New Court View Hotel Masindi

... better than still having a risk of paying 180 US collectively.

Friday after the workshop Kevin picked us up at our hotel, where we were met by Chris and April, the two that would be running the workshop the second week. Eight of us piled into his 5 seat land rover and flew down the dusty dirt roads. Kevin is initially from New Zealand, and fell into this manager position about 4 months ago, when he came to Uganda to volunteer with JGI in Entebbe. They needed ...

... uncomfortable doing in front of a Mzungu. Certainly the verbal means of classroom management pulled on my emotions. A student's incorrect response is met with a harsh "Shame on YOU!" from the teacher, followed by a belly laugh, and repeating the incorrect response. Shame is on you, if that it’s the environment you set up in your classroom. Encouraging risk taking is connected to creative thinking… A few times, I heard ...

... which is a description that is very similar to my experiences of rural Uganda. "Driving past the adobe huts in sparsely populated rural areas, I was struck by the extreme economic isolation of these rural households, even those relatively close to the paved road on which we drove."

In Uganda, most of the rural roads are dirt. Through Masindi, the main highway is the only road that is 'paved' and all others we traveled down were made of packed red soil ...

... the Jane Goodall Institute. Most of us are familiar with Jane Goodall the scientist, the researcher who became famous in the 1960's for her chimpanzee studies at Gombe National Park in Tanzania, specifically her observation of chimpanzee tool use. Since being involved with JGI, and over the past two weeks in Uganda, I have learned so much about the organization and feel prepared to now answer that question. Yes, the Jane Goodall Institute has a focus on preserving the ...

... in Budongo forest, an ecotourism site. It is about 40 minutes past Masindi. It was a quick drive to Kampala and a slow drive through it. I didn't mind, I had a lot to think about. I pressed my face essentially up against the window, put on my ipod and absorbed the images of rural and city Uganda. About 2.5 hours into our drive, we slowed to a crawl. I looked ahead and saw what I thought appeared to be a road block. But I couldn't figure out why the cars were swerving the ...

... moving towards Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary nearby. First, a little history: During the 1970's, when Idi Amin was the ruler of Uganda, his army, with a little help of Libyan divisions, invaded Tanzania at Kagera region. Amin, who believed this area was historically belong to Uganda, decalred war and sent troops to conquer the area. However, the Tanzanian army, which was stronger that the Ugandan/Libyan forces together with the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA ...

... set out in a grid so that researchers know where they are at all times. This made the walking a fair bit easier than at Kibale. Our guide was Sauda - a local woman that had been working in this forest reserve for 14 years. She was clearly very passionate about the chimps she has been living with for so long and she knows them all extremely well. She was ...

... you can get a good look at the wildlife. One of Rina's must-see animals was the Nile croc and I have seen a few in the wild in Australia and know they can be difficult to get close to sometimes - not here! Within about 10mins we were about 100ft away from one basking on the shore with its mouth wide open. This was not a huge one but it was easily 4m/12ft long so it was big enough to rattle us all when it slithered into the ...

... corners at night. He noticed my obvious nerves and literally 5 seconds after he explained that I shouldn't be so nervous and that it was OK he blew one of his tires and we skidded off the road. Luckily it was all ok and no harm was done but we obviously had to stop and change tires which meant we were running late. I got to the airport and saw some of flight crew coming off so I knew I was a bit late - but still there was ...

... heading for some dramatic scenery and a bit of wildlife voyeurism - us, Beth (an American heading home from working in Rwanda), Annette (a Ugandan who'd decided to see some of her country - future developments suggest our driver might have been an ulterior motive) and Megan, Ben, Issy and the noisiest one (straight out of boarding school and visiting Megan's home). We were grateful to leave Kampala behind us. The rain had been [and would be] unrelenting while we were in the ...