GRIP, Internships Abroad A Learning Curve

Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town - South Africa

My first two weeks in Cape Town have flown by in a sea of great coffee and breathtaking views. The city has truly stolen my heart and the people I have met here so far have been unwaveringly warm and happy to help introduce me to their home. I am writing this blog at the close of my second week here in South Africa, and after a busy 10 days of a hectic but inspiring work environment and trying to explore the city (weather permitting), I’m a little exhausted.

My internship for the next two months is with the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, an NGO created to support refugees in the city. The main goal of the organization is to foster successful integration of migrants and refugees in South Africa. The six branches of the centre include advocacy, welfare, women’s platform, employment access, English learning and UNITE (a program which educates South African youths about racism and negative stereotyping of refugees and how this can be prevented). As an All Rounder Intern at Scalabrini I am essentially working wherever I am most needed during my time here and so far that has been in the English school and as part of a new program at the centre which works in partnership with a university in New Hampshire to guide clients through an online degree program.

Despite the fact that I have taught English before, I did not expect this to be part of my experience at Scalabrini. When I first learned that I would be most useful for teaching and assisting in English classes for adults from 18-60+ years old, I was honestly terrified. Teaching English to children and teenagers (which I had done before) is a very different skill than teaching adults and I wasn’t sure if it was something that would be beneficial for me or the clients. After only one day of shadowing, I was thrown into the deep end and had to teach a class on my own. The head of the English school was confident I would be fine, but the first 10 minutes of teaching was overwhelming, to say the least. What I soon learned, however, is that teaching adults who have willingly decided they want to learn English can be infinitely more rewarding than teaching children. The people in my classroom don’t have to be there; in fact, for some of them it requires up to three hours of travelling to make it to the Scalabrini Centre, and the decision to learn is very much based on the fact that they want to improve their lives here in Cape Town, integrate well, and express themselves in a variety of ways. Some of the clients in my class are engineers and doctors, people with 10 years more education than me and almost always much more life experience. This makes for a very interesting classroom dynamic but one that is rewarding for all parties involved.

Getting to know my class and their stories is something I have enjoyed so much since arriving at Scalabrini. This week we held an event which brought together people from all different English levels to get to know each other and celebrate World Refugee Day. This event allowed me to engage with clients outside of the classroom and was an afternoon filled with such positivity and laughter. In the coming weeks I’m looking forward to continuing to build relationships and learn from the people I meet in Cape Town and at the Scalabrini Centre in ways, I had never expected.