We are delighted to report that Liss Junior’s entry has been selected to go through to the national final of the Guardian Teacher Network and Zurich Municipal The School We’d Like competition.
To read more please visit: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/zurich-school-competition-national-finalists-2014
In Class AS this week we have been beginning to look at conservation, in particular how we could conserve the resources we have at the school. The children toured the school and wrote down all the things they feel could be improved prior to writing a report next week.
We also had a look at the contents of our Ugandan boxes. Mr Stanley, Mrs Buckle (Clanfield) and Mrs Johnson (Hartplain) used some of the money raised by the children to buy artefacts from Uganda. The children particularly liked the Kafuro school uniform and Tom and Sophie modelled them for the class. George particularly liked an exam paper written in the local language and he is going to ask Yowasi to teach him this so he can attempt the exam.
Well we’re home! It was a fairly smooth return home. We had a nice final meal at a hotel in Entebbe on Saturday night and were up early on Sunday ready for a 9.10am flight. This was delayed, but only by an hour.
The flight was a good one with a real bonus in the fact that we came into Heathrow right over central London with the Olympic Stadium just to our right. I got home just after 7.00pm and since then I’ve mixed sleep with catching up with the Olympics. I’m absolutely knackered and now that two weeks adrenalin has left my body I’m dropping off to sleep at any opportunity.
The past two weeks have been fantastic and I feel proud to have been part of a trailblazing team. I strongly feel that this is just the beginning and that Yowasi’s visit in September will only strengthen the bonds further. I have learnt a lot about myself and discovered strengths I didn’t know I had. I’ve also learned that I cannot compete with a toy leopard for popularity.
Many thanks to Tara, Rebecca and Stu my three companions on this trip and to all the many people in Uganda who helped us throughout the fortnight.
Lastly, a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who has read this blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
I spoke too soon! Today started well. We had a good night’s sleep and my first hot shower in a fortnight was much appreciated. I took a quick look in a mirror (another thing missing from Hippo House) and in the split second before it shattered I realised that with my beard I know look like a South American revolutionary fighter.
We had a good breakfast and then loaded up the Sunshine Wagon ready for the ride into Kampala where we would be meeting with the Ugandan Rugby Union. To mark this special day I was wearing my England rugby shirt (Steve Peach had managed to convince Stu that wearing a Scottish shirt was a massive faux pas in Uganda because of Idi Amin – the last King of Scotland. Stu was very unhappy when he found out he had been wound up). Yet within an hour I’d somehow managed to get oil on it (Tara managed to get most of it off with wet wipes). We had been travelling for about an hour when I noticed that the van was losing power when climbing hills. I mentioned this to Charles who pulled the Sunshine Wagon over to find fuel leaking out of the van, one of the fuel injectors was bust! This problem would take two hours to fix (Ugandans are incredibly resourceful) and while they were doing this I spoke to Tara and Rebecca about the highlights of the trip before taking a wander with Stu and pumping jerrycans full of water for children at a local well. Stu also managed to exchange a notebook for a tartan cap so he could feel suitably Scottish for our meeting later.
Eventually we started the Sunshine Wagon for the last time and Charles made good time in negotiating the last fifteen miles to Kampala. We had to drive through the main city centre and it was bonkers. People are like ants, they are everywhere and the noise and buzz was incredible. We made it to the a Rugby Club where we met Ramsay and Alex from the URU and had a really good meeting with them. I’ve committed myself to yet more work in order to strengthen their profile and support rugby in the country, but it will be a labour of love. It was great to report back to them about the untapped talent in their country and the children playing behind us were amazing even in their bare feet.
We posed for photos and picked up a shirt for Steve Peach before meeting David (our fixer) who was going to take us on our final journey to Entebbe. We said a sad farewell to Charles who has been a magnificent companion to us all and posed for photos in front of the Sunshine Wagon. Then we got into the plush air conditioned car that Peter and Johan Welsh had used in Uganda and headed for Entebbe Zoo.
As I type this I am sitting in a small apartment before going out to dinner. Tomorrow we will fly out at 9.00am before arriving back at Heathrow at 4.00pm. I’m looking forward to seeing my wife again and I hope the improvement in the weather has continued. For now, goodbye!
Before I start talking about today, a quick note about last night. Stu and I had been granted permission to go out on boat patrol with the rangers in order to try and catch some poachers. Both of us were very excited about this prospect. However, this did not happen as at about 10.30pm we were visited by about 20 rangers (including Kulu, who was in charge while Nelson was away on business in Kampala) who bought beer, soda and a mountain of food including my much beloved goat. This was a lovely way to say ‘Goodbye’ and it was much appreciated by all of us.
