Being a tourist

Some people think my time in Uganda is just one endless safari.  This is not so!  But that notwithstanding we – Steve, my sister Lyn, cousin Ian and I – have just had a rather good tour travelling north, east and south-west to see more of Uganda than most Ugandans have seen.

Where we went

This little map shows our peregrinations over 2 weeks starting with my schools, then Mabamba swamp, Karamoja region and Kidepo Valley NP, Sipi Falls, Lake Mburo NP and finishing at Kipling Lodge near Jinja.

We don’t have space at our little house for both Lyn and Ian – only one spare bed – so they stayed at Danma Gardens, a local guesthouse and restaurant that we frequent.  It is not The Hilton but it is an African experience.

The trip to Mabamba Swamp is not a long one and I always enjoy a couple of hours in the narrow wooden fishing boat tooling around in the papyrus looking for Shoebill and Papyrus Gonolek – both of which we found with the help of Vincent, a local bird guide.  Many of the usual birds were absent (off somewhere breeding Steve said) but it was a pleasant morning.

Shoebill

The trip to Kidepo Valley NP, in a hired car with driver, took us over the Nile at Karuma  Falls and through Gulu and (overnight at) Kitgum to the South Sudan border.  All through the Karamoja region there are refugees from the fighting and hunger in South Sudan.  They are building temporary dwellings and planting crops.  They get some support from UNHCR but are just getting on with life.  We saw many children with nothing but a Maasai blanket for clothes.  Oxen are used for ploughing and it was in full swing with the good rain.  This has to be the poorest region we have seen.  It is a “Do not travel” area, as far as DFAT are concerned, but with so many army personnel plus the UN up there it is really quite safe.  Acts of terrorism and banditry are rare and we did not feel threatened or unwelcome.

Karuma Falls

Emergency housing

We plough the fields and scatter

Kidepo Valley NP was splendid.  We saw lions and giraffes but no leopards or elephants even though we were told they were there.  Lots of good birds of course!  The Abyssinian Ground Hornbills were as common as chooks.  We did a walking safari with armed guard Simon.  There was one slightly tense moment until he said (in actually quite a relieved voice) “it’s a lion coloured rock”.

Walking safari with Simon from UWA

Abyssinian Ground Hornbill

Rock Hyrax or Dassie

 Black Crake

Close up!

Kanataruk Hot Springs

The trip to the far north of the park took us to the South Sudan border where there was an army encampment as well as interesting hot springs.  We saw ostriches and one Secretary bird.  Ian managed to photograph it even though he didn’t actually ‘see’ it (in the background behind the ostrich) so has the moral dilemma over whether to claim the sighting!  Nga Moru Lodge was a very nice place to stay.  The down side is that when you hire a driver in east Africa you get an East African driver and that is not always an experience you want!

Landscape near Abim

We came back through central Uganda and a rock-strewn landscape then to Lira where we had a wait while the van was mended.  That meant we arrived in the dark and could hear the falls but didn’t see them until we opened our curtains the next morning.  Lyn, Ian and I did the walking tour up to the falls and Ian was pleased to see several chameleons as we walked through the coffee plantations.

Sipi Falls Number 2

We picked up a self-drive hire car (a Land Cruiser) for the second week.  Our RAV is small and has been a bit unreliable.  We had three nights at Rwakobo Rock and two days in Lake Mburo NP.  It was a bit spoiled by the rain and we had a couple of bogging incidents necessitating use of four-wheel drive.  We saw the small family of giraffes that have been moved to Lake Mburo from Murchison Falls NP to control the acacia but again dipped on leopards!  Lake Mburo NP has very many antelope of all sizes and colours, which generally cooperate for photos.  The boat trip was fun too with good views of crocodiles, hippos and the rare African Finfoot.  I insisted on the tourist pic at the Equator.

Water Buck

Rothschild's Giraffe

Rednecked Spurfowl family

A stripe of zebra

Malachite Kingfisher

I'm looking at you

I insisted!

Our last two nights with Lyn and Ian were at my favourite lodge, the Kipling, on the Nile near Jinja.  We did the boat trip to the falls – motor-boat this time as the current is so strong with the rain.  We ate delicious, beautifully presented food and drank excellent wine.

On the Nile

We relaxed and swam in the pool and I prepared myself mentally for the next two weeks, which will be full on, jam packed, professional development time for my teachers!

Thanks Lyn and Ian for coming to see us – we don’t get many visitors!

A new term

Steve has been telling me off – I haven’t written a blog post for several months and he is demanding not one but two this weekend so here goes!

