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.

Ngamba Island

March 20-22

Ngamba Island is a chimpanzee sanctuary set up for orphaned and mistreated chimps about 23 km from Entebbe in Lake Victoria. We set out early in the morning for the island for an experience that will be hard to put into words. When we arrived on the island we met up with Byron, a guide for the CSWCT (the authority in charge of the sanctuary), listened to a brief overview of the programs waiting in anticipation for our first glimpse of the chimpanzees. The chimps are fed at regular intervals and eagerly return from their forest adventures to receive fruit and vegi treats from the staff. As we walked up the hill and approached the chimp group we all found it to be a deeply emotional experience. Chimpanzees are amazing creatures with unique personalities, vast displays of emotions and of course very playful behaviours. Each one had its own way of getting attention and there was a clear pecking order in the group of 44 chimps. We were privileged to be taken around the facilities by the head caretaker, Stany, and invited to view the evening feeding and routines.
The next morning we waited for the rain to stop and then participated in a morning forest walk with a group of 8 juvenile chimpanzees. It was an experience that can not be justified with words but there were certain moments that we have to share. The youngest chimp, Rambo, eagerly ran to Ann who swooped him up in her arms and he remained there for the entire hour! Alissa approached Ikuru who was crouched over a puddle. Ikuru quickly grabbed Alissa's arm and proceeded to lather her arm with muddy water to get it clean. Ikuru is known for her friendly practice of grooming the women visitors. She quickly moved onto styling Sue's hair and slicked it back into a retro-do making Ann and Alissa very jealous.
It was an experience of a lifetime and we look forward to sharing pictures later.

P.S. Alissa wishes her students good luck on Monday at school...hopefully you will get started on that work!

Visiting a local school

March 19th, 2009

We began an early morning visiting a local primary school, the equivalent of a Canadian kindergarten to grade seven school. Sue observed a primary four class (8 or 9 year olds), Alissa went to a primary six class (10 or 11 year olds) and Ann visited a primary seven class (12 or 13 year olds); however, in all classes there seemed to be a large age range. All kids wore uniforms and most of the girls had shaved heads to prevent distractions. We have attached a short video of a spelling/grammar lesson in action so that you can experience a Ugandan classroom for yourself!

As teachers it became obvious that classrooms around the world share many similarities. For example, we saw spelling, grammar, science and socials lessons that contained similar content to the Canadian curriculum. Other things that were similar were funny teachers with great senses of humour; schedules that appeared to operate on a regular time-table; and most importantly: children were regularly requesting to use the washroom in what appeared to be an attempt to avoid the lesson!

There were also many differences. The rooms were basic often with mud floors, no glass for windows and broken slate chalkboards. Benches that were meant for two were often squeezed with 3 or 4 students instead. Text books were far and few between and shared amongst many. Also, children used razor blades to sharpen their pencil stubs and sometimes newspapers were used as writing paper! The kids were excited when break time came at which point, the three of us were sent to the principal’s office!

We were warmly received by the head teacher and headmaster where Alissa gave many picture books donated by her school (Country Garden Montessori Academy) community. Sue gave each of the teachers a small token of appreciation for graciously welcoming us into their classrooms.

The three of us found the school visit to be very helpful with workshop preparation and the opportunity to see how our profession works in another country. We are all very appreciative of the resources and opportunities that we have in Canada.

After our school visit we went back to the JGI office and put in a long afternoon preparing workshop materials and lessons. The majority of our time was spent putting together the binders that the teachers will use during the workshop. By the end of the day we were really missing the correlating, stapling and sorting feature on our photocopiers.

Report from a Muzungu's Perspective

Many people ask us: Why environmental education? Why Africa? Ann writes a response as part of a Masters assignment for Royal Roads University in Victoria, BC.


AFRICANS NEED TO CARE! A report from a Muzungu perspective

The Role of Over-population in Africa:

Figure One: Sign on the lawn of a primary African school

In North America, environmental issues appear to be in the forefront of many people’s minds. Political leaders devote time and resources to the subject, governments initiate policy regarding it, and almost every newspaper is riddled with some story on an environmental hot topic, whether it be as local as ‘Vote no to landfill number 99’ or as global-reaching as ‘Meltdown for the climate inevitable if global warming continues to heat up’!

