My adventure in

South-Africa

Nienke Aarts

August 2016 – January 2017

A little bit about me

Nienke Aarts

• 21 years old

• Live in Venhorst & Maastricht

• People and Business Management

• Sorority Missdaad

• Soccer

Why Africa Unite & South-Africa?

Africa Unite

• Anne-Marie thought I would fit into AU

• Hardworking en passionate people

• Work with all kinds of different people

• Active in a different context

South-Africa

• Weather

• Improve English

• Culture & differences

• Beauty of the country

• A lot of students from my school came here before me

Work at Africa Unite

Main projects

• Heritage day event

• Leave no-one behind

• Red Carpet Award

Show

Involved with

• Business Skills Sharing

• Human Rights

Workshop

• Robben Island

• Singamakhalipha

fundraising event

• Womans day event

• Meetings

Other projects

• Delft

• Finance

• School Clubs

Attempts

• Water en Sanitation

Project in Europe

• African Song

• Teambuilding hike

• Spaza Shop Summit

Things I’ve done and things

I’ve seen in South-Africa

What I’ve learned

• Work SMART, not hard!

• You must work with passion

• Life in townships is rough

• Creatively planning my way around problems.

• Everything goes, one way or an other

• Be patient and grateful

• How to work in a diverse environment

• How to count money and give change when you are in a taxibus

• All about challenges in South Africa that still are an everyday reality

• Report writing skills in English

• How to not get killed while crossing the streets

• Do not ask random

questions

Challenges I faced

• Names with strange consonants in succession

• Working with short deadlines

• Tea with milk

• Remembering Shona words

• African Time & people not showing up

• Bad WIFI

• Difference between: taxi - cab - taxibus

• Eating chicken feet and bones

Recommendations

• Make a database & keep it up to date

• Have a more open communication & more transparent agenda

• Urgent emails read receipt

• Evaluate events and work with the feedback to prevent repeating mistakes

• Smarter marketing

• Clean the Kombi

• Keep up the good work with:

• Cleaning schedule

• 3 months plan each quarter, not only in the beginning of the year

Thank you!

Bonus

What I would do about inequality?

• Education is key

• Let foreign teachers teach

• No more segregation

• Improve social cohesion by opening a hundred more AU offices!