Tuesday 21st July

Back home safe and sound after two flights.

We were booked on a KLM flight from Entebbe (near Kampala the capital city) to Amsterdam, where we changed planes, and then went on the final leg to Glasgow. The first flight was around eight and a half hours through the night followed by an hour and fifty minutes or so for the second flight. 

We were all sorry to leave Masindi on Monday morning. Norma said a lovely farewell speech to Solomon, the Head Waiter, on behalf of the group who has looked after and organised all the kitchen and waiting staff all week. He has worked at the Masindi Hotel for a long time and has witnessed many changes to the town. I wonder what he makes of it all.

We headed back down the road to Kampala, making good time due to the newly surfaced road, (around three and a half hours), and arriving in time for a delicious lunch of dosah's. They are Indian pancakes that come filled with a curried vegetable filling. They gave us enough sustenance to deal with the bargaining in the craft market which some of the group heartily (and surprisingly!) enjoyed. It was full of interesting carvings and batiks, jewellery and even musical instruments. I particularly liked the necklaces made from rolled up pieces of paper which are then varnished. A great idea for recycling.

We had time to fit in coffee and cake at a lovely cafe. There were people working on their laptops just as they do in Starbucks in Edinburgh, (although the cakes were better!)

It was soon time to drive out to the airport and go through the check-in process. The systems were all down so it was interesting to watch all the back up computers and emergency check in desks being put into action. The only casualty appears to be Mr Jim's bag which should arrive with him this evening. 

All in all a fabulous experience and lots to learn and think about.

Look out for new posts with further information in a couple of weeks....

Murchison Falls

Sunday 19^th July

 

Had to be up by 4am this morning to be on our safari bus. We headed off in the dark to the Murchison Falls National Park. I have to confess to sleeping most of the way, surprising given the state of the road.

We had to take a small car ferry across the Nile. It was a reverse on and drive off effort that only took about 4 or 5 cars at a time. We had our first animal sighting of hippos from the river.

We set off in three vehicles for a game drive around the park and were completely blown away by the amount of wildlife we saw. Apparently there are about 76 different mammals and 450 different species of birds in the park. We were quickly rewarded with a sighting of the first giraffe followed by a variety of antelope, buffalo and then loads of giraffe.

We were treated to a very special close up view of a lioness and her (quite large) cub. They were so close it was amazing they stayed still as long as they did.

We then saw three male elephants of which one was around 5 tons! We were told that they can drink around 100 litres of water and eat about 400kg (4 -5% of it’s weight) of vegetation a day, incredible!

As the rangers were checking the landscape before our bush walk we witnessed a lion chasing some oribi (a variety of antelope). It was slightly unsettling to walk across the grassland where moments before there had been a lion stalking it’s prey.

One of the most incredible things to see was the dung beetle rolling an enormous piece of elephant dung and the termites working away in their mounds. It is amazing to consider the interdependence of creatures on each other as we looked at the termites and thought about the vegetation that was enriched by their work.

The day was a wonderful variety of game drive, walking safari, boat trip up the Nile (passing hippos, crocodiles, elephants, birds etc) to the walk up to Murchison Falls itself. The Falls have an enormous volume of water passing through a narrow gorge which produces a spectacular display. It was worth walking through the tremendous heat to reach the top of the water fall although I think some of us felt a little melted by the end!

After 15 hours on the go we arrived back at the Masindi Hotel ready for good curry!

 

This will now be my last blog for a few days until I return home and reconnect. Thanks to everyone who has read it so far!

 

 

The final meeting...

Saturday 18^th July

This morning breakfast was outside as the dining room was set up for our final meeting. The HT’s, inspectors, SDO’s had all been invited to come for 9am. Of course they should have been invited for about 7am for the meeting to start on time!

It was an opportunity for us to fill in evaluation forms, feedback about the whole SPR process, make recommendations and discuss issues that had arisen. We had a very positive and productive time together discussing lots of things that had arisen. Margaret, one of the three school inspectors in the district, spoke beautifully at the end about moving forward and improving education. She also requested that the SCIPD visits could be made reciprocal. It would be fantastic to be able to welcome Ugandan colleagues and return the hospitality.