In my recent journey to Africa, I discovered that environmental concern is limited or nonexistent amongst the African people. It seems unrealistic to imagine Africans jumping on the ‘Go Green’ band-wagon, when their country is riddled with AIDS, disease, poverty and hunger; however, Africans need to be concerned. Environmental compassion needs to be created because it will lead to action that will in turn ensure the subsistence of their people as well as the survival of other species.

Africa has 54 countries, covers 31 million km2 and is now estimated to be home to over 975 million people.[i] Unfortunately, Africa suffers from the blight of over-population. According to the Pan African Conservation Education organization, the population is growing at an average rate of approximately 3.6% per year.[ii] As the population increases, so does the demand for the natural resources required to survive: food, water, shelter, and space. In order to meet the demand, the environment is exploited to a point where renewable resources are used at a rate that exceeds that of their regeneration. This leads to a lack of resources, which serves to exacerbate the original problem. Over-exploitation will eventually result in the demise of all of Africa if sustainable actions aren’t taken to curb it.

The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism in the Republic of South Africa recently reported that, “Community level over-exploitation can have severe consequences on biodiversity and the combined effects of deforestation and subsistence agriculture will totally denude natural woodlands in communal areas in southern Africa by 2020.”[iii] This is called a positive feedback loop because it leads to change within the system and in this case, that change is bad. For example, an increase in food requirements leads to overexploitation of farmland, which in turn depletes soil nutrients. As a result, the soil is degraded to a state that can no longer grow crops or feed animals, thus leading to a decrease in the very resource that was supposed to increase!

In 2004, the BBC reported that over 80% of Sub-Saharan Africa farmland plagued by severe degradation.[iv]

Ecosystem Services and their over-exploitation:

The underlying issue is a lack of understanding regarding the importance and dire necessity of ‘ecosystem services’, a term used to describe the wide range of things that the natural environment does to allow humans to exist. A recent article in Environmental Science and Policy comments that sadly, “the importance of ecosystem services is widely appreciated only upon their loss.” [v]Africa’s diverse continent has many ecosystems that each provide different services beneficial to humans. One of the most important and endangered of these is Africa’s wetlands, actually considered wastelands by many of the locals. For example, in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda, the area has lost almost all of its wetlands to the construction sector. [vi]

The value of the wetland’s services cannot be understated. Not only are they home to many plants and animals; they are also home to many products used by the people of Africa. This includes fish, wild fruits, water, medicine, pasture, wood fuel, poles for construction, and materials such as sand, gravel, clay, and thatch. In addition, the wetlands filter polluted water and act as natural sponges that soak up, store and slowly release water so as to prevent flooding and erosion. They can also be a source of recreation and education and some tribes consider them sacred.[vii]

It is the wetlands ability to modify the microclimate that left the Minister of Water and Environment in Uganda screaming, “Swamps and forests are the source of water! They are our heritage, but the rate at which they are being wiped out is not good for this country.”[viii] Sadly, the government has little control over the matter. In fact, encroachers invade the wetlands regularly and before the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) gets wind of it, they erect structures. When NEMA and the local law enforcers try to evict the squatters, in order to save the wetlands, the new residents chase them away with sticks and guns. [ix]

With every increase in population, the over-exploitation of the wetlands’ precious resources gets worse. In Kampala, wetlands are the last resort for development as all other areas have been taken. In other parts of Africa, people cultivate food or use it as a pasture for their animals. Overgrazing becomes a key issue and leads to the ‘tragedy of the commons’. A recent report on the Dynamics of Grazing Policy in southern Africa explains:

“When a resource is held in common, with many people having access to it, a self-interested rational actor will decide to increase his or her exploitation of the resource since he or she receives the full benefit of the increase, but the costs are spread among all users. The result of each person thinking this way, however, is the ruin of the commons, and thus of everyone using it. When applied to traditional African pastoralism, the result is overgrazing, soil erosion and bush encroachment.”[x]

The people of Africa live their lives, unaware of the tragedy they have inflicted upon themselves by overexploiting the ecosystem’s services.

