Day 1: The Adventure Begins
Miss Griffiths and Mr Prewett were excited to set off on their adventure to Uganda, on Satruday 22nd June. As a school, we were lucky to receive funding for the trip, to make a link with Mulatsi Primary School in Mbale. Throughout our visit, we will be working to share daily 'blogs' with all of our families and children, so everyone can share in the excitement.
Whilst in Uganda, one of our key aims is to learn from each other as schools and work to understand their education system, as well as sharing ways we teach, here in Wales. It will be exciting to have this partnership with our schools and to add to our understanding of how people live across the world.
We set off from St Julian's Primary school in the minibus at 2pm, although the adventure almost never began when we realised what a tight squeeze it would be with not only 15 teachers but also their 30 suit cases, which were ready to be taken out to Uganda. Luckily, one of the other teachers volunteered to drive to Heathrow, so we managed to pack in to the minibus and extra car and make our way to the airport. Luckily Mr Mansfied (Headteacher of St Julian's Primary), who is organising much of our visit, got us to the airport nice and early (5 hours before our flight!).
When we (finally) boarded our Rwandair flight, we settled in quickly, after a long journey. One passenger mistook Mr Prewett for an air steward and made him carry their case all the way down the plane to their seat. Mr Prewett just kept quiet and helped out! He was just glad he wasn't in Mr Mansfield's seat, as the man in front was enjoying putting his seat back a rather long way!
Our flight was overnight and by the time we woke up, we were flying over Africa with a glorious sunrise just creeping over the horizon.
When we did land in Entebbe, Uganda, we were greeted by two old friends of Mr Prewett's; Sam and Joseph. Sam is a Headteacher Mr Prewett met on his first visit to Uganda in 2015 and he met Joseph at the same time, as he helped with lots of the trip organisation. Sam and Joseph are a very important part of the trip and I am sure you will hear lots about them as the week goes on.
The journey turned out to be a long one! We left the airport at around 12 o'clock and didn't arrive at the hotel until 10pm. Much of the reason for this was that the traffic was very busy and the roads were (very!) bumpy at times. We also had a stop for Wifi and to change some money into Ugandan Shillings which, as many things do in Uganda, too a VERY long time! We did however spot a KFC on the way which excited some of the team and I know Year 4 will be excited to hear this as they were asking me if there were any fast food restaurants in Uganda!
Keeping us busy on the way was however the fascinating scenes around us. We saw goats, chickens, cows and all sorts of interesting objects being transported on Boda Boda (which are like motorbikes).
We did however drive on by and halfway along the journey, we stopped for food at a place called Jinja. Jinja is at the 'source of the Nile', which is where the nile river starts and makes its way all the way to Egypt. We got a boat ride whilst we were there and our guide told us that the water we were on would take 3 months to flow to Egypt from Uganda. We also found the spot the Nile river starts and we were able to stop on a floating shop to take some photos.
After Jinja, we had another 3 hours to get to the hotel, which soon turned into 4 hours, as everything seems to here in Uganda! We were very grateful to arrive at the hotel and get some sleep before a busy day tomorrow visiting Mulatsi Primary for the first time!