Bjarne in Argentina

Participant

Bjarne

Programme

Internship

Country

🇦🇷 Argentina

Duration

5 months

Short bio

My name is Bjarne. I’m 23 and I studied Sport Studies at Fontys Sporthogeschool in Eindhoven. For my graduation internship I worked with The Power of Sports, doing both an assignment carried out from Holland and an internship in Argentina.

How satisfied were you with the support from Holland?

Very satisfied! Ruben is very involved and regularly gets in touch himself to check that everything is still going well. You could also always go to Ruben if you had a question or problem. Or just if you fancied a chat 🙂

My story

“Living in another country is a completely different experience from going on holiday. So above all, enjoy the everyday things. You don’t make this trip just for an internship or to work, but above all to discover a new culture and way of life and to learn from it.”

Bjarne · internship in Argentina

I left for Argentina together with a classmate. There we did a 5-month internship for The Power of Sports. The work consisted of coaching football on Tuesdays for a group of boys (aged about 11-17) and on Thursdays for girls (of roughly the same age). It was always a surprise how many young people would turn up to training and at what time, but once they were there, everyone was super enthusiastic. We often cycled to the football pitch. It was about a 30-minute ride, and the bikes are spread across the city in little docking stations and were free to use. Super handy!

We also went to a preschool childcare centre a few times. All sorts of activities were offered there, from gymnastics lessons to origami folding and from circus lessons to regular sports activities on the little sports court. This variety kept it really fun. The location was always easy to reach by bus.

We also worked on some more internal things for the organisation. Such as drawing up a curriculum and helping to put together a weekly schedule for all the other volunteers and interns. So all in all, really varied work.

And yet it’s not as if your weeks are really packed. Besides all the work, there’s still plenty of time left to work on school assignments (if needed), and otherwise you have plenty of time to explore the city and/or the country. We made good use of that. We went on various trips, such as to Puerto Madryn, Iguazu, Uruguay and El Calafate (Patagonia). In the city itself we went to football matches, parks, a museum and horse races, played football ourselves with locals and/or other international people, and went out to eat and out on the town a lot. And there’s so much more to do!

What advice would you like to give future interns and volunteers?

Do it! It’s truly a unique opportunity and an experience you’ll never forget. Living in another country is a completely different experience from going on holiday. So above all, enjoy the everyday things. You don’t make this trip just for an internship or to work, but above all to discover a new culture and way of life and to learn from it. Outside the work you have plenty of free time left to plan things yourself, so make the most of it!