Environmental Action:

The past efforts to conserve ecosystem services have failed. Classifying the value of each economic service is a waste of time in a continent trying to develop, since financial worth is meaningless to many of them. Current environmental policies are primarily defined by international conventions or based on donor conditionality, which may not correlate with national agendas and may be impossible for Africans to enforce without the proper resources or support. [xi] Although there is some evidence in support of conservation (an estimate of 4.7% of Africa’s total area is dedicated to this cause), it comes in a form of fortress conservation best implemented by paramilitary due to the clashes between the wildlife conservation interests and the livelihoods of the rural dwellers.[xii] Currently, the most active environmental response is lead by NGOs, but even those may appear altruistic on the outside when in reality they are designed to promote an internal conflicting agenda.[xiii]

It does little good to explain the dilemmas of decreasing biodiversity or tragedy of the commons to an AID’s-ridden mother who is working as a prostitute in order to feed her ‘small’ family of eight. For developing nations, a different approach is needed to instill compassion for the environment. This Muzungu (Ugandan word for white person) feels there is an alternative to these failed plans; Africans need to learn and execute alternatives to their current way of living.

Figure Two: Ugandan teacher uses Environmental Education curriculum learned at JGI workshop[xvi].

Community-based action:

Community-based action is an emerging substitute to traditional efforts that could lead to favourable change with regards to concern for the environment.

“Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) and the related community-based wildlife management (CBWM) are built on the “use it or lose it” idea that natural resources must ... benefit local communities or there will be no incentive for conservation and sustainable management.”[xiv]

The Jane Goodall Institute is embracing this concept and fuelling their campaign with many community-based action projects, one of which is the Ugandan teacher workshop on Environmental Education. “The future of Uganda, just like that of all other countries, depends on the children,” JGI exclaims.[xv]

The workshop offers a plethora of lesson plans for teachers that integrate core subjects with environmental education, while explicitly teaching children alternative actions that lead to a sustainable way of life. Why does the program target teachers instead of going directly to the schools? Because then the lessons will be community-based and not originate from the disconnected Muzungus.

Community-based methods are not really a new ideology. It comes from the old-adage: if you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he will have enough fish to eat forever. Throwing money at poverty and hunger will not solve all the problems and ignoring them is irresponsible. In Africa, the leading cause of exploitation of ecosystem services is the population explosion. Through community-based education and implementation of sustainable alternatives, Africans will take charge of their future and put an end to their own poverty, disease and hunger; in other words: Africans will care about the environment.

Figure Three: A garden created and managed at Lake Victoria Primary School as a result of the JGI Roots and Shoots community-based project.

For more information, please visit the Jane Goodall Institute at http://www.janegoodall.org/
and the Pan African Conservation Education organization at http://www.paceproject.net/

REFERENCES:
[i] PACE: a series of environmental education films available through http://www.paceproject.net/ and http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats1.htm .

[ii] PACE: a series of environmental education films available through http://www.paceproject.net/

[iii] Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism : Republic of South Africa: Overexploitation. Retrieved from http://soer.deat.gov.za/ on March 17, 2009.

[iv] BBC. (2006). ‘Barren future’ for Africa’s soil. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4860694.stm.

[v] Daily, G. (2000). Management objectives for the protection of ecosystem services. In Environmental Science and policy (Vol. 3) pp. 333-339.

[vi] Kiwawulo, C. (2008). Kampala wetlands are no more: what is the way forward. Retrieved from http://www.newvision.co.ug/E/9/522/657297 on March 17, 2009.

[vii] The Jane Goodall Institute, (2007). Teachers Guide for Primary 6 and 7. (Available from the Jane Goodall Institute, P. O. Box 462, Entebbe, Uganda.)

[viii] Kagiri, L. (2008). Minister wants forests protected. Retrieved from http://www.newvision.co.ug/ on March 17, 2009.

[ix] Kiwawulo, C. (2008). Kampala wetlands are no more: what is the way forward. Retrieved from http://www.newvision.co.ug/E/9/522/657297 on March 17, 2009.

[x] Rohde, R.F. et.al. (2006). Dynamics of grazing policy and practice: environmental and social impacts in three communal areas of southern Africa. In Environmental Science and Policy (Vol. 9) pp. 302-316.
[xi] Homewood, K. (2003). Policy, environment and development in African rangelands. In Environmental Science and Policy (Vol.7, 3) pp. 125-143.
[xii] Homewood, K. (2003). Policy, environment and development in African rangelands. In Environmental Science and Policy (Vol.7, 3) pp. 125-143

[xiii] Homewood, K. (2003). Policy, environment and development in African rangelands. In Environmental Science and Policy (Vol.7, 3) pp. 125-143

[xiv] Homewood, K. (2003). Policy, environment and development in African rangelands. In Environmental Science and Policy (Vol.7, 3) pp. 125-143

[xv] The Jane Goodall Institute, (2007). Teachers Guide for Primary 6 and 7. (Available from the Jane Goodall Institute, P. O. Box 462, Entebbe, Uganda.)

