Six weeks are past, twelve weeks for some and six weeks for the previous volunteers who left us when we arrived at the lodge and I can say we all had the unique experience of a lifetime as a group. Being back day after day has reinforced that belief, that the sadness that accompanies being home directly emphasizes how special a time we had together as a group and as part of Volunteer Uganda. Okay I'll admit having a slice of cheese pizza, a warm shower and a bacon sandwich is nice after weeks and weeks of posho, but the cold showers, posho and rice plus many other things we aren't used to is part of the story as well. This will be one of my longer posts and I'll try to fit in as much detail as I can to describe what has been a phenomenal six weeks be it the island at Binyoni, the atmosphere at the Lodge, the safari and most importantly of all being at the schools providing education to many hundreds of students in the Kanungu region ensuring that they have better futures. So as Dr. Seuss would say "Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened!" Lets rewind a few weeks back to the first day driving to the lodge from Kampala.
It was a groggy early morning rise and I had heard the team had had quite a night at the Jinja bar (skipping ropes and flipping cups), whilst Jo and I perhaps because of the whiskey on the rocks in the pool did not and went to bed. What followed whilst preparing for our trip to Kampala was a catastrophic series of events where laptop cable, mobile phone and watch nearly culminated in my biggest loss of the trip. Luckily all were found. We had our final hot showers (bar an absolutely scalding one at Kampala backpackers), packed our things and made our way to Kampala where we would be spending only one night before a twelve hour drive to Kanungu which we would start at six in the morning. The drive from Jinja back to Kampala was fairly average as was the weather, a bit of smog noticeably had collected over Kampala and could be seen more clearly than the previous day on the cities' outskirts. We arrived at Kampala backpackers and settled down with the girls and boy's sharing a dormitory, opening a few beers and preparing for a night out in Kampala together. Robyn amused herself with the ukulele, whilst me, Aaron, Stu, Jo and Ollie were bemused by all the compliments that they were giving each other whilst donning dress and make-up. We then decided to see if would work with the opposite sex and frankly it didn't when we tested a few compliments on Sam. The night out began and Mish Mash, where we met Andy and Chris the other team leaders, and ended at another club (which considering I had my birthday there on return to Kampala I cannot remember) where we all bonded over shisha, beers, tequila (Cat's particular favorite which was coming to light) and a good dance (Stu being a talented fellow as was Ollie).
The next morning, after one hour's sleep, was a bit of blur, everyone being a tad hungover. We threw our stuff together and headed out sharply, and were bemused that we lost half hours sleep, the team-leaders having pre-longed their sleep possibly (Sam vehemently arguing against this). For the first time of many we hopped into the Volunteer Uganda vans and left for Kanungu. The first third of the trip was sleep for all I imagine and we stopped at the equator briefly and got a few snaps. In all honesty it wasn't that exciting apart from the fact with were making a transition from northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere which was pretty good. After this those had chosen to see returned to the van and our next stop before we would hit the rough roads of Kanungu and the surrounding regions was to collect food and drinks for breakfast/lunch. Little did we know how much more we should have grabbed! Originally I found the roads to be quite exciting, the unpredictability and being thrown about fun, but this soon changed after increasing rub on the butt, and having your head knocked numerous times against the side of the van, Joe's back taking a bit of a beating on the road likewise and his mood darkened as the trip progressed. Thankfully we shared a bag of bread rolls which cheered him up slightly. We found out that the back was the most worst part of the bus to sit in for comfort's sake. Driving up through the mountains to Kanungu was amazing despite the detox from the previous night. The countryside reminded very much of a tropical Switzerland or Austria at the height of the summer with an array of bright green slopes, plants and brownish roads, the sun occasionally emerging out of the clouds to light up the hills in an array of colors. If investment went into the region, the roads were improved and more the region would have been an even better place to live! We were likewise given a taster of the Ugandan weather. Rain, rain, sun, rain, sun, rain and little more sun, perhaps a bit of cloud. When you are peering over a cliff edge and the van is slipping and sliding down a slope less than smoothly it makes for quite a nerve-wracking ride.