Today was one of those days which moved between the sublime and the ridiculous although sublime accounted for less than 20% of the day. We were all up at 5.30am as Stu’s alarm can replicate an American fire klaxon right down to the ear shattering volume. For the last time at Hippo House I went through my morning ritual of a bottle shower, the problems of a toilet that doesn’t flush properly, my daily dose of malarone, spraying DEET all over myself and generally getting myself ready. We had to leave at 6.30am for our game drive and for this we were picked up by Tadeo and our guide for the drive, Bernard. The drive was very interesting as Bernard has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the wildlife of the park. We watched groups of Ugandan Kob move around and monitored their behaviour before we stopped suddenly as Rebecca had seen a leopard. We all turned round and got a glimpse of it, but for not long enough to take a photo. The Kob were suddenly all on alert and we waited for twenty minutes to see if the leopard would emerge from its hiding place to chase them, but no luck. We were joined in our wait by a busload full of Essex girl guides (bizarre I know) before giving up on seeing anything else happen.
While all the other groups (girl guides included) finished their drives, we stayed behind as Tadeo had a special treat for us. He said that he had to patrol off the game drive track in case there were any poachers about and after about fifteen minutes of driving we managed to find a lion, a lioness and three cubs all in close proximity to each other. We managed to get close enough to get some good photos.
We returned to Hippo House to pick up our luggage and load up the Sunshine Wagon before leaving the park. We popped into the UWA headquarters to say ‘goodbye’ which turned into a ninety minute meeting. However, I did manage to get a copy of the park’s boardgame for the school and a few curriculum ideas.
Our next destination was Kasese to pick up some money the Twinning Project had sent us as we had had to spend so much money on fuel and repairing the sunshine wagon. Finding a bank that would accept a moneygram took nearly an hour and then another half an hour to complete the transaction. And so it was that we finally left Kasese at 4.30pm for the six hour journey to Entebbe.
At first everything seemed to be going well. The northern road to Kampala and Entebbe is in better condition than the southern road and the mountain views are spectacular. However, fate was soon to intervene as we passed through a town called Kibote and the Sunshine Wagon groaned and water suddenly poured out of the radiator. Stu and I collapsed laughing, the Sunshine Wagon has been nothing but consistent throughout our trip. Fortunately, it was only a snapped clip which had released the a tube form the radiator, but it took an hour to diagnose and fix. Again we made decent progress and reached Fort Portal (290km from Kampala) by about 7.00pm. Our next incident soon followed with the back door of the Sunshine Wagon coming open as we turned a corner and sending our luggage all over the road. This time everyone laughed apart from Charles the driver.
After putting all the luggage on the back seat next to Stu we continued our journey towards Kampala. It became obvious that we weren’t going to make it to Kampala as we were all shattered, so we made a decision to drive until 11.00pm with Charles and Stu sharing the duties.
We have stopped at a hotel in a small town called Minweya, about two hours from Kampala. Stu and I have been watching the women’s 10’000m from the Olympics before hitting the sack. Tomorrow our epic journey continues. What could possibly go wrong?
Our first full day of leisure and I was up early at 5.55am as we were being picked up by Tadeo at 7.00am to drive to Kyambura Gorge. The gorge is located in the midst of miles of savannah, so unless you knew what you were looking for it would be easy to miss. The gorge is famous for its chimps and monkeys who inhabit the lush rainforest, but we only saw one chimp in the entire morning and he was nearly camouflaged by leaves. Our guides were Moses, Jane and Ben, who are the rangers who will be visiting the UK in September. For the first time this trip I saw one of them use their AK47 in order to drive off an elephant who got too close. We also saw some huge nests up in the trees which belonged to black ants. When we returned from the gorge we met a Czech couple who had been in the mountains for several days. They were delighted that I had taught someone from Ostrava (Katie Ball) as it was their home town.
Tadeo was on his usual good form and nicknamed me Njojo ‘The elephant’ much to Stu’s amusement. I have to say that his reasoning behind this nickname was as subtle as a sledgehammer, and I will upload film of it when we get back to the UK. Stu was nicknamed Mbogo ‘The buffalo’, but Tadeo’s reasoning was far nicer. To make up for this slight, the rangers took us all out for lunch at a local restaurant and I had chicken with rice. Tadeo recommended I try out a local pepper on my rice. I regretted this immediately as it nearly took my mouth off to his obvious delight.
