Team Member of the Month » December 2006

Name : Jonathan Gaiqui
Born : 1982
Team member since : 2003
Prior Club Mistral Destinations : Mauritius

Known to all as "Jonny", Jonathan has a fun-loving, obliging nature and is the heart and soul of the Club Mistral centre on Mauritius. Jonny knows how to set the whole team laughing and it's impossible to imagine the centre without him. Always in a good mood and with a constant smile on his face, Jonny is ready for a good lark at any time and game for anything!

Jonny has been working for Club Mistral Mauritius since its opening in 2003. Originally part of the service team, it soon became clear that there was a lot more to Jonny than that… he proved to be a very talented windsurfer and is now a keen instructor. He learned windsurfing extremely quickly, but was only interested in freestyling in the beginning. That was until colleague Matrix persuaded him to go to Manawa, to the waves. Since then, he's been an absolute wave fan.

Jonny puts his heart and soul - plus a large dose of humour - into his lessons, which are always great fun for participants. Apart from his talent for windsurfing, he's also a gifted cabinet maker and made all the woodwork in the centre (undeniably an artistic vein).
Jonny's event of the year without doubt was his trip to Europe, the most strenuous part being the long trip sitting in the plane. It took him 2 days to get over it. He had simply never had to stay seated for 11 hours at a stretch. He flew to Munich with his friend Daniel, who had been working with him at Club Mistral. Dani and his partner, Jacintha, first showed Jonny a bit of German culture before the three of them drove from Tutzing, in the depths of Bavaria, to Holland. Jonny was very taken with Bavarian culture from the start and his favourite dishes are now sauerkraut, white sausage, pork sausages and 'Leberkaas' (baked meatloaf) and of course beer.

In the beginning, Jonny was rather sceptical about the snow and cold weather, but in the end he even went snowboarding... and the glühwein (mulled wine) afterwards was of course a 'must'!! The first few days he kept his scarf, cap and gloves on even in the house. Admittedly, it was freezing cold at that time.
Daniel and Jonny are like brothers. They shared a house in La Gaulette for about 1 year and the two are inseparable.
Daniel left no stone unturned in his efforts to enable Jonny to come to Germany with him for a month in February. It must be stated at this point that it is not easy for a Mauritian to get a visa for Europe. It was difficult, but where there's a will, there's a way... So Jonny was able to accompany Daniel after all.

Apart from French, English and Creole, Jonny can now say the most important phrases in Bavarian and Russian.

Jonny is one of the best cooks we know and makes very tasty Creole dishes -  a real treat. He can also eat more than anyone else on the whole team.
Jonny recently designed his own freestyle board – and very successfully, too, according to his colleague Jort. Jort also enjoys the products of Jonny's culinary talents, by the way, and says 'thank you', because he has never had to cook again since he has been living at Jonny's – a very good colleague!!

Jonny absolutely adores his dachshunds and now owns 5 of them altogether.
One of Jonny's specialties is the ability to sleep with his eyes open, snoring loudly – and all to the background of hardcore metal music played at full blast through his headphones. Sometimes he turns over in his sleep and, without realizing it, pulls the headphone cable out of the socket and, although the house is suddenly flooded with sound as a result, Jonny doesn't even notice it and sleeps on peacefully. All of this at 3 a.m.!!! But this is exactly why we love Jonny! Stay just as you are!

Jonny, we wish you all the best; with your cheerful manner, you are a great gain for our team and we hope you will remain with us for a long time to come.

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