Lotte in South Africa

Participant

Lotte

Programme

Volunteering

Country

🇿🇦 South Africa

Duration

4 weeks

Short bio

Hi! I’m Lotte, I’m 19 and I graduated from the Utrechtse Dansacademie. I teach dance at various dance schools in Brabant, and that’s exactly what I did in South Africa too! 🙂

How satisfied were you with the support from Holland?

I was really happy with the support I got from Ruben back home in Holland. We had several chats in which he gave information and helped me make a choice, because I was unsure which country I wanted to volunteer in. Our 1st chat was in person instead of online, which I’d definitely recommend if you live near Tilburg!

My story

“Personally, a month was too short for me, so if you want to and can stay longer, I’d definitely do it!!!”

Lotte · volunteering in South Africa

Hi! Here’s a little story about my amazing time in South Africa!! I had such a brilliant time there with the other volunteers and the children!

But let’s start at the beginning… the arrival weekend.
Unfortunately I missed it completely because my flight was delayed and I missed my connection as a result. I found that a real shame, so I was extra nervous walking into the house because everyone had already got to know each other. Luckily everyone gave me a really warm welcome and I clicked straight away with my 2 roommates.

Then it was finally time for the coaching sessions. You start the morning with a ‘learn to move’ session. This is for the little kids, where we teach them the basics of different sports, play games and finish with free play. That way you start your day on a happy note! 🙂
After that it’s time to go to the older classes at the primary school. You go to 3 schools a day. I taught dance at all the schools 5 days a week. This was really great fun because African children love dancing so much!! You see them doing it everywhere, and the energy and joy just radiate off them. At the end of the lesson we always put on amapiano (an African music genre), and the children would go completely wild to it and even taught me various dances! The children here are so sweet and grateful for everything you do, which is really lovely to see.
So that’s what a normal weekday looked like for me!

At the weekends trips were organised! I went on safari, spent a weekend in Jeffrey’s Bay, we went on a boat trip, went sandboarding and I did a skydive!!! These trips make your time in South Africa extra fun and special, so don’t miss them.

I also had the option to join the SA Experience for 1 week. This is a trip from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town, also known as the Garden Route. It’s definitely recommended if you’re in South Africa! We did lots of different activities like a zipline, tubing, climbing through caves, quad biking, exploring Cape Town and sooo much more! This was a real extra addition to the experience, because you get to see so much more of the country and the culture.

So that was a short summary of my time in South Africa! I had a brilliant time and experience, and if I could I’d have loved to stay longer! But I’m glad I did it and I really had the time of my life!!