Gap year interview - Chris teaches sports in South Africa

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Teaching sports & educating children in South Africa with Real Sport

What was your motivation to take a gap break?
I didn’t have any plans for the summer and wanted to travel rather than sit at home. I wanted to do something more worthwhile than a pure holiday.

How did you feel before you joined the programme?
Slightly apprehensive.

How did Real Sport Experience compare you with your expectations?
This is difficult to answer as I had absolutely no idea what to expect! Open mind!!!

What was the accommodation like?
Very very nice, in fact, maybe it was almost a little bit too nice! To explain myself: we were staying in a beautiful big modern house, which was literally 50 metres away from the township in Hout Bay. The contrast between black and white South Africa could not have been more poignant. So as well as being a very nice place to live, its position also made you think, constantly.

One thing which is a bit tricky is that living in Hout Bay as its difficult to get public transport into Cape Town and back, especially if you need to come back late. But that’s in the nature of the project and most of the time there was no time to go into Cape Town anyway, we were so busy.

What did you think of the programme / did your programme and destination meet your expectations?
I thought the balance of the program was excellent, about one third school, one third sports and one third holiday. It is a lot less formal than I had expected but this is good: Kevin has got to know the kids and the school and how it works and he is able to direct the volunteers he has accordingly. Working with the kids in the classroom and on the pitch was a real pleasure.

Cape Town and South Africa more generally (we did the Garden Route and after the project had finished I went to the Kruger) are fantastic places, no complaints there! Kevin made sure we always knew about good stuff to do in the spare time and often ferried us around.

What was the most memorable moment of your trip? Any anecdotes?
Watching the under-11’s (our lean, mean motivated shanty-town kids) hammer the dumpy, overpriveliged not-really-up-with-it white kids from the school down the road 11-1 was great to watch!

As for the kids in the classroom, turning up on my last day to find out that some of them had bought me presents was very humbling and emotional, especially considering that they hardly have anything. Similarly, discovering one little girl had written me 5 pages of thank-you letters made me a bit weepy!

What do you feel you accomplished during your programme?
I hope I managed to plug an educational gap for some of the brightest kids in my class, who always finished before everyone else and looked bored, by staying after class to do extra work with them. Lots of these kids have an insatiable appetite for learning and to a small extent I helped them learn more.

With the class in general I hope I was able to make them all a bit better at English. It’s pretty tough for them, having to learn an entire syllabus in what was often their third language. I also continued to teach some of them chess!

How have you benefited from your experience? How have you changed?
I’ve learnt not to be so self-absorbed! Have learnt other things too, for example that I probably wouldn’t become a classroom teacher, even though I do like teaching in small groups. I’m not scary enough to control a class properly! Some of the kids in particular I really really miss! I’m writing to the class and I’m going to raise the school some money.

What advice could you offer to someone considering this project?
Do it, but be prepared to get very attached to the kids. Leaving isn’t easy. Also, be prepared for having to teach the class yourself if the teacher doesn’t show up – they can’t afford supply teachers. As far as the football goes, beware that these kids are very skilful on the ball, but completely disorganised!