Wrapping up our month in Uganda

It's been difficult to update for the last couple of weeks as we've had a lot of work to do.

We've been helping with a lot of community projects. One of these is the 'One Laptop Per Child' scheme. We've been working with Kasiisi school, which has had the privelege of being part of this scheme; Kasiisi has been given hundreds of laptops for use by the children. We've been working with Kasiisi to put software onto these laptops, such as simple games with the theme of conservation. From talking to the kids, I noted that the laptops have had a huge impact on their knowledge and learning style. We feel it's a good investment of our time to work with schools as children are keen to learn about conservation and can hopefully make a difference in the years to come.

The kids are so technologically minded, just from the introduction of the XO laptops.

The kids using my Canon EOS 5D

Exhilaration and elation

Our lifestyle revolves around the outdoors and that's very refreshing. We eat on camping stools scattered around the truck, work on laptops in covered areas, watch films projected onto fabric under the stars, sleep in tents.

One of the highlights of the trip so far has been chimpanzee trekking. We were a metre away from chimps at times, and it's so interesting studying our closest ancestors and noting the similarities and differences between us and them.

Our first real encounter with the children of Uganda

Silver, who works for CSWCT (Chimpanzee Sanctuary and Wildlife Conservation Trust), was giving a talk to young children on the imporance of conserving chimpanzees. The education team helped Silver with this, teaching them about sanctuaries and the problems associated with keeping chimpanzees as pets.

England vs Uganda

Uganda 2 England 1

 

Ngamba Island

The chimps here have been affected by humans in some way, and have been 'rescued' from humans. Some have been involved in the various recent Ugandan wars where they have been injured. These chimps can't be let back into the wild because their families would not welcome them back. Other chimps have been rescued from circuses or been orphaned and have struggled to survive in the wild. I'm struggling a little with the concept of them being in sanctuaries, and I believe that it's selfish to try to conserve animals or protect them from extinction, because people do it only for the benefit of humankind. Also struggling, physically and mentally, with the fences around the chimps, which I'll be photographing through. I think the fact that I see them as such a big thing ethically is making them stand out more in my photos.

Dance Together Uganda

Spent the evening in the back streets of Uganda in a large hall where 250 young Ugandans were learning to breakdance. The leader explained to us that everyone is a teacher and everyone is a learner. He, along with a few other guys, are in high school and have set up this dance group in order to get young kids off the streets. They plan to expand the project to include classes for reading and writing to teach kids who don't have the money to go to school. 

Day 1