ISP

We are now on the last leg of our program, the Independent Study Period. For this last month we are living in apartments with other students and each of us is completing a different research project. I live with 5 other students in a flat right in Green Market Square, basically the center of the city. Two of the other groups of students live within walking distance from our flat and we see them often. They come over a lot to use our Internet because we get free Internet at our apartment; we also have cable TV, which has been a big treat.

For my ISP I am interning with a non-profit, non-governmental organization called Sports Coaches OutReach (SCORE). The organization focuses on community development through sport. Basically what they do is take volunteers and train them in the area of sport as well as community development processes and then they place them in rural communities or townships in South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. The volunteers live with host families for 6 months or a year and basically immerse themselves in the community teaching life skills through the medium of sport. The organization is really cool and was actually founded by an Olympian from the U.S. My job there however, is not very exciting. I am volunteering in their head office and working full time for three weeks. What I do is try to contact past volunteers and then I ask them questions about their experience with SCORE in order to be able to generate feedback about the organization and establish a database of past participants. So basically I spent my first few days entering names and contact info into Microsoft excel, and I have spent the last week or so trying to get a hold of people and get them to agree to an over-the-phone interview. It is interesting to hear about the organization from a volunteers perspective, but it is no fun to sit in an office all day and play phone tag with people who can barely understand me.

It is now on to my last week of work. After which I will have about a week to compile all of the data I have gathered from my interviews and write a 35-40 page paper evaluating the organization. I will then present this information to my teachers, classmates, and coworkers. After all of that we have a 3 day evaluation period at a resort and then I’ll be home. It’s amazing how fast time here is flying and I really think that the only way that they can convince people to get on the plane is that we are so busy and drained from completing such a huge project in such a short amount of time that we can no longer think.

In the meantime I have tried to pack in as much fun as possible into the last few weeks and moments and am still in denial of the fact that I have to leave the most beautiful country that I’ve ever imagined.

For more info on SCORE, you can check out their website at http://www.score.org.za/