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| Views in Kanungu/Bwindi |
Forty-five minutes away and Chris received a call from Carla, all the volunteers and herself excited to have us arriving and what followed was yet another corner or mountain to traverse which left me increasingly impatient and grumpy to get there. Finally we turned that final corner and one the hill lay Volunteer Uganda's lodge with some mad mzungu's atop the balcony over looking the road and hills of Kanungu/Bwindi National Forest waving frantically at us, screaming. These were our twelve weekers', the rest of the staff welcoming us and what followed was hug's, handshakes, a flurry of names and the proper beginning of Volunteer Uganda. We met Connie, Jake, Joanne, Ben, Cerys, Georgia, Gillian, Harry (who claimed to be a team-leader), Devon, Niki, Clare, Frances, Rebekah, Luca and then Frank, Mackie, Pricilla, Dennis, Ellie, Muzeey John and more. It was a big occasion, some names had to be revised and remembered, it almost reminded me of the beginning of University, but this time it was better. After dropping off our bags in the banda's, we proceeded to sit around the fire and get to know each other. Sunday's meal comprised of pork which the twelve weekers were very excited about and we were to appreciate meat more often as the weeks progressed and received our official welcome at the lodge by Carla, Chris, Graeme, Sam and Andy.
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| The Lodge |
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| Posho, Rice and Beans! |
The first week at the lodge was spent adapting to our new surrounding and the best part was obviously our five day limited resource teaching training programme (LRTT) where us six week newbies underwent a rigorous crash-course in teaching with the help of Sam and the advice of Frank (who also taught us some basic Rukiga along the way). Breaks were brief, but the lunch of chips and vegetables or g-nut sauce with spaghetti was amazing and the latter in particular was never ever an issue for the rest of the trip. Also have to admit ketchup substitute was actually pretty good to! During the week we were given a chance to visit Kirima Parents Primary School where Niki, Devon and Clare had been teaching the previous six weeks. They taught P4, P6 and P5 and we got our first taste of beans, rice and posho and a chance to watch teachers in action. Kerry, me and Ollie were perplexed by the twenty minutes of singing and dancing and that the teacher only wrote three sentences on the board in the whole lesson! The locals take mountains worth of it, but most of us decided, bar Ollie who went up for seconds, to have a moderate amount! Kirima was the flagship school in Kanungu and it was a great honor to be shown around the place by Teacher Ambrose and the headmaster Dennis. We were also introduced to Kirima's school children, some of us showing off our Rukiga. After introductions of music, clapping and song we were then obligatorily swarmed, swamped and engulfed by a tidal wave of school children who clung on to your arms (Aaron) and dragged you down (Cat). It was mad, but amazing fun and luckily Robyn managed get a few snaps that day of us with the children, a real warm-up (quite literally) of what we were in for in the coming weeks :D
Eventually we were ready to do micro-teaching and though the first attempt by me to teach was a bit of a nightmare, the second attempt went smoothly and really well for everyone on the 25th October. We were split into groups between Grahaeme and Sam and Chris and Carla at Great Lakes Regional College where Luca and Rebekah did their work for Research Uganda which as per usual had some incredible views and insights into how the college was developing, some parts of the new building material taking months to arrive. For the benefits however it was certainly worth the wait! Cat, Kerry, me, Diesel (who was suffering from illness :( ), Ollie and Maz were assigned to the former and all of us did really well, Kerry teaching time, Maz fractions, Ollie proverbs (provebs as he wrote on the board), Cat (sentence structure, her techniques coming handy later for me at Kirima) and myself accidents. Couldn't have gone better for any of us and after a really stressful week of contemplating whether I could teach a bunch of badly behaved kids out to get me, I left the second micro-teaching lesson feeling much more confident about my ability to teach the children and in an active way. Plus it was a sunny day and after our first week at the lodge we were to the learn the phrase from the rest of the group "Thank God it's Friday!" We finished off a great week for all, with numerous Nile Specials, a toast around the fire for the six weekers who were now ready to teach in Kanungu. The rest of the group returned and we had a treat of dinner outside as the sun set in a beautiful array of red, yellow and light purple.
