Day 1 Entebbe, Uganda

Ingrid, Monica and April enjoying a view of the chimpanzees.

Patricia and Chris
Visiting the Wildlife Education Centre

Arrival
Having arrived from all different routes accross the world, the five of us assembled at the Gately Inn in Entebbe, Uganda for our first breakfast together on Sunday morning. Despite our varying degrees of jet lag and stories of exciting lay-overs (Chris managed to squeeze a visit to the pyramids in her 10 hours in Cairo!), our excitement about our project allowed us to bond as a group immediately.

Our First Wildlife Experience The monkey that stole the lolly!

Omlettes, coffee and malaria tablets ingested, we headed out to the Wildlife Education Centre to get our first taste of the incredible fauna that we are here to help promote the importance of preserving. The Wildlife Education Centre is transitioning from a zoo to a place where children and adults can come to learn about the natural wildlife of Uganda. Monkeys roam the grounds and young ones must be certain to keep there sweets well-guarded as the cheeky primates have a habit of relieving children of their tasty treats! To a cacophony of birdsong, we approached the enclosures and viewed a lion, chimpanzees, zebras, guinea fowl, rhinos, shoebills (four feet tall) and crocodiles. We were delighted with the opportunity to see these amazing creatures in such close proximity. Two endangered white rhinos at the Wildlife Education Centre

Preparation for the Workshops at JGI Entebbe
Today, we went to the JGI office here in Entebbe and began preparing for the workshops which will take place in the Masindi region of Uganda over the next two weeks. We had the pleasure of meeting with Tracy, who runs these workshops, and working in the garden while colourful birds and butterflies flitted about and the resident dogs Tinker, Scrappy and Levi tried to convince us to give them ear scratches.

The workshop targets primary school teachers who work in proximity to the forests which are home to chimpanzees. The ratioinale for this age group is due to the fact that 60% of children drop out of school by the end of grade 7. The workshops themselves measure the exisiting knowledge of teachers on Environmental Education and explains how Environmental Education can be integrated into all areas of the Ugandan curriculum. Rationales, objectives and principles of Environmental Education are explained and different teaching methods such as cooperative learning, experiential learning and multiple intelligences are introduced and reviewed, allowing teachers to develop lesson plans to take back to their school communities. Facilitation is also discussed so that the teachers may in turn teach their colleagues about what they have learned.