We have been back from Australia just short of four weeks and half that time I’ve been touring Uganda with Steve, sister Lyn and cousin Ian (subject of the weekend’s second blog).  I have not been ‘on holidays’ exactly as I have been preparing the next instalment of teacher professional development and analysing and reporting on data collected in the last week of term I.

I was able to bring back some resources for the schools from Australia.  Baimbridge College was getting rid of some primary school stuff so I put some in my suitcase and some in some tubs that will come to Uganda in a container later in the year.  I also snaffled some scientific glassware that was surplus to requirements at Baimbridge.  It has been wrapped carefully in old socks and packed in plastic tubs for the container.  I also grabbed about 40 Jump Rope for Heart skipping ropes.  Hamilton UC has given me about 250 pairs of children’s undies – some came back in my suitcase, some are in the container.  It will be wonderful to unpack all the goodies when the container arrives!  A few skipping ropes did find their way into my suitcase.

The three lots of survey data I’ve been working on in Australia and here over the past 6 weeks are to gauge teacher, parent and student perceptions of what happens at our schools.  They look at teaching and the academic curriculum, ‘extras’ like art, music and sport, treatment of children and discipline, and facilities and physical environment.  The data has been a nightmare to analyse but very instructive in ways not envisaged.

My surveys for students and parents were of the sort each of us (Australian adults!) have done a million times.  You know the kind of thing - “Rate each statement on a 1 – 5 scale where 1 is Strongly Disagree and 5 is Strongly Agree”.  I have filled in heaps but never written one and it was a learning experience!  I tried to make the statements simple and unambiguous.  I tried to have a balance between positive and negative statements (so all the ticks didn’t look as if they should be be down one side) and I made the surveys short – 15 statements for parents and 20 for students plus the opportunity to give a general rating and suggestions for improvement to the schools on a single A5 sheet.

Lyn and I did the sorting and compiling of ‘completed’ survey forms.  One thing was clear immediately – most of those surveyed had never filled in a survey form like this before!  Some had interpreted the “Rate each statement …” instruction as only tick 1 or 5 – either that or all their opinions were strongly felt!  Statements starting “Teachers do not …” seemed to be confusing as these had the most responses at the two extremes.  There were no ‘bell curves’ style distributions for many statements!

The students did well on ticking only one box for each statement though we wondered how much subtle influence the teachers brought to bear; parents often ticked several boxes for each statement or none at all.  If my statements were ambiguous some responses were even more so.

There were a few things we could all agree on.  The teachers are hardworking, competent and caring.  The children are well looked after – food, clinic and nurse rated highly! – and happy to come to school.

On other things there was little consensus.  Our schools have a strict policy against physical punishment, indeed in Uganda physical punishment of children in school is a criminal offence, but community sentiment is that discipline is only effective if it involves beating.  Parents were strongly divided on the statement “I am happy children are not beaten.”  Parents were strongly of the view that students need to do more art music and sport; students, on the other hand, thought they had sufficient.  Perhaps, in comparison with friends in local government schools, they do very well in this area of the curriculum.  Students also felt happy with their library time – again, very lucky to have one!

The teacher perceptions survey was much more detailed – more than 50 questions about the schools, facilities, students’ attitudes and abilities, their own and colleagues’ attitudes and competencies and much more.  There was far more consensus among the teachers than there had been among parents.  We are fortunate to have such a positive, cohesive and optimistic teaching staff.  I think statements starting “Teachers do not …” and “The school does not …” confused even many teachers so I will need to rewrite some questions before archiving all these surveys for future use.

Completing surveys accurately is probably a skill we need to teach our students if we hope to get accurate information from them that will be useful in grant applications and in future planning.  It may be a future PD for staff so they can instruct the students (and parents!).

I have also been busily planning teacher workshops.  As in the December / January holidays, the last two weeks of the students’ off time will see most teachers back at school writing schemes of work and lesson notes, and doing professional development workshops each day from morning break until lunch, and even after lunch in the case of rehearsals for the June Grand Opening.  (Again, the students don’t get off scot-free as they have their “Holiday Packages” to keep them busy.)

Some of what we do will be teacher initiated.  We need to do more work on behaviour management – teachers say they ‘often’ have to speak to students about disruptive behaviour and failure to do homework.  Some will be areas the Australian Board feels strongly about.  The Head Teacher and the Director of Schools will also lead workshops in areas they feel need strengthening.  I suggested some ‘elective’ sessions in special interest areas but have been told the Ugandan way is for everyone to do everything!  We’ll see how that goes.

On to the second blog now!  Jenny