Sarvesh in South Africa

My story

Together with three other lads from my class, I went looking for an internship that would suit us. All 4 of us are sports lovers and we soon knew that United Through Sport was an organisation that suited us. We had to do at least 4 weeks of internship abroad. As United Through Sport prefers volunteers to stay for at least 5 weeks, we chose to do a 5-week internship plus another 2 weeks of holiday in South Africa. When I arrived, I soon fell in love with South Africa. It’s a beautiful, impressive country. We ended up at a complex with lots of other volunteers. They were all kinds of different people (mainly young people) from different countries. We slept in rooms of 3-4 people, and had a community room with wifi, a sports pitch with a goal and a volleyball court, a swimming pool and a kitchen where we had dinner together. There were two so-called mamas who took care of the food and kept the place clean.

Every day it was amazing to go to the schools again.

Every weekday we went to four different schools, where we gave PE lessons to children living in the poorer areas of the city of Port Elizabeth. Those poorer areas are called ‘Townships’. We also went to a different Township every day. We did various sports: rugby, football, tennis, netball, basketball, cricket and hockey. Those are the biggest sports in South Africa. Every day it was amazing to go to the schools again.

It’s a brilliant experience, we learnt a lot from each other and I’ve definitely made friends for life.

When we drove into the school in the bus, the children would often come running happily towards the bus. The children at the schools don’t always have the opportunity to play sport freely, nor always the resources to play certain sports. You feel so much love and joy from the children at the schools. The children often want to hug you or mess around with you too. Besides the work, there was also lots to do. Every Thursday we had a games night, where we always played fun games and quizzes. Every Tuesday there was karaoke at a bar nearby, and at the weekend we often went out. We also often played some football or volleyball after work, or did other fun things. There was also a gym you could use. Going out was great fun and also cheap compared with Holland. Every evening was fun. Sometimes it meant we only got a few hours’ sleep at night.

We got to discover the beautiful nature of South Africa and saw virtually every animal in South Africa on the 3 safaris we did.

We had two periods of work. The first period was our first two weeks in South Africa. This period ended with a Holiday camp, where we had a week-long football tournament in one Township. After those two weeks, the four of us went travelling around South Africa. We did the Garden route, which is known as the most beautiful route in South Africa. We drove from the east of South Africa to the west of South Africa. We got to discover the beautiful nature of South Africa and saw virtually every animal in South Africa on the 3 safaris we did.

The second period of work was after we got back from our trip. Another group had also moved into the complex. They were mainly English students who had come to volunteer in South Africa as a kind of summer camp. A really fun group. United Through Sport also organised activities, such as skydiving, bungee jumping from the highest bridge bungee jump in the world, shark cage diving and a weekend away to a surf spot.

In short, it was special, impressive, fun and educational.

The whole period in South Africa with United Through Sport was so special and fun that it’s hard to put it into a short summary. In short, it was special, impressive, fun and educational. A time I’ll never forget.