Fleur in Saint Lucia

My story

An internship all the way out in the Caribbean, that’s not just any old thing, and for three whole months too. I found it incredibly nerve-racking, because I’m a real homebody and had never travelled alone before, let alone to the other side of the world. I was ready for a new challenge and a new experience, so I jumped in at the deep end and took on this trip, and I have to say, what an adventure it was.

Before I could begin this huge adventure, a long flight awaited me. I first flew to London Gatwick and then on with British Airways to this beautiful island of Saint Lucia. When I arrived here on the Thursday, there was a group with one Dutch girl and the rest were all English, but gosh, how well these people looked after me. Everyone was very sociable and the English people spoke more slowly so I could understand them better. Unfortunately, a large part of this group went home the following Friday, but new people also arrived at the house on the Friday. This is always a bit nerve-racking, because you don’t know what kind of people are coming.

You get used quite quickly to the idea that people can come and go every two weeks, but saying goodbye to people you live and work with every day can sometimes be quite hard. The children and the people I’ve met here are amazing. Everyone is so kind and caring, and in the street nobody walks past without saying hello.

I absolutely loved working with the children, every single one of them is such a wonderful person. I mainly went to the preschool called Auntie Pinkies, a school for children with autism. With these children we do sports activities, such as games to improve their motor skills or to learn to work together. After the Dutch girl left, I took on more of the lead at this school. Whenever you arrived, all the children would always shout “auntie Fleur” to greet you, and I won’t forget that any time soon. We also went to a secondary school, where the other interns and I offered sports activities. Each time two sports were chosen, and the interns in charge of those taught the lessons while the others helped. The children at this school are really lovely, at break time they always come over to chat with you or play a game.

On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings I always coached football for boys. I really enjoyed this because the ages ranged from 12 to 25 years old. But the most fun thing I did here during my internship was the swimming project I helped with. On this project you teach children aged 2 to 5 to swim, and because I taught these swimming lessons here over a longer period, you see every child grow. My first two weeks were Easter camp, and during this camp we gave swimming lessons to children in open water. During this Easter camp you could see that some children are less well off than others, some children don’t have swimwear, so they come swimming in torn clothes. I sometimes found this quite hard to see, but whenever you want, you can always talk about it with your housemates or with one of the staff here.

When you live together every day and do everything together, you become friends very quickly and turn into a really close group. I’ve experienced so much here and learnt an enormous amount about myself and about other cultures. Most of the volunteers here live in England, so luckily that’s not too far away. Because I was here for a longer time, I was able to see a lot of the island and go on loads of excursions, since Friday is excursion day! I did all the well-known things on the island, like climbing the Pitons, visiting waterfalls, ziplining and, of course, boat parties. On our free evenings we often played games in the house to get to know each other better and keep the good group dynamic going.

I spent three months on this beautiful island, but it really feels much shorter. Time really flies here. When your last week arrives, it goes even faster. You say goodbye to the children knowing you might not see them again, but these sweet children think you’ll just be there again next time. I found saying goodbye to these children quite hard, because they really do become your little friends. You see them almost every day for three months and you see them all develop. I also found saying goodbye to the people in the house quite hard, because you build such a close bond in a short time. But as they say, all good things come to an end. And so this amazing adventure comes to an end too.

I definitely don’t regret coming to Saint Lucia for my internship, and I’m proud of myself for taking on this amazing adventure. When I left, I didn’t say goodbye, because I believe I’ll see the people I built wonderful friendships with again. So when I left, I said, as my English friends would put it, “see you later alligator “.

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

If you’re thinking about doing an internship abroad or going abroad in your gap year, I’d say DO IT!

You definitely won’t regret it, and it’s an amazing experience that will stay with you for the rest of your life. You learn so much from it, and you also get to know so many new people with whom you build friendships for life.