Last week in Africa

Sunday:

I spent 7 hours touring the city of Kampala from the downtown core, to the tombs of Kings, to the rows of embassies and even some small suburb communities. The highlight was meeting the many children along the way, although sadly, the ones I met did not attend school.

Monday/Tuesday:
Monday was a ten hour travel day. Tuesday, I tracked gorillas and came across a family of 15 in their natural habitat, a mother with new born twins, 3 huge silverbacks and the rest of the gang.

Wednesday:
I hiked the tallest volcano in the area, Mt. Muhavura (approx 4137m) in 8 hours. I was accompanied only by the guide in front, and a man with a rifle (to scare off any forest elephants, buffalo, or seral cats we might meet on the way) behind me. Along the way, the views were unbelievable as small individualized plots of crops stretched out as far as the eye could see. At the top, I snuck into Rwanda without a passport since the peak was half in Uganda and half in Rwanda.

The End:
Thursday was a long travel day and tomorrow night, I make the long journey back to Canada. I am so grateful for this eye-opening, life-changing experience. In my short stay, in addition to the good people at JGI-Uganda, I met workers from the Red Cross, USAID, the United Nations, the U.S. Army, and missionaries. There were also many doctors, nurses and statisticians some of whom were researching tuberculosis, malaria or even treating pregnant women with AIDS so that their babies would not be infected. All are here doing different things but with the same compassion in their hearts.

And so I leave the pearl of Africa, somewhat altered, quite humbled, and eternally grateful for the experience, as well as all that I have at home.

Saturday March 28th, Alissa and Sue’s last day

Saturday March 28th, Alissa and Sue’s last day

The first sleep-in on our trip (7:30am) gave us time to leisurely pack and enjoy a hot shower. We visited the Botanical Gardens where we saw both exotic and endemic species. It was a scorching hot day and we finally understood the African pace, as we slowly enjoyed the treasures of the park. In the distance Alissa spotted a troupe of vervet monkeys. Ann, dressed appropriately in closed shoes and long pants, adventurously crept amongst the brush to get a closer look. After some hesitation, Sue and Alissa joined her. We sat a few feet away, watching the babies tumble and play, while the some adult monkeys crept closer to us, while others feasted on avocados. We were disappointed to have to leave them. Ann visited the Wildlife Centre where she saw a cobra eating a chicken, the seral cats and was even entertained by a dancing ostrich. We all met back at Ann’s cozy cottage (our fourth room at the Gately Inn) and shared our last drink and meal. Ann was sad to say goodbye to Alissa and Sue, but is excited to stay in Africa to tour Bwindi National Park in search of gorillas and Mgahinga National Park to view the volcanoes. We look forward to sharing our experiences with our families, friends, schools and communities upon our return home.

Friday March 27, Day 5: Travel Day

Friday March 27, Day 5: Travel Day

Our last day in Bushenyi began with heroic attempts to pack a small SUV. This included: a trunk, a generator, a projector screen, a huge rubber maid container, boxes filled with leftover binder and bags, Ann’s large orange hardshell suitcase and drum, Alissa’s two duffel bags, Sue’s oversized backpack, 3 day packs and the driver’s large canvas sac of matooke (plantain). We took the scenic route home through Queen Victoria National Park where in the savannah grasslands we saw elephants, kobs (antelope), warthogs, a troupe of brave baboons and water buffalo. During a small detour (1 ½ hours later) through a rural area we saw crater lakes and learned the difference between plantain and banana trees. Yompa (our driver) plucked part of a coffee bean tree and was chased down by the farmer, just to show Sue who had never seen one before. Ten hours later we fell out of the car, dusty and exhausted, but managed to go out for a night on the town with some of the JGI staff as a final farewell.

Thursday March 26, Day 4: The Kalinzu forest

Thursday March 26, Day 4: The Kalinzu forest

Woohoo! A trip to the tropical rainforest...where it rained! Some of the highlights included: baboons, black and white colobus monkeys, and red-tailed monkeys. After the walk, we returned to the forest center where we were given demonstrations of activities available for students. This was in an effort to motivate the teachers to take their students to the forest, some of whom already do. The trip there and back was 30 minutes by ‘taxi’ ( a small mini-van in which 15 of us crammed in at once).

