Marloes in Curaçao

Participant

Marloes

Programme

Internship

Country

🇨🇼 Curaçao

Duration

4 weeks

Short bio

Hiya, my name is Marloes, I’m 20 years old and I’ve just finished my course at CIOS in Goes! Alongside school I work as a lifeguard and play football. For my course I was allowed to do an internship abroad, and I chose an internship in Curaçao and have definitely not regretted it for a moment. The placements are great fun, and you get to keep busy with sports you enjoy.

How satisfied were you with the support from Holland?

From the moment I signed up, Ruben gave me brilliant support straight away, through online conversations. Clear and pleasant communication, plenty of time and space for conversations, personal guidance and help in preparing for the internship itself. If you had questions you could always get in touch and you got a quick answer! During the internship there’s also plenty of room to talk things through and raise things, which was really great.

My story

“All in all, I had a really brilliant time in Curaçao, where I got to learn a lot. Unfortunately it went by really quickly, but in a way that’s also a good sign!;)”

Marloes · internship in Curaçao

During my internship in Curaçao I taught a lot of lessons at various lovely locations. For example, there were PE lessons for primary and secondary schools at the Ergilio Hato stadium, a brilliant location with great equipment and facilities. It was so cool to be able to teach the pupils there!

During these weeks I also got to run football training for various teams, which I really enjoyed. You get to come up with the sessions/drills yourself, pitched at the level of the team/age group you’re coaching. Every week the children are so happy to see you again and are waiting for you, full of energy.

Alongside these internship hours, we also teach at a primary school close to our accommodation. There we got to run the after-school activities, and you’re very free to do whatever you think the children will enjoy. So you can come up with something different every lesson, and it doesn’t necessarily have to follow on from the last one. Personally, I find these the best hours, because you really notice how happy and grateful the children are that you’re back to do fun games/sports or activities with them.

As for free time, I had nothing to complain about. You really get enough time to explore the island, and because you have a bike, you can easily go for a ride around the area on your own. Willemstad is just a few minutes’ cycle from the accommodation, and you’re at Mambo Beach in no time too!

Not all roads are equally easy to cycle on, so sometimes you have to watch out for potholes or careless drivers, but otherwise you can get quite far!

There’s also plenty to do in the area when it comes to going out, and these are guaranteed to be great evenings with lots of dancing!

All in all, I had a really brilliant time in Curaçao, where I got to learn a lot. Unfortunately it went by really quickly, but in a way that’s also a good sign!;)

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

If you’re in two minds, I’d say definitely do it! You learn so much from others here. But also about yourself, because you’ll probably come face to face with yourself during this time, which I think can only be a good thing.

Whether you go alone or with others, you’ll always meet lovely people you’ll have a brilliant time with. Of course not everything always goes perfectly and it won’t always be amazing. But hey, is it always like that at home? Step out of your comfort zone and do something a bit crazy, I’d say:)