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South Africa - Africa and Asia Venture

South Africa

Gap Year Sports Coaching in South Africa

Where? 

Your Gap Year sports coaching project takes place in Philippolis, a two hour drive due south of Bloemfontein. This poor, small, agricultural town

of 4000 people is a leftover from days gone by with a white community in the town and a coloured and black community just outside - all happily living and working together in a very integrated way nowadays, but with few folk having yet bothered to move out of their old communities. Laurens van der Post, the writer, was born here and there is an unusual Memorial to him on the edge of town. Philippolis has also produced two Presidents of South Africa. It has a few shops, a bank, a couple of restaurants and a police station. Farming provides what little employment there is but 70% remain without work and the government has declared the town a poverty pocket.

Outline Experience

You will be part of a group of AVs teaching or coaching sport in South Africa. You will work and have fun with the rest of the group.

South Africa Sports Coaching Dates & Costs

What and Why?

With the 2010 FIFA World Cup coming up in South Africa, everyone in Philippolis is currently football mad! A soccer development charity, Lets Play, has donated 100 footballs to make sure every child in the district is kicking a ball.

Our AV representative in South Africa, Kate Groch, has set up a local Youth Centre in Philippolis, which will run soccer clinics to improve local childrens football skills, and that's where you come in! Your Gap Year sports coaching project will give you the chance to coach football every afternoon during term time and even organise a local football tournament. Your mornings can be spent teaching at the local Primary and Secondary Schools in Philippolis.

When not on the sports' field you may be invited to help run dance and art classes and assist the students with their schoolwork.

Gap Year Living

Whilst volunteer sports coaching & teaching in South Africa you will live in two typical flat-roofed Karoo cottages, next door to each other, in the main town. In each cottage you will find bedrooms, communal living areas, kitchens with cookers, fridges (nowhere else in Africa do AVs have fridges!), water you can drink from the tap and the world-famous South African Braai (B-B-Q) area in the garden. This will be your home for three months - a place to relax after a great day's coaching and some time to reflect on all you have experienced.

Your weekends will usually be free and can be spent exploring the surrounding areas. Obviously, we will expect you to be involved in anything that the schools or the Youth Centre might be doing (sports' days, competitions, etc) but otherwise the time is your own. There are some small towns close by, beautiful farms to be explored, a Tiger Breeding experiment (yes, "Tigers"), at which you will spend some time, the Orange/Xhariep River, and any number of nature reserves - before you even begin to think of South Africa's beautiful coastline and all that it offers.

Gap Year Safari

At the end of Term 1 of volunteer sports coaching & teaching, you will bid a temporary farewell to the friends you will have made in your schools and begin your safari. You and the rest of the group will spend three days pony trekking in the mountainous Malealea region of Lesotho - don't worry, no previous experience required and this is a hugely popular adventure trip. Lesotho is stunning, empty, rugged and remarkable and seeing it on horseback is an unbeatable experience - you will leave exhausted but totally exhilarated. You then head south to one of South Africa's most renowned reserves, Addo Elephant Park, for the next two days. Addo is home to 450 elephants and there are no prizes for guessing that you will see loads of them, as well as a host of other extraordinary wildlife. An added bonus is that it's malaria free! Then, as a complete contrast, you will head for Cintsa on the spectacular Wild Coast where you will spend the next two days exploring beautiful, empty beaches and (yes!) learning how to surf. On lightweight modern surfboards, you are virtually guaranteed to be standing after just one day's tuition. Our previous AVs couldn't get enough of it!  

Thereafter, it's your call in which direction you want to explore - both east and west coastlines are spectacular. But if it's bright lights you're missing, we suggest you travel along the world-famous Garden Route for a few days before heading to Cape Town - reputedly the world's most beautiful city! After two weeks you should be ready to head back to Philippolis for another month of sports coaching & teaching those wonderful children.

Gap Year Travel

Then, at the end of the second term of volunteer sports coaching & teaching, after bidding a final and sad 'goodbye' to Philippolis, you will head back to Port Elizabeth. From here you can choose more easily the options you want to take on your independent travel - west towards Cape Town again or east along Transkei's Wild Coast, some of the most beautiful coastline on the planet. This is the bit where you can be totally selfish with your time and do things just for you - whatever you want - and head off to discover even more of South Africa. By now, of course, you will be ‘old Africa hands' and, perhaps, even have some Afrikaans and indigenous languages under your belt.

You will have nearly three weeks to travel together, or in small groups, wherever you wish. Table Mountain, The Drakensburg, the Garden Route, Kruger National Park or Ellis Park (home of Springbok rugby) - do these names sound familiar? Go and see them and experience the vastness of this amazing country. What about some surfing lessons on the Wild Coast? Or, perhaps, just lie on a beach somewhere, from where you might take part in a little whale watching and sunbathing! Whatever, you won't be stuck for things to do and, if you want to continue your travels after the AV scheme ends, the rest of Africa awaits.

Naturally, AV will always be there for you if you have any problems, even after the scheme has formally ended.

And Afterwards...

If you're like 99% of those who have been before you, you'll agree that it will have been the best four months of your life so far. You'll find leaving difficult...and returning easy!  We say that "Once an AV, always an AV!" What this means is that you will be joining an exclusive club that will be there for you to help out if you ever get into difficulties and will always be pleased to see you again in Africa. As an AV, we hope your relationship with us will continue long after your initial time in South Africa. 

South Africa Sports Coaching Itinerary l South Africa Sports Coaching Dates and Costs l

South Africa Sports Coaching Facts 

Useful Stuff to know about volunteering in South Africa.

SOUTH AFRICA PHOTO GALLERY

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