Our afternoon was spent at Maramagambo Forest, which on first appearance looked very much like a British wood. Our guide was Godfrey who showed us a leaf that although it looked smooth, was actually rougher than sandpaper. Ugandans use it for sharpening knives and cleaning saucepans. We also saw leaves for soothing babies’ rashes and for helping with ulcers. When we reached the bat cave the stink of ammonia was terrible. We sat behind a glass screen to watch the bats. They didn’t half make a noise! Godfrey told us that the big black ants’ nests took nearly twenty years to make this size. Tadeo showed me the tiny chilli plant that had made my pepper earlier. No wonder it was hot!
We returned to Hippo House to begin packing for the trip back to Entebbe tomorrow after our final activity, a game drive.We have a farewell reception for some of the rangers tonight and there is a small chance Stu and I could be involved in a very special activity. If this comes off I will let you all know about it!
Today was our last day in schools and it was our chance to visit Katunguru Primary School. We arrived promptly at 9.00am and were taken on a tour of the school. Katunguru has the most issues of the three schools that the Twinning Project is involved in mainly due to the lack of security in and around the school. This results in the school having theft and vandalism, and Tara is doing a great job in trying to rally the school community.
After a tour of the school Rebecca and I went down to the women’s craft cooperative (which has been supported by the Twinning Project). Our visit there was twofold. Firstly, to buy some typical Ugandan items for a shared box between the schools. This will help greatly when delivering Uganda in the curriculum. Secondly to buy some gifts for our nearest and dearest. I saw a lovely wall hanging with a beautiful poem about the value of husbands and suggested that Rebecca buy it for hers. I am unfortunately unable to print her reply as this is a family blog! Needless to say, Stu (who had joined us by this time) and I were shocked by Rebecca’s poor attitude and rebuked her severely knowing how upset Iain (Rebecca’s husband) would be by this callous behaviour.
When we returned to the school we were treated to a super show by the school choir. Once again dancing was involved. Once again I was dragged out to dance. Once again the general public will never see it. There then began several speeches. Ugandans take their speeches very seriously and there are lots of introductions, welcomes and ‘thank yous’, so consequently they tend to take a long time. Before dinner Rebecca and I went out to play football and netball with the children while Tara and Stu were in a meeting. I stood out on the right wing a whipped in crosses like Steve Coppell in his prime (for those of you who are of tender years, look him up, he was a much better player than Beckham!) .
Lunch was fantastic. It was Ugandan style fish and chips. The fish was caught on the nearby lake as Katunguru is a fishing village. Tilapia was the fish we had, which had been coated in flour and barbecued. It tasted absolutely fantastic! We had Irish spuds, chips and plenty of salad to go with it.
Before we left we were all presented with small presents for our families and so ended our last school visit of this trip. There is still much work to be done, but we feel that it has been a tremendously successful visit.
The day was far from over and our next visit was for the river cruise. Again this was brilliant! We got really close to elephants and hippos, buffalo, a range of birds and three increasingly big crocodiles. Unfortunately, Rebecca sullied the afternoon for everyone when she thought she had spotted an elephant with a fifth leg. What the elephant did next provided clear evidence that this was no leg. I would like to be able to report what Rebecca said next, but unfortunately she used language that is not included in either the science or PSHE curriculum. Rebecca’s outburst drew the attention of everyone on the boat and I’m afraid did the reputation of the Twinning Project no good at all. Iain, please have a word!
On our return to Hippo House we had a meeting with some of the UWA staff about the Twinning Project in general. This went on for a long time and at its conclusion we were about to go to bed. However, we heard a loud noise so Stu and I went out to explore. In the darkness we saw two buffalo behind the house and a hippo grazing on our front lawn. We tracked the hippo from a safe distance and then noticed something in the bushes about thirty yards away. We couldn’t be sure what it was, but when there was a sudden and loud rustling of leaves from inside the bush we didn’t wait to find out. At the pace we ran into the house (to be told off by Rebecca) I think we would have stood a good chance of making the Olympic 100m final.
Tomorrow we are going on a chimpanzee trail and a nature walk to see some fruit bats, our first full day of leisure!
I woke up at my usual time of 6.30am and made straight for the bathroom where I had my morning shower. For those of you in the UK reading this, it involves standing in the bath filling up a 1.5 litre bottle of water (there is only cold water in the house) and pouring it over my head several times. After the heat and dust of yesterday a lot of dirt came out. More dirt was to follow as I washed my clothes from yesterday. Again, in Uganda there are few washing machines so travelwash and hand power is required. Cleaning my clothes would take no time today as it was shaping up to be a scorcher.
