I was told that when you come to South Africa, you have to go to Cape Town, also known as the Mother City. So, a few weeks back, I decided to go there. One of the other volunteers and I took the bus on a Friday evening to start off our big adventure.
So I have been in South Africa for a while now, and so far I have gone on a few adventures. I already told you about the project visits and about the trips to Barneys and Beershack, but there is so much more to do in this city!
I am a very lucky girl because I work at the Khaya office and we are constantly in need of new content for our social media channels, I get to visit the projects every now and then. I get to see what our volunteers actually do and how much they contribute to some people’s lives. I get to see how grateful everyone is to have volunteers helping them and how happy the kids get from playing with them.
My first two weeks in South Africa, flew by really fast. I spent a lot of time with my new friends and they dragged me along everywhere they went. It was a bit overwhelming in the beginning, but it actually turned out to be a really good thing. I got some good impressions of life in South Africa and the volunteer house. Most volunteers have been here for a while and know all the nice local bars and places to go to have a good time.
Hi, I’m Lien, a 20-year-old student from Belgium. I am currently doing my final internship in Port Elizabeth with Khaya Volunteer Projects. I’ve been here for a while now and I thought it was about time to tell you about my experience.
So, you finally booked your volunteer project and can’t wait to see what the other side of the world is all about. Before you have a culture shock when you arrive here, you need to understand that South Africa and Europe have quite a few cultural differences. The fact is, if you go unprepared, your first few days might be a bit challenging.
Rubbish and pollution are major problems in South African township communities. Wherever you go you will see trash laying around on the street.
The public waste collection is not working properly and all attempts from the government to solve the rubbish problem have not been successful.
When you decide to go volunteering overseas you have to make a lot of decisions, like what organization you go with, which country to go to, what kind of project to work in, and of course, where to stay.
Often your only accommodation option is a volunteer house. This can be a big house somewhere close to your projects, where you live with other volunteers from your project and maybe also other projects.
I have had a lot of questions on how I sourced and booked my program "The Big 5 Wildlife Conservation". It had taken me a good few months to look at a number of programs, to figure out what I would like to do. There are literally so many programs out there and in my case the internet made it super confusing.
