Last weekend we took P7 from Kyabahinga primary school camping to Habukomi island. Most of these children have never been camping before and therefore the trip was an important and original experience. Trips of this variety offer children a break from their everyday lives and a chance to experience some independence away from home.At eleven o’clock Saturday morning we set off in canoes towards Habukomi. As you can see from the picture those children who are unable to swim were provided with lifejackets which were kindly donated by the 16-year-old Sean from Australia with the help of his school Killarney Heights High.After just under an hours canoe trek we arrived at the island and once lunch was finished we began setting up the tents. Despite having never erected tents before the children rose to the challenge and did an excellent job putting up their tents.This was the children’s home for the weekend, boys on the left, girls on the right and Douglas the teacher in the middle.
The main activity of the weekend was a treasure hunt around the island organized by Smiles volunteers. There were seven stations with a volunteer hidden at each who were responsible for setting a task for each team. Once the task has been successfully completed the teams were provided with a letter; after collecting all seven letters the teams then had to arrange them into an English word, ‘camping’. Once the children had worked out the puzzle they were given their ‘treasure’, sweets.
After the treasure hunt and several other activities, including tug of war between volunteers and pupils (the pupils won), preparations for the evening meal began. Whilst the children did an excellent job, the volunteers managed to burn and undercook (yes it is possible) the rice… sorry kids!
Thankfully there was also maize and cake to feed the troops.Our paddlers Patrick and Andrew built a very impressive fire to keep us all warm.The children tried, only partly successfully, to teach the volunteers some traditional Bakiga songs and dances. Despite the volunteers’ lack of skill good fun was had by all.
The next morning we asked the children to evaluate their camping experience. Some of the responses we received were:
“I am happy to go to Habukomi trip with white people to make many exercises, play football with Stefan and I am happy to sleep in