Jeske in South Africa

My story

For my Global Development Issues minor at Fontys University of Applied Sciences in Tilburg, I went looking for an organisation where I could volunteer in a developing country. That’s how I ended up with UTS through my university.
I signed up to give swimming lessons in Port Elisabeth. I chose this because I play water polo myself and also teach water polo to children under 11 at my club. So besides having swum my whole life, this is also my great love and passion. How wonderful to do something with that in a place where children can really benefit from it.
Off to South Africa!

On 12 January I left for 6 weeks, travelling via Cape Town to Port Elisabeth. Once I arrived I was picked up at the airport by two girls from UTS, and then we drove to the accommodation. The first weekend was an introduction weekend, where we played various games and went on a tour of the townships, where some of the schools are also located. The week after that was my first week of volunteering.

The swimming lessons were only 3 days a week, so for the other two days I could coach a different sport. I chose netball, because this sport was the closest to water polo and was only played by girls. Even though I’d never heard of this sport before, it only took the first week to get used to it. After a week I got to know the netball girls better and found it easier to come up with fun exercises for the training sessions.
On the other 3 days I gave swimming lessons. I think this is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. The progress I saw in the 6 weeks I was there was unreal. Because we started after the summer holidays, some of these children had never seen a swimming pool in their lives and most of the children were extremely scared of water. That made it hugely different from the swimming lessons I give at water polo back home. I started by teaching them to blow bubbles, float on their front and back, the basics of the strokes, and of course trying to pass on the joy of swimming by doing fun exercises in between and at the end.

Because the children had to trust me completely, you build a special bond with them really quickly. As a result, in the weeks that follow the children come running up really excitedly and want to try new things themselves.

Besides the volunteering, at the weekends I did all sorts of really fun and cool activities. I went on two different safaris, went bungee jumping, went to Mossel Bay for shark diving, spent a weekend in a real surfers’ hostel in Jeffery’s Bay, went to a local festival and flew to Cape Town for a weekend.
In short, an amazing experience I’ll never forget!

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

Try to have as few expectations as possible and enjoy the moment while you’re there, because blink twice and you’re back in Holland again.