Day 2 reflection- First visits to the school

So! It's the end of day 2 here in Uganda and it has been a truly exceptional day that none of us will ever be able to forget, and after meeting the inspirational children of both Bright Future and Foxford's partner school, I'm sure we will never wish to forget. We visited our twin school Bright Future firstly and were greeted with a ceremony full of song, dance and prayers! It was a welcome like no other and the thorough pleasure in being able to welcome us to their school showed true appreciation from the very first moments. We then had a tour of the school and got to see the classrooms, which were extremely simple but decorated best as possible with colours and motivational quotes. Each class greeted us with a perfectly synchronised speech or song - the effort they went to to welcome us was touching! The sports ground we were shown waa unbelievable, it was tiny and uneven; yet they made do. That is questionably the most inspirational thing- that each and every one of those children and teachers use every opportunity and facility they have to it's full potential!
We also discovered that the water tanks that Stoke Park raised the money to build are now being used for much more than just clean drinking water! They have been so productive with the facilities and it is so good to see how our previous hard work has helped them to live a better life.
 After visiting Bright Future school, we went to Foxford's twin school and were once again, swarmed with love and affection! The improvements that have been made in the school over the last 2 years are phenomenal, they have again used the opportunities to expand and develop their school as best as they can.

Today it all became real! What you see only through a screen does not come close to the reality of the sights, smells and emotion that you experience when you are here for yourself. Today gave us a real insight of what our previous work has gone towards and what the work over the next few days will hopefully achieve!
Tomorrow we will be visiting the local slums in Kampala and be able to see yet another way of life; I'm sure broadening our appreciation further.

our first day

Our journey to Uganda

Everyone arrived at the airport in plenty of time for the first leg of our long haul flight to Entebbe. We had to rejig the books around in the bags as we were slightly over our weight limit but we have managed to get all of the donated books and resources out to Kampala. After a few tearful farewells to parents we set off on our whistle stop tour of various airports - first stop Amsterdam, then our major journey to Nairobi and finally onto Entebbe. all students and luggage arrived safe and well! We were picked up by our driver where we had to have the luggage in a separate van as we had too much to fit in one. The bus drove us through Entebbe on what, surprisingly was a main road, despite it not being properly tarmacked, to Kampala. This gave us a huge insight into the working and living conditions in these big cities - street sellers, shops on the road, piles of bananas and pineapples for sale next to the traffic, the shops were basis shacks open onto the street and the traffic! roundabouts are a free for all! people on motorbikes cutting in between the vans and lorries that obey no speed limit or laws of the road! Cattle roaming around the side roads along with the goats and the chickens. Huge contrasts between the gated brick houses and the shacks and slum areas that surround the railway line. At one point all traffic was stopped for the President and his motorcade along with military officers with guns to pass us by!As we came nearer into Kampala we found ourselves skirting round Lake Victoria. The roads became more like dirt tracks as we neared our destination. The hotel is situated on the  top of a hill up a winding dirt track with views over the lake, Miss Kirk has made sure we will not be roughing it during our stay.

Tomorrow is our first day visiting Bright Future School. We are all quite shocked by the scenes we have seen so far - so very different from home. Tomorrow is what we have all been waiting for - meeting the staff and students of the school and beginning the next chapter of our twinning venture.

Amsterdam safe and sound next stop nairobi

ONE DAY TO GO!

ONE DAY TO GO!

10/07/13
We are all busy with last mintue packing and book signing, especially Miss Kirk (who hasn't even started yet)! We're all super excited to go and we can not believe that the wait is nearly over! Thanks for your support... we'll keep you posted!

Stoke Park Bright Future team 2013-

So. Our bags are packed, the donated books have been labelled and packaged and the sports kit has all been tried and tested. The students are working on a video today in school, to give the students at Bright Future School a glimpse of life at Stoke Park. A huge thank you to the ICT boys for the generous donation of laptops and hard drive.

preparation for our visit to Bright Future School

In the last two weeks the students of Stoke Park School - Natasha Burns, Courtney Scholes, Amhan Kaur, Connor Slater, Charandeep Rai, Brittany Harrison, Bianca Ross and Jayna Parekh have been trained by Neil Parker on playground games that they will coach in Bright Future School next week. From funds raised by all of the students of Stoke Park School we have purchased playground equipment and even raised the funds for a playing field for the school in Kampala!

Last week the students had their coaching sessions and then went to Good Shepherd Primary School (our link primary) to test out their skills with some of their students from reception and the lower years. This was co-ordinated by Karen Vince from Good Shepherd school. As the photos show the students have put in a lot of effort to make sure they are fully prepared for their coaching sessions when we are in Uganda!