We finished with an amazing buffet style lunch of Ugandan food. Delicious!

It was wonderful to have the afternoon to relax after all the work in the last couple of weeks and try to catch up on these bloggings.

Some of us wandered back along the road into town to pick up some garments that were being made by the tailor. We had a stroll through the market and were fascinated by the vivid sights, sounds, smells and bustle. It was packed with people selling everything from passion fruit, tomatoes, onions, and potatoes to jack fruit, mangoes, shoes, clothes, pots and pans. We found a man who was recycling car tyres into flip flops and a woman selling paraffin lamps from recycled tin cans. The Ugandan people certainly demonstrate an ability to reduce, reuse and recycle!

We really enjoyed sampling some of the street food. We had some lovely pancakes and chapatis. The muchuomo (kebabs) looked delicious but we were full up!

 

A surprise guest at the hotel!

Great excitement over the sudden influx of soldiers and 4x4’s! The place was crawling with security folk. It turned out that the Vice President of Uganda was staying the night at the Masindi Hotel and would be eating breakfast and lunch on Saturday too. Some of the security camped in tents in the grounds and others seemed to be in every other available room. When we returned after our evening meal along the road we walked back by torchlight as usual along the edge of the road trying very hard not to get run over by bikes with no lights, cars and motorcycles we found two of our group having a chat with him and some of his entourage. They said he was a very friendly man.

It led into a huge discussion about politics in our country but I think that’s best left for another day!

Friday, last day in school

Friday 17^th July

The last day in school…

I wore my bright, new, (and slightly big!), Ugandan outfit to school today to the approval of the staff at Nyebeya.  Since James was heading off to adjudicate we found him giving last minute instructions to Nelson (the DHT) who was going to have to represent the school at a meeting in Masindi that had been called to discuss HIV/Aids education.

If the government or district need to contact HT’s to call them for urgent meetings they announce the meetings on the radio for the previous two or three days. Somehow the message always gets passed on to those who need to know, modern jungle drums indeed!

The government is concerned about the rates of HIV/Aids and has implemented a national programme to raise awareness. They are trying to encourage schools to offer counselling and guidance as well. We were encouraged to hear that people are becoming more open about their HIV status and that nearby clinics offer testing whenever anyone wants to check.

One teacher in the school had discussed the issue with the HT who was very supportive about their health and the need to miss classes occasionally in order to collect anti-retroviral drugs and have a check up.

We were concerned that classes would be disrupted again due to teachers being away but the school seemed to operate very efficiently this morning. We clocked Chris, a P7 teacher, coming in late but then it transpired that he had been up all night trying to find his children who had taken shelter from the storm in a different village. By the time the rain had eased it was dark so they had decided to stay where they were. Although many have mobile phones in Uganda very few have landlines and often mobile signals are not in range. It wasn’t until the morning that Chris had located his children miles from their home and brought them with him to school. Considering the National theme for the Music, Dance and Drama festival was the safety of children in light of a few kidnappings, among other things, it was no surprise that Chris arrived late looking tired but relieved.

Kate and I went into Sarah’s P3 class and observed an excellent lesson. After the chaos of introducing slates to her class to do the ‘show me’ strategy she showed us how it could be done calmly and effectively as part of her literacy lesson. The children were all engaged and all seemed to really enjoy the lesson, as did we!

In the P1 class with Mary-Gorretti we saw another great effort at making a phonics lesson lively, interactive and fun using simple resources. It was so encouraging and positive that it made me think that all the teachers need is a wee bit of guidance and motivation to inspire them to carry on. They have such large classes and sometimes it is very difficult to engage all learners. We discovered that children with additional needs had been identified but differentiation was not always happening. They are facing many challenges but improvement is happening.