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| 25th October 2013 |
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| Meal outside! |
At this point I'd really like to thank Sam and Frank so much for taking us through the intensive week and at the same time making it so enjoyable and interesting. As Joe correctly said I feel like a bit of a dick to my teachers now! Graeme's best piece of advice was "You're there to teach them not to be their friend." Obviously I became fond of my kids as time went by, however this particular piece of advice alleviated a lot of personal pressure.
The weekend was a matter of patience waiting for our class to be assigned to us by the team-leaders based upon everything they had seen about us since we arrived and how our performances in micro-teaching had gone. The waiting involved a first trip to Kanungu town and preparation for the lodge's Halloween party. Stuart and Aaron lost a bet in town that I could not eat three three egg rolexes in a row and although the third one required a bit of ketchup to finish the demolition job, I just about succeeded in finishing the task. The cold beer afterwards for everyone went down very nicely We had randomly picked names out of a cup and had to improvise in the market and pick whatever we could to fashion a decent costume. I'll admit mine for Kerry was pretty naff, I could have done better although the bright orange and lime-green sandles was an attempt to go for a sort of 1970s/80s space hero. It just didn't work. Sorry Kerry. Others were pretty impressive, Joe and Joanne were attached together, Aaron, a very fat Friar, Maz and Jake were tigers, Gillian a lion with a pink dress for a mane, Harry some sort of butterfly and Robyn a chav, Andy, Graeme and Chris just had short-skirts, Georgia a werewolf, Claire a pumpkin, Connie a tribal woman, and Stuart a mummy. There were many costumes and it worked out for an absolute belter of a party at the Nile High Bar, some of which I do not recall.
The next day involved a bit of recovery, lesson planning for our first day of teaching and finding out which class we had been assigned to and which twelve weekers we would be working with in the coming weeks. A dinner the announcements were made, following Graehame's particular favourite of everyone banging the table. I was the first to be announced and I was assigned to Kirima Parents Primary School with Niki, Devon and Clare. I was taking Beth's class, a P3 class of forty-five kids. I was somewhat surprised that I had been assigned such a large class, but hey new challenges are fun and running a class of forty-five provided that :). Dilroop was assigned a P4 class of nineteen with Joanne and Frances at Kindergatten, whilst Robyn (P4, 23) and Ollie (P5,30) were paired up to work with Cerys at Kyeijanga. Joe and Kerry were paired up to work at Makiro, Joe recieving (bar Claire) one of the largest classes at the lodge. Cat and Maz were assigned P4 and P5 with the lively Harrigon Phillips at Model and Claire and Aaron would be teaching at Kiruhinda with large classes of fourty-five and fifty. Finally Stuart would be with Connie and Georgia at Standard Academy, where I'd hear a lot of stories of Stu's class!
The first week was over, it had been an interesting one. We'd settled in at the lodge, been through the rigours of teacher training and the twelve weekers had all been amazing with the advice on how to deal with the kids and teach them well. The dreaded first day was approaching! Shredded nerves of teaching in a new environment would come to provide amazing experience, new friends, and new challenges.
New Teachers!
Things learnt: Harry was not a team-leader and it turns out that I had been conned, Munonga had to be in front of everything, Boy's Banda Rules, TIA could finally be put to use, f**k carrying a large stake around for an entire night! Never play the game 'Pull something from a bag' with Claire, bed dismounts, Ollie's sleep-talking and anger at spiders and Aaron leaving the dorm to go to the toilet.
Highlights: Benedict, Jake, Gillian, Harry, Frances, Clare, Niki, Devon, Connie, Cerys, Joanne, Georgia, Luca, Rebekah and the rest of the team had all been met! Halloween was pretty awesome as well! Teacher training with Frank and Sam.
Matthew Williams
