Fiene in South Africa

My story

In total I chose to volunteer for 7 weeks at UTS in South Africa. The plan was actually to volunteer for 5 weeks, but I really didn’t want to go home yet, so I extended my stay by 2 weeks. That was honestly the best decision ever!

During the week I was mainly busy visiting schools and teaching sports sessions. What I enjoyed most was being active with children, so I chose to teach hockey sessions every day. I really loved that UTS is so flexible, because it means you can organise your week the way you want, so you’re really doing something you enjoy and can keep trying something new.
When coaching you do 4 sessions every day. One of them is a Learn to Move session, where you basically play all sorts of games with little children aged 5 to 8. The children absolutely love it and that’s brilliant to see! You really get a lot of energy from it.
After that you carry on with the other 3 sessions, which take place at different schools. It’s really nice when, for example, children do your sport every week, because you can see them getting better. At one point I also had a really lovely group of girls who came to hockey every week. I looked forward to seeing them every time, because you really get to know them!

I usually got back from coaching at around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, and then you had quite a lot of free time. We often did things like going to the shopping centre, playing padel or going running. We even went go-karting one afternoon. Everything is also relatively cheap, so you spend very little money there.
Every Wednesday we had a sort of football tournament with all the volunteers, and that was always great fun. In the first few weeks it’s also really useful, because you easily get talking to other volunteers. During your stay at UTS you make new friends really quickly, because you’re basically always together and experiencing the same things. I’ve come away with some truly lovely and special friendships.

At weekends we were free, and sometimes activities were offered. I did the safari myself, and you really MUST do it if you’re here. It was so incredibly cool and special!! We also went to Jeffrey’s Bay with an overnight stay. The surfing there was really good, so of course we gave it a go.
Some activities are free, but for many of them you do have to pay. All the activities are absolutely worth the money though!!

I had the best time of my life here and experienced some really wonderful things. Not once during my stay did I miss home or want to go home, and I could easily have stayed another two months!

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

My advice is to really enjoy every moment!! Everything you experience is so cool and it’s also quite special. I’d also make sure you go for at least 7 weeks, because the time really flies.