Tadeo picked us up at 9.00am and Stu gave him his old combat jacket. To say Tadeo was delighted would be an understatement. We drove up to Kafuro stopping to take photos of the trenches that they have built to keep wild animals out of the local villages. When we arrived at Kafuro we were greeted by the sight of the children playing Kingsquare, a form of netball (no poles and nets!) and passing rugby balls around. Yowasi came to meet us and we were able to show him and Boaz, the headteacher, the internet up and running. Yowasi was thrilled to read the comment Mrs Green had made and he has promised to blog weekly during term time (this is a condition of the children’s money being spent!). He now has 7 months internet paid for by the funds raised by Liss children.
Today Boaz was joined by William, the Chairman of the Management Board (Chair of Governors) and Apollo, the Chairman of the PTA (I propose that Sarah Redfern now changes her name to Athena). This was a good opportunity to ask them about the challenges faced by the school. They are as follows:
*The school is funded by the Government and they only fund six teachers. Therefore the school has to rely on the local community to fund four additional teachers. Many people in the local community see little point in school, so raising funds is extremely difficult. The Community Ranger, Janet and Apollo play a big part in persuading parents to send their children to school as opposed to working in the fields or looking after younger siblings.
*The school would like to buy an extra acre of land so that they could raise crops, which they could sell to raise funds. In the longer term this would allow them to develop a field with adequate space for sport.
*A nightwatchman is currently employed by the school, but the parents are reluctant to pay for him outside of term time. Therefore the school site is ripe for theft during the holidays.
*Although there is one tank for collecting water, another purchased tank would enable double the amount to be collected and reduce the necessity of the walk to the nearby crater lake to collect dirty water. Although there is a water pipe being laid through Kafuro, the community will have to pay for accessing this water.
*The school have applied to the government so they can build a staff block. This would enable someone to be on site at all times and would negate the need for a nightwatchman.
*Sanitation is poor! There are three toilets (holes in the ground) for 323 children and many of the holes are filling up without means of removing the waste.
*Although the stationary we have provided has made a big difference, Kafuro PS is always in need of more pencils and books.
Yowasi took the four of us on a tour of the school along with the representatives from Kafuro. Next we had an assembly where the school choir performed the Ugandan National anthem and Rebecca, Tara and I had to reply with ‘God save the Queen’. Stu decided as he is Scottish he would rather sing ‘Flower of Scotland’ and he performed it to much applause and amusement. Following this was a set of long speeches by Yowasi, Boaz, Apollo and William. I had to hand over officially all the gifts from Liss and the Twinning Project and to make a speech thanking the school for all the hospitality and generosity. I passed on the best wishes of the staff, the governors, the parents and the children of Liss junior School and received many gifts of fruit and grain from the children. It was a humbling moment.
Our next job was to plant four trees to create more shade on the school site. Each of us dug a hole in the rich soil and planted our individual trees. Hopefully by the time the next visit takes place there should be some growth. Before we left we had a lovely meal of goat and rice with watermelon to follow. We left the school with much sadness, but know that we will be seeing Yowasi in just over a month’s time.
On the way home we saw several herds of elephants in the space of about 40 minutes. Tonight, we have a meeting with Abraham, one of the rangers and then hopefully we’re going to find a local bar and shoot some pool.
Tomorrow is our final school visit to Katunguru, then the river cruise and meetings later in the day.
Today was mega early start as we had to leave for Bukorwe, which was two and a half hours to the south. We were due to get up at 5.30am, but Rebecca woke me at four as she had heard lions roaring and wanted to share this with me. Later she told me it might’ve been me snoring! Cheek!
The drive down to Bukorwe was long, boring and tiring as the road is not in good condition so it was therefore very bumpy. Charles did his usual excellent job of driving us. We like to take the mickey out of Charles because whenever we see a creature we ask him what it is. His deadpan reply is always, “It’s an animal!” This sets us all off laughing. We dropped Stu off at Ishasha Wilderness Camp as he was going to be working with the rangers there and headed off to Bukorwe Primary. The countryside down there appears to be a little greener with different vegetation
I had two jobs at the school during the day. The first was to sort out Vincent’s (Rebecca’s twinned teacher) mobile internet. At first it didn’t seem to be working, but after driving to Kihihi with Charles and Vincent to see an expert, it worked in front of him and was then fine back at the school. I took the opportunity to look around town and it was typically Ugandan; hot, dusty and with lots of friendly people.
