We just LOVE the Garden
Café in Okahandja, Namibia. But not just for their delicious food and because the place is adorable and there's no place like it in Namibia....
... But we mostly love the Garden
Café for its mission and the amazing work that is happening there!
Tony and Catherine are American missionaries (center, in the photo above) from San Diego who have been in Namibia for 4 years now. (Also pictured is their son and daughter-in-law who were visiting them here.) They have a wonderful
church in Okahandja and they started the Garden
Café and its training program as a way to create
job opportunities in Okahandja for out-of-school youth and to teach them
about good business and customer service practices.
The training
program they've developed that has gained quite the reputation so now their waiters and
waitresses are even being sought after by other restaurants and shops! More
than 90% of their graduates find
employment despite a high national unemployment rate (we think it’s as high as
50%). The program is comprehensive and
challenging and requires a lot of hard work and dedication, so these youth
really deserve it. And we personally can
see the great difference in customer service that we receive when visiting the Café,
especially compared to the, well, pitiful customer service we are used to receiving
from other restaurants, shops, and organizations in Namibia. But even by American standards, the friendly
and sincere service is terrific.
It
can be challenging to make a sustainable difference in the world, especially
abroad. As Peace Corps volunteers, we
know this well! But the Garden Café is
making a real, noticeable impact in the community and giving second chances to
youth who are willing to work for it but had little other opportunity until now. If you're interested to know more, you can go to www.facebook.com/gardencafenamibia .
On a side/personal note, we've become good friends with Tony and Catherine from the time we first got to know them in 2010 when visiting their church and also adopting Patches! They are the "parents" of Patches' mother, Bella!
Once again your post is so timely. Talk about struggling with different ideas of customer service. Yesterday I was standing outside waiting for my tour bus to pick me up. I had e-mailed and called, both, to confirm my reservation. They had my name down and everything. I even called maybe ten minutes after we were supposed to board, because they hadn't shown up yet...but the departure time wasn't for another 20 minutes so I wasn't too worried. Well, they said in a pretty patronizing way, "They might be a few minutes late and you'll just have wait, won't you?" Sure, fine. Except I saw the tour bus zoom right by me at the time they were supposed to arrive. I thought, "Okay, maybe they're stopping to get fuel and they'll swing back around." I didn't want to get patronized again for "bothering" them with a second phone call, but after 30 minutes passed I had to. Evidently the driver had forgotten to pick me up. They had to turn all the way around and come back for me. I asked the lady, "Is there any kind of compensation that could be offered to me--such as giving me a discounted rate or perhaps dropping me off right at my destination in Windhoek [instead of the central office location]?" She talked to her supervisor and called me back. Her voice was soooo defensive, Steph. She was like, "No we can't do that. This is human error, but we can't offer you a discount after you waited half an hour before calling us--half an hour after seeing them drive by." Oh, sorry, was I supposed to run out into the street and flag them down to let them know, "Hey, you have me on your list!"?! Wow. I just had to laugh at the difference. Thank you for once again UNDERSTANDING ME COMPLETELY.
ReplyDelete...Phew. Looks like I had to vent to you and it wouldn't fit on an SMS.