[xvi] Photo couresy of Sue Ball, JGI Environmental Education Workshop facilitator.

Visit to the big city!

March 18th

Today Tracy met us with the JGI van and driver, Ishmael to take us into Kampala to gather workshop supplies. The ride into Kampala was interesting; the rules of the road are different than in Canada in that instead of passing lanes cars squeeze into the middle. A two lane road is actually a four lane highway here. The 34 km commute can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours and 45 minutes. Kampala is a very large city with many cars, motorbikes and people. During the day the population of the city increases to 3 million as people arrive from all over to work. At night it drops back to its relatively quiet population of 1.5 million. After gathering supplies and photocopies for the workshop we stopped off at a craft market to pick up some souvenirs. After passing some of the local schools in town (including the Victoria Montessori School!), we are very excited to visit our first school early tomorrow morning.

Thinking Green!

March 17th....St.Patrick’s Day

Upon arrival at JGI today we met with Tracy to delegate the workshop responsibilities. We had the opportunity to review the workshop materials created by the pilot project group from July 2008. Throughout the afternoon we were knee-deep in cooperative learning, experiential education and multiple intelligence theories as vehicles for environmental education. We were excited to begin brainstorming lesson plans for the workshop in Bushenyi next week.

Some of the staff at JGI took us to the Entebbe night market, a weekly event. There we had a chance to pour over second hand clothing that we learned comes from abroad, donated by those ready to clean out their closets. The diversity of items ranged from Obama watches to designer jeans, but also included a huge range of fresh produce, meats and grains. We decided to take advantage of the infamous delicious local ‘rolex’: a chapatti and egg roll-up. Afterwards, we skillfully avoided the Grand Canyon-esque pot-holes, as made our way home in the pitch black night.

Introduction to the Jane Goodall Institute

March 16 (Day Two!):
Alissa and Sue met Ann at the airport last night. After a 'short' rest ,we woke unrested to start our journey at JGI. We met with Tracy (the National Education Coordinator), the other staff at the office, as well as Scrappy, Tinker and Levi (the dogs who live here). Tracy filled us in about the workshop we'll be delivering next week and explained what we would be doing to prepare. Ann was very excited to hand over the generous bounty of crayons that her school (Crofton House School) donated. The crayons will be used for the Roots and Shoots programmes in Uganda. We ended the day with our first journey into town by carefully manoeuvring between the botas (mopeds). A group of school children accompanied us home and were fascinated by how fit we are since our walking pace was 1000 times that of the locals. We enjoyed sharing stories with them.

Wildlife Conservation Centre

March 15th, 2009. Sue and Alissa spent the day getting used to the time and visiting the Wildlife Education Centre, an animal rescue centre upgraded from the former Entebbe Zoo. It has been improved by creating more space for the animals with some of the characteristics of their natural homes. Ann was still enroute to Uganda. Some of the highlights from the Wildlife Centre were:

• A hammerkop (Medium sized long billed bird) attempting to eat a large frog and dipping it into the water like a chicken McNugget.


• The amazingly large Shoebill Stork.


• Warthogs putting on a kissing show.


• The Chimpanzee doing skilled Yoga moves.

There was lots of other wildlife, the cages were huge and the animals seemed very happy. We hope to post some pictures later.

Welcome to our blog! This blog is about our experience in Uganda. We are going to Uganda to help facilitate a workshop for teachers on Environmental Education in collaboration with the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada and Uganda. It is going to be an exciting two weeks with opportunities for professional and personal development. Sue and I leave tonight and arrive in Entebbe tomorrow evening. Ann will be meeting us on Sunday. The first week of our adventure will be spent in Entebbe planning for the workshop that we will be assisting in the second week in Bushenyi. We will be updating our blog daily (at least we will try!), and posting pictures so we invite everyone to follow us on our trip.