepared for this anyway, but it really hit home that it has to be taken seriously as a job, not just as a fun thing to do for a semester.  Of course, I can't forget that I am still working at Disney World, so I'd still say it's head and shoulders (fun-wise) above any other job. I mean, come on, how many people can say they're going to spend five months driving a safari truck amongst giraffes, elephants, okapi, and Nile crocodiles (ugh, don't even get me started on them)? Few can say they've been stuck in a truck while a rhino decides to block the road for a little while.

   I always like to compare Kilimanjaro to the Jungle Cruise to people who have never been to Disney World, but of course there are some major differences; we don't have such terrible jokes, and the animals on Kilimanjaro are very, very real. So real that they might decide to poke their heads into the truck if you get too close (those pesky giraffes). A lot of my training has been focused on this; the fact that they're still very unpredictable, how to react in a situation where their behavior might be a little less-than-peaceful, things like that. Though this can be a little scary, it's also super fun; no matter when you ride it, the safari is always going to be different every time you ride it, simply because the animals do whatever they want, whenever they want. Rhino decides it wants to lie in the ride path for a little bit? It can (and they do).

    So, of course, another major part of the training is learning how to drive that massive truck (30 feet long, can seat around 40 passengers) around a very bumpy, twisty path. Surprisingly, it's pretty easy! You never have to worry about other cars behind you, anything cutting you off (other than, say, a wildebeest), or whether you'll miss your exit. It's just one path, and once you've done it a couple times and learned where you need to be careful on the turns, it's pretty simple. We do practice on the path without guests for a couple days and practice our spiel and finding animals (all while driving), and on Thursday I took guests for the first time! It was a little nerve-wracking (especially since I actually had a group of people who were from Africa!), but my trainers rode with me and it's actually easier to do the spiel when you have guests on board. I only had a few slip-ups spiel-wise, and once it was done, it was like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders! Unfortunately, since I did so well with guests, my trainers told me from now on every time I'm in the truck, I'm taking guests with me.

  I'm really excited though; I have my assessment Wednesday, and my trainers said if I do as well as I did on Thursday, I'll have no problem passing!


As we say in Harambe....kwa herini!