Back at the school, my next task was to run some Tag Rugby with the older children. This was a great success with huge crowds gathering around the pitch I had marked out. I got Yowasi to translate for me when necessary and we both joined in with the games. The unfortunate thing was that the sun had come out and it was steaming hot. Also the children were really fit, so I was absolutely exhausted after 90 minutes.
The rest of the afternoon involved an assembly where there were presentations from Clanfield to Bukorwe. This was followed by a performance from the school choir, a rapper and various classes. The highlight (or lowlight in my case) was a song where various members of the audience were dragged out to dance with a member of the choir. I was, of course, one of the unfortunate few. There is film of this event, but I can assure you it will never enter the public domain.
We had lunch before final leaving speeches. We had goat, rice and potatoes with passion fruit, water melon and jug fruit. It was the first time I’d eaten jug fruit and it was extremely sweet, I’m learning that my sweet tooth is not so sweet after all. The final speeches were touching and we left at 5.00pm for the long drive home. There is no sunset as such in Uganda. It just suddenly gets dark and tonight was really dark. Likewise, there are no street lights, so it was a difficult drive home. It was even more difficult for me after a moment of buffoonery that will haunt me for years to come. I thought I’d seen a leopard and yelled at the rest of the group. Charles reversed the Sunshine Wagon only for me to find that the so called leopard was a tree stump. Cue howls of derision and abuse. Larry was particularly angry and called me, ‘a big doughnut!”
We got home shortly before nine and my last job of the day was to fit the new mobile internet to Yowasi’s computer. Completely unexpectedly, this was a breeze and worked perfectly. I’m looking forward to trying this at Kafuro tomorrow, which will be my final day visiting the school, this time with the others.
And on that note, goodnight!
It was another early start today as Rebecca and I were going on a guided walk along with the Ugandan teachers. We were met by Julius, one of the rangers, who took us out on a cloudy, but humid morning. People who know me will be aware that I’m not a huge nature lover, but I have to say that some of the sights were amazing. Just to rub it in for my ornithological minded brothers, a tiny selection of the birds we saw included red bishops, Egyptian geese, hammer kopfs, pied kingfishers, sandpipers and herons. We also saw Forest Hogs, warthogs (fast becoming my favourite creatures)Water Bucks, Hippos bathing in the distance and the elusive footprint of a lion.
One of the less pleasant things we saw was a trap set by poachers which had probably been set by someone from the UPDF (Ugandan Peoples Defence Force)who were staying in the park. As wages are very low in Uganda people are prepared to take the risk of a heavy fine or prison sentence by poaching wild animals and selling them for a lot of money.
After the walk the six teachers convened for the first Joint Twinning Project Teachers’ Meeting. The business concerned visas for the Ugandans, a rough schedule for their visit to the UK and formalising the twinning agreement between the schools. Immediately after this Stu and I had a meeting with Kulu, one of the chief people in the UWA set up where we discussed the successes of the visit and areas we wanted to develop in the future. Kulu also recommended that we take the river boat cruise to see the wildlife again on Wednesday. I was delighted by this as I had missed out first time around last week.
We were out of supplies so Stu, Charles the driver and I headed up to Kasese again. I knew the Orange shop would be closed, but rang Robinson, the store owner, on the off chance that he might open up for me and sell me the dongles. He was only too happy to oblige and gave me brilliant service, if only this was replicated everywhere in the UK. Stu and I bartered in the market for bananas and stumbled upon another local election rally. There was music blaring out everywhere, horns beeping and people dancing in the streets. As I’ve said before the Ugandans love their politics.
After getting quotes for solar panels to power the laptops we had given the Ugandans (there is no electricity in the schools), Stu and I were heading back to the sunshine wagon and munching goat kebabs from a street vendor when a woman called out at me from a small shop. I waved back as the Ugandans are very friendly, only to stop in my tracks. It was the MTN vendor from yesterday who had her own small business. Stu and I had some banter with Barbara (for that was her name) before she gave me her number and told me to call her (I DON’T INTEND TO!). This caused much amusement for Stu and Charles (who had just turned up and tried to muscle in on my territory). We left Kasese with lightning forking in the sky and headed home. There we had another meeting with Kulu before sitting down to update what you are now reading.
Tomorrow we have what should be the toughest day so far as we all have a five hour round trip to Bukorwe to visit Rebecca’s school. It promises to be a good day.
Goodnight and thanks for reading!
Liss: Year 6 
