2004 Post Trip Reflections:

Just prior to leaving Joy Hamlin had to withdrawal from leading the group which left myself to manage the workshop and school visits while other members handled other aspects of the trip. While I was nervous at first, I applied my skills and relied on the talented group of educators traveling with me, the Ugandan teachers and our Ugandan partners to plan and conduct the workshop. Based on the feedback we received, the workshop was a great success. I was proud of how instructors were from both North Carolina and Uganda which made it a much more united workshop then last year where the North Carolina teachers took the lead for the entire workshop. The inclusion of a nature walk conducted by Astone and a field trip to Kibale National Park where all teachers went on a successful chimp tracking walk made the workshop much more fulfilling for all teachers. For many Ugandan teachers this was the first time they had seen chimps in the forest even though they live around the protected area.

Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) and NatureUganda were outstanding additions to our attempt to unite our countries in planning and conducting the workshop. Lawrence Zikusoka of CTPH did a great job with Information and Communication Technology discussions and helped to identify that there is a high desire to have video technology available at schools so teachers can show the students content they will not otherwise ever be able to see due to economics. We have taken this information and hope to begin constructing lesson plans around videos from past North Carolina Zoo Filez as well as video we shot while in Uganda this year.

Having Rod Hackney - Public Relations Manager of the NC Zoo and Terry Shiels of Shiels Productions along to produce and direct a series of professional broadcast video pieces for airing starting in April of 2004 was a treat for me personally as I learned many new digital skills along with storytelling tips as well as watching how television segments are put together. Look for the NC Zoo Filez on WRAL-TV in April or May.

Highlights of the trip will certianly be the trip to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Park to track mountain gorillas. I saw seven of the 600 +/- mountain gorillas left on the planet. Like Rod Hackney said "On a scale of 1 to 10, this is an 11". Close to the Bwindi trip will be Queen Elizabeth National Park where we again saw many elephants but also saw many lions with cubs as well as a leopard! Seeing a leopard is very rare as our guide Noel said they only see one every week and a half. Noel was our guide and was also the guide for Forest Sawyer when he filmed the Presidential Tour program that aired on The Travel Network earlier this year.

While seeing the animals and interacting with the teachers are highlights, the most emotional moments for me came during the Bigodi Primary School Program which included such things as dancing, singing, poetry, and the official dedication of the new classrooms and library under construction. When the students got out the AlphaSmarts we left last year and began to compose thank you letters to us, I melted. What the students and teachers have done in one short year using out dated technology affirmed in me the reason I am involved in this project. The ability to send messages to the editor of Field Trip Earth along with the first ever images was a profound accomplishment on my part and one that made me jump with joy each time it was successful! Knowing that students, teachers, friends, relatives along with complete strangers were following us filled me with pride and happiness as I am a geek after all and being able to go international was awesome.

As we were preparing to leave Uganda, Gladys Kalema - Zikusoka and Lawrence Zikusoka of CTPH arranged two meetings for us in Entebbe. The first was with the Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) which proved very fruitful and may end with a partnership with UNITE promoting both of our programs. This is a tremondous opportunity for UNITE to both fundraise as well as to draw international attention to the project. The second meeting was with the Ugandan Wildlife Education Centre (UWEC) which also proved to be very beneficial to both connecting students in the North Carolina but also Ugandan students with resources in their country they do not normally have access to due to costs and distance. We plan to include these new connections in next years UNITE workshops.

This trip has been one of the most personally and professionally rewarding experiences in my life.

Thanks to all of you who helped support me in this endeavor.

Karl Schaefer

Use this link for my 2003 UNITE reflections.