Outdoor Education Week!

Yes, friends, you read the title right. As part of the curriculum at KISU, students have an outdoor component of their education. For one week, Monday-Friday, students, separated by grades, take a trip to some location in Uganda to complete the outdoor component of their education.

I accompanied the Year 11 students on their trip – Camping and Hiking/Walking in Fort Portal. [If you’re wondering, the Fort Portal trip in my last blog post happened the weekend before Outdoor Education Week.] The educational portion of this trip requires the students to use a compass and a map to hike/walk 40-45kms over the course of the week, all the while carrying all clothes, food, food prep supplies, and any tents/sleeping bags they would need. To make this easier for the students, they were placed into groups for sleeping and cooking, so not 1 student had to carry ALL of their food for the week or a tent, sleeping bag, and pillow. A few weeks before the trip, the students mapped out their route so they would know where to go and know that they met the length requirement.

Personally, I was very excited for the trip. We had been walking to and from everywhere in Kampala for the last month and a half, so I was accustomed to walking a lot in the hot sun, carrying different things. Not too bad. I was also excited to get to actually camp out in Uganda. Plus, I was told by the trip leader that the teachers (there were 5 of us on the trip) did not have to carry anything during the day if we did not want to, and we would not have to prepare any of our meals, the campsites we stayed at each night would do that for us, dinner, and breakfast and lunch for the next day. All I had to do was chaperone and make sure the students were safe and protected. Easy enough, right?

I learned day 1 that I was not the best at setting up a tent. Two of the students walked by my tent and laughed, so there’s that. However, they also helped me fix it, and they also taught me how to best set up the tent, so I was good for the rest of the week.

As far as the walking was concerned, it really was not bad. Sure, it was very hot, but I had plenty of water. I had also loaded up on energizing snacks to keep me going throughout the day.

We left each campsite around 8am, and walked until about 2:30-3:00, depending on when we reached the next campsite. Along the way, we saw so many gorgeous views of the countryside as well as some smaller towns and villages. It was such a great experience to see parts of Uganda that I know I would have never seen otherwise.

The trip also gave me the opportunity to bond with some of the students in a different way. From the time we reached each campsite, until about 9:00pm, the students had free time. We spent much of that free time playing Mafia, which the students loved…for a while. On the last night, when the kids were all tired of Mafia, I introduced Signs, a game I learned a few years back on an RA retreat. The students LOVED it. We ended up staying up about an hour after they were supposed to be in bed because we were having such a great time playing it. I loved playing Signs with my fellow RAs years ago, so it was so cool to introduce it to a new group of people who really enjoyed it. The students picked up the game really quickly, too!

All in all, despite being tired all week, I think that everyone had a great time and really enjoyed the trip. One of the students asked me if schools in the States had OEW. Sadly, I had to tell them that no, this did not exist in the States. I hate that, and I so badly wish I would have had the opportunity to do something like this when I was in school. I think it would have greatly enhanced my already awesome high school experience.

The map. Pink was Day 1, Yellow Day 2, and Blue Day 3.

I am just about caught up on my posts, but be checking back in a few days for more!

Cam

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