Back at the center, the Ugandan teachers shared their lesson plans. They had done an excellent job integrating environmental education into their subject matter.

Tracy introduced community activity sheets which were a big hit! These sheets described sustainable environmental actions that could be implemented easily in their home communities. The workshop culminated with the participants sharing ideas of how they will put their new information into action. The responses were diverse and encouraging.

The participants received a certificate and they were all very excited and proud to receive them. The day finished with movie night and we closed up shop at 10 pm.

Wednesday March 25, Day 3: Their Turn

Wednesday March 25, Day 3: Their Turn

Now that they were equipped with the teaching strategies, it was up to them to design posters and lesson plans that integrated environmental education with their subject speciality (English, science, agriculture, social studies and math). The posters were discussed and it was interesting to us to see how much constructive criticism was generated.

The day concluded with the three of us instructing them on how to be a good facilitator, which is the ultimate goal of the program: to teach Ugandan teachers so that they will teach their colleagues and so on and so on. Knowledge, compassion and action. Alissa and Ann demonstrated the difference between a good facilitator and a bad one. The session then ended with a role playing activity in which the teachers had to design short skits of situations they were likely to encounter while running their own workshop. The skits were entertaining and demonstrated their wonderful sense of humour.

Tuesday March 24, Day 2: The Teaching Begins!

Tuesday March 24, Day 2: The Teaching Begins!

The difficulty with implementing a workshop is that the government needs to be on board. As a result, it was the Ministry that sent out invitations to the teachers. JGI never knows who will attend until the day it begins. Sadly, the ministry had made a mistake and 6 of the teachers had already attended the workshop in July. They were very disappointed when they found out they could not stay and replacements needed to be found. All the other participants rallied together to find other teachers to come, as it is considered an honour to be invited. Luckily, we were only delayed a few hours as the new teachers trickled in and were able to begin teaching at 9 am (usually we started at 7:30)!

We began by explaining the importance of environmental education in Uganda. We introduced them to the term ‘sustainability’ and were fascinated that their definition of environment was “Man and his surroundings”. The rest of the workshop centered around these ideas.

Alissa instructed them in cooperative learning strategies, Sue enjoyed getting them active while she taught the experiential method, and Ann followed by leading the session on multiple intelligences and how to use them in the classroom. If we were not leading the session, we were actively assisting the other in a team-teaching approach.

Although it took a little time for the teachers to adjust to our accents, everyone had a fun (albeit long) day. The day wrapped up at 9 pm.

Monday March 23, Day 1: Travel Day

Monday March 23, Day 1: Travel Day

We were off! Patricia: the Roots and Shoots co-ordinator from Congo, Tracy: the Educational Coordinator from Uganda, the driver and us. Day one was a seven hour travel day in which we experienced Ugandan construction, high volume traffic and intense heat, but the journey was pleasurable. We travelled from the northern hemisphere to the southern one and stood on the equator. Upon arrival in Bushenyi, there were a few setbacks in accommodation until we were invited to spend the week in the Bishop’s house! This house was reserved for visits from the Bishop and luckily he was out of town. We definitely got a taste of African living: one hour of electricity from a generator per day, and 2 containers of hot water with a bucket to bath in!

At the conference center, we unloaded all the materials and welcomed the participants as they began to arrive. The venue had boarding facilities for the Ugandan teachers, a kitchen and a big room for us to deliver the workshop. We ate all of our meals at the venue and all of them (yes all) consisted of posho (cassava flour and water), millet (a different flour with water), rice, ground-nut sauce, stewed animal, and a slice of pineapple. Ann laughed when she found out that Alissa and Sue had also been eating the green spinach-like vegetable known as pigweed, but referred to by the locals as doo-do!

We were very tired by the end of the day and excited to begin teaching on Tuesday.