Liam in Curaçao

Participant

Liam

Programme

Internship

Country

🇨🇼 Curaçao

Duration

6 weeks

Short bio

19 years old
CIOS Haarlem level 4
Elective: international sport development
Hobbies: football and going to the gym.

How satisfied were you with the support from Holland?

I was very happy with Ruben’s support. Ruben gave me a lot of guidance before I left. At first I was going to go to Ambon with a group through another organisation. But that didn’t happen in the end. So I chose to go to the Curaçao project on my own. Ruben gave me good guidance on what the project involved and what was expected of you as a student. After that I also had a video call with Joël.

My story

“I was also really pleased with the internship supervisors and my fellow interns. There was a good atmosphere in the group and everyone got on well with each other.”

Liam · internship in Curaçao

For my elective, ISO (international sport development), I ended up in Curaçao through The Power of Sports. After a good flight from Amsterdam, Yara (a fellow intern) & I were picked up at Hato Airport. Then we went to our accommodation called “The Dream chaser”, a beautiful, spacious place with room for all the interns.
While I was there, three different projects were running.

First, a bit about the SDK project: at SDK we give PE lessons to schools. The schools come by bus to the national stadium, which also has a spacious sports hall. Some schools are still taught in Dutch and some only in Papiamentu. So sometimes you have to figure out how to explain things, but with gestures and a demonstration it usually works.

The second project was at the football club Centro Juve: Centro Juve is a football club that trains on a small artificial pitch near where we lived (Marie Pompoen). There we gave training sessions to all the youth teams. Each pair of interns was linked to one or more teams.

Thirdly, we ran after-school activities at Sta Rosa de Lima: this was a school a minute’s walk from where we were staying. We played various kinds of sports games with the participants there, and they always joined in actively.

I also helped out at 2 events. First, the sports day at SDK in the national stadium. And second, an international football tournament with clubs from Bonaire & Sint Maarten.

Of course it’s also nice to know that the nightlife here in Curaçao is fun too. Every day there are happy hours at various places, or different beach clubs where you can have a drink with your fellow interns after your working day.

I was also really pleased with the internship supervisors and my fellow interns. There was a good atmosphere in the group and everyone got on well with each other.