We finished the morning with a staff meeting to clarify some questioning strategies that we had not had time to cover on our Tuesday meeting earlier in the week. Many of us are guilty of asking too many closed questions but to improve the quality of the interactions between pupils and teachers and improve critical thinking and cognitive engagement, rather than rote learning everything, it is essential to work on higher order and open questioning techniques. The staff were all up for it and some seemed to be very aware of it already. There are certainly some strong teachers in the school who are keen to take on new ideas to improve their teaching which is very encouraging to see.

Back at the hotel it was quite sad to think that had been our last day in school so Kate and I –went shopping! We had a wander through the bustling market and purchased some Ugandan coffee and Masindi honey from the ‘Lucky 7’ supermarket.

We had been requested to be back for 6pm sharp as ‘something’ was scheduled to happen. We were beginning to wonder if the Ugandan VP was coming to speak to us! However, nothing quite so political and something very kind that Jim had organised – a surprise cake made by Mike who’s father had been a teacher and had studied in Moray House. He lived opposite the hotel. His son can certainly bake a fabulously delicious cake. We kept half for the Saturday farewell lunch with our HT’s…

Dinner was back at the Court View for a lovely chicken curry.

 

 

 

 

Thursday...

Thursday 16^th July

Julius our wonderful new driver was waiting to take us to school again this morning. It’s made such a difference having the car changed and is significantly more peaceful not to have Phil Collins blaring at us!

Today day began with an assembly around the flagpole. We heard the Ugandan national anthem being sung followed by the children’s national prayer. The HT then proceeded to lecture the children about looking after their school environment as there had been some vandalism to the new school fence and they are keen to encourage a sense of pride and respect in the school.

Kate and I spent the morning working with James the HT on the remaining parts of the School Development Plan. He really seemed to appreciate the guidance we were offering him and became quite excited at some of the ideas we suggested for improving discipline, the learning environment and involving parents. We managed to set quite a number of targets under the remaining priorities so they are going to be a busy staff!

We observed a few more classes and arranged to work with a couple of teachers the next day.

The afternoon was given over to a farewell ceremony in which all the classes had a hand in organising. We were first treated to a meal of goat stew and chapattis with coca cola, after just being given a bowl of chips to keep us going half an hour previously, I feel they are succeeding in making me put on weight! Africans generally like their women to be fatter and see it as a sign of good health, quite the opposite to our culture!

The afternoon was wonderful! We heard some of the items which we had seen previously in rehearsal for the music festival including traditional folk songs and dances. The energy and enthusiasm of the children who participated was amazing. We had the obligatory speeches from the chairperson of the PTA and the chairperson of the SMC as well as the HT and ourselves and then we were gifted with beautiful wooden love heart shaped plaques with the name of the school and a picture of a chimp. We were very touched by the gesture. We took photos of us with the Scottish and Ugandan flags surrounded by the teachers and pupils of Nyabeya and Kate left them with the message that their children are the future of Uganda. (She almost had me in tears!) We were waved off in the taxi by hordes of children. It seemed a bit odd to be saying farewells when we still had another school day to go but James was due to be adjudicating at the music festival again on the Friday and he didn’t want to miss the entertainment.

In the evening there was internet access at last – the first all week! As you can tell I’ve been trying to catch up with the blogging ever since. The days are so full here and there is so much to talk about together that in some ways it was just as well there was no power or internet access for a few days!

This evening a few of us went back to the Court View for dinner. It is pleasantly warm here but today saw a horrendous hail storm just as we started our journey back from school. The road quickly turned speckled white and Julius had to drive slowly to avoid any more cracks in his wind screen. We could see the children running along the road trying to find shelter. There were claps of rolling thunder and flashes of lightening as we arrived at Kabango to pick up Elaine and Patrick and then the heavens opened. The dusty red road soon turned muddy with rivulets of water running off to the sides. We had seen a trench digger clearing the ditches at the sides of the roads and now realised how important it was to keep these ditches clear for drainage to avoid flooding. When we arrived back at the hotel it was lovely to sit and watch the rain pouring down. The temperature cooled slightly so it was on with a light jumper and then off to sit outside on the veranda area at the Court View for dinner. Mr Jim stopped by later to meet up with a friend of his who is a District Inspector of Schools so we had an interesting discussion with James who seems to know everyone who is anyone in education in the Masindi District and could name teachers at all of our schools. Very impressive!

 

 

 

Wednesday 15th July

Wednesday 15^th July

Today there is still no internet access and it appears to be affecting most of Masindi. After a fruitless conversation with someone from the Ugandan Telecom Hot Spot help line I decided to give up and go shopping! Anyway, if this is now posted internet has either been restored or I’m back home!

This morning the four of us in our car share finally resolved the death trap that has been our daily transport. It came to a head with the petrol bottle in the open boot jumping around and giving us such awful fumes we were arriving feeling sick. A short call and a replacement car arrived with Julius the new driver. The difference was amazing and only topped by the sighting of the chimp running across the road!

We arrived to find the school deserted and wondered for a moment what had happened. We then noticed the children spilling out of a nearby building and realised they were all in the church. We walked up the hill and were ushered into the front of the church to hear the sermon being preached in Kiswahili, Runyoro and English. It was lovely to see the school coming together first thing in the morning.

We had a very productive morning with James our HT fleshing out the rest of the development plan. Three out of the five priorities for the School Development Plan come under Teaching and Learning or Leadership and Management and the remaining two have a community and parents focus. The school decided to work on improving the quality of the teaching and learning process, improve climate and relationships (to improve discipline) and increase the range of co-curricular activities (we might call them extra-curricular). The remaining two areas concern the strengthening of parental links through the SMC (School Management Committee) and the PTA and building houses for teachers as many of them have a distance to travel every day.

We were then given a snack of a hard boiled egg and a cup of coffee before being taken into the Budongo Forest on the back of James (the HT) and Nelson’s (the DHT) motor bikes to meet some researchers at the conservation field camp.  Fortunately a very accommodating researcher called Kat was available to speak to us as the person we thought we were meeting had gone to Kampala. Kat, who is based at St Andrew’s University, is completing her PHD studies on the gestural behaviour of chimps and explained how she has to gather lots of video footage and then analyse it all. The forest has been given a grid system with numbers and letters a hundred metres apart marked on trees so they don’t get lost. They all wear gum boots to help avoid snake bites although I was reassured to hear that there is some anti-venom available at the Kinyara Sugar works clinic.

Kat explained that there had been a very large saw mill in the forest which had cut most of the mahogany found in Europe at one time, including the interior of the Royal Albert Hall!

Unfortunately a lot of the mahogany and hard woods have been destroyed and chopping down trees in the forest is now illegal. Part of the forest is in the research area and they operate a policy of quarantine in order to protect the population of 75 chimps from coughs and diseases that humans carry. The nearby Nyebeya Forestry College has planted pine as an alternative to use in building and furniture making.

The field station has an interesting collection of specimens including a couple of chimp skeletons. It is alarming to see how closely they resemble humans!

Budongo Primary School was located in the forest to serve the children of workers at the saw mill but since it has closed most of the children were having to walk into the forest every day.  The children regularly had to pass groups of fearless baboons who would steal their lunch. After seeing the sharp canine teeth on a baboon skull in the field station museum I could understand their fear!

The school has now been relocated outside the forest, which is much better for them and means the researchers have some peace to observe the chimps.

We thoroughly enjoyed our walk up the ‘Royal Mile’, which has world renown as a bird watchers paradise. We saw lots of amazingly colourful butterflies and enjoyed the coolness and smell of a rain forest. It was a real privilege.

We stopped by the Polish Church on the way back to school, which had been built between 1943 and 1945 by Polish prisoners of war during WWII. It was so sad to see the rows of graves marked with the same year. It turns out that many were killed by a fever, probably malaria in 1947.

We were returned safely to the school on the back of the motorbikes (I’m relieved to say!) and given another delicious lunch of potatoes and g nut sauce (ground nuts or peanuts).

We had our regular meeting together at 6pm when Mr Jim did the relevant announcements and then enjoyed a delicious vegetable curry in the hotel.