Gap year interview - Hannah teaches netball in South Africa

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Teaching netball in South Africa with Gap Sports

After getting her place at university, Hannah regretted her decision and decided to defer her entry. She went to South Africa to coach netball to kids who had no shoes and who were besotted by her blonde hair and blue eyes! She also played netball with members of the National Netball Team, who affectionately named her ‘the English’ and, away from the court, Hannah climbed Table Mountain, awoke most mornings to noisy monkeys on the roof, and drank pineapple beer made by local Zulu Tribes!

What did you achieve in SPORT from the experience?

I have two key sporting experiences that were good fun, but at the same time taught me a lot about the culture and country. Firstly, sitting in a crowd of 30,000 black people all watching the Kaiser Chiefs play the Bloemfontein Celtics and feeling in the biggest and scariest minority ever with only 40 white people there! And secondly, watching South Africa play Pakistan at cricket and being amazed at the support, the colours and the party atmosphere which embraced the stadium.

More sporting achievements were being able to take charge of coaching sessions; leading the warm-up and the stretches, teaching the children all you know and stretching my mind back to basics, as well as umpiring the game, and at the same time teaching a drill to a group of eager students behind me. Another achievement was being given the opportunity to train with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University netball team, of which some of the players play for South Africa. I was called “the English” during training sessions but felt completely accepted and part of the team and was I always encouraged when playing. They even changed the language of the training sessions so we would understand!

An achievement that I think was felt by all volunteers was just getting on in the environments in which we were placed and with unexpected situations that arose. As a netball coach I would quite regularly find myself on a field with nothing that even resembled a netball court. I would therefore improvise and try to teach a session the best way I could, for example in a school courtyard, in a car park (with no balls or with no netball posts), by the side of the road, on a court covered in glass. I would also have a variety of children to teach – some had no shoes, some spoke no English, and sometimes we had to coach 73 kids between just 2 of us!

All of these challenging situations taught us that we sometimes just had to ‘get on with it’ and also reminded us just how privileged we really are.

What did you achieve PERSONALLY from the experience?

While I was away in South Africa I would say I gained many valuable life skills and gained many personal achievements. Leaving the ‘norm’ of life at home, my friends, family and just going away was something that was very hard for me. I remember arriving and for the first week just really wanting to be back home, in familiar surroundings. But by the end, it was a very different story and I was so sad to leave.

In my time away, I grew massively in confidence. I learnt to be myself. I didn’t have to put up a ‘front’ to make friends. I made friends from being in such close proximity with everyone. Friends that I share many of the same experiences and memories with, friends that will last for the rest of my life.

Adapting to a new culture and experiencing my own independence especially when travelling on later, was something that I had to get used to.

Having to change my diet to rice and pasta, and realising I was still sweaty after a refreshing shower was something I had to cope with from day one!

Being constantly touched by black children while trying to teach; amazed at my blue eyes and light brown hair - something a lot of them had never seen before.

All of these things I had faced everyday and had no choice but to get used to.

The South African culture is diverse in all dimensions. It isn’t called the “rainbow nation” for nothing. Getting used to the different languages in each province was a particularly difficult obstacle, especially when locals have a tendency to affectionately laugh at your attempts at their native tongue and try to sell you a newspaper that is a month out of date!

No matter where life takes me in the future, I am sure there are very few places that can shape me and teach me as much as the contrasting life in South Africa did.

Why did you decide to go overseas to volunteer and coach sports?

For me I simply needed some ‘time out’; time out from education and time away from home; time to learn and explore a new country and discover the world a little; time to be able to work out who I really am, what I want in life and where I fit into this complex creation!

What was a typical day like?

Almost every morning I was awoken by the sound of monkeys playing on the roof. I would then shower, get dressed and head for breakfast where all the volunteers would also make their lunch for the day ahead. Coaching usually started at 9:30, so before I was really 100% awake I would find myself on my way to my first school of the day.

Each day we would take two coaching sessions both in different schools. One would be in the morning and one in the afternoon, each lasting for 1 to 2 hours. We had lunch in between sessions and, after a busy (and usually hot) day of coaching, we would all cram back onto our transport and head back to base.

There would usually be about an hour for us to shower, chill out and relax before we headed down to work with the children living at an orphanage next to our accommodation. The time we would usually spend with them in the afternoons was mainly doing homework, teaching new activities or playing in the surrounding grounds.

Homework Club would finish around 6 to 6.30pm, just in time for us to sit down and have dinner together. After dinner, our evenings were free for us to do whatever we pleased.

Some nights this would mean we went out, maybe ate a second dinner and explored local clubs. This was a choice between the European-style bars of the beachfront, or a trip further a field to experience the flavours of a local jazz club – popular for its great music and ridiculously cheap drinks. Other nights, it would mean just staying in, chatting for hours about the most random subjects, playing games to entertain ourselves (like hide and seek during the occasional power cuts!) or testing out mini games that we might be able to use in a coaching session the next day.

Some nights, however, were just perfect for laying on the grass or the warm African roads, listening to the hum of the crickets and watching the sunset with our newly found friends.

What are your most memorable moments?

Some of my most memorable experiences are actually some of the simpler things. Spending quality time with the children at the orphanage (Maranatha) was something that was very special. By simply giving them some time to talk, to play and to laugh often created beautiful moments of growth, learning and the building of friendships.

Some of my fondest memories are of times when we would all play together, forgetting the realities of the world and just having fun, and on arrival being greeted with the biggest smile from ear to ear that you could ever imagine; something that filled your heart with warmth.

Another memorable experience for me was standing in the courtyard of a township school named Sithembile. It was our first visit to a school and you could feel the excitement buzzing in everyone. On arrival our transport was surrounded by small, singing, dancing and laughing children, this soon turned into a whole school performance, which was just incredible. Traditional dancing and singing was breathtaking and I vividly remember getting shivers down my spine and just thinking ’wow’. It was at that moment that I realised that the next 3 months of my life, coaching and teaching was going to be awesome; something I could never forget.

Away from coaching, the experiences I had while travelling the vast country will also stay with me for as long as I can remember. There are far too many to mention in this short time, but the ones that stand out the most are lying on top of a mountain in the middle of the Drakensbergs while watching the sunset; not talking to anyone, instead just lying quietly and taking the view and the world in at my own pace. Trying home made pineapple beer from local Zulu tribes and swimming in rivers where African women sit washing their clothes.

From being chased by street kids in Durban and Cape Town, to climbing the impressive Table Mountain and watching the sun disappear, I have so many experiences that I would never have gained if I had not jumped at the chance of a lifetime and learnt to be adventurous, explore and open my eyes to a new world.

Why did you take a gap year and what have you gained from doing so?

I decided I wanted to defer my place at university about 5 minutes after I had sent my application into UCAS saying I wanted to start that September coming – I knew inside I wasn’t really ready to go straight into university and more education. So as soon as I had an offer from my first place I rang and asked if I could be deferred; and they had no problem letting me do so.

Taking a year out was most definately the right choice for me. It gave me that time away I needed to sort out my thoughts on life and it allowed me to grow in confidence and change in various ways. It sounds corny, but this year I have been in the “university of life” where I have learned what the real world is all about. I now feel confident preparing to go university and ready to settle back down and learn again, knowing that once I am done with the degree I can board another plane and continue to explore.

I think if I had gone straight to university without taking a gap year I would have just got on with it and gone with the flow because that’s what all my friends were doing, but I would have worried about it and know I would have probably been unhappy there. I would have most probably dropped out within the first couple of months as well. I was truly fed up in sixth form learning by text book and was I was therefore itching to just ‘get out there’ and learn by exploring. I have no regrets in putting university aside for a year.

Has the experience affected your ‘life plan’ in any way and if so how?

If someone gave me enough money to go back to South Africa or even travel the world – I would have no hesitation in saying yes. I truly look forward to learning at university and all that it involves but at the same time I can not wait for it to be over so I can travel again, maybe I’ll even return to the orphanage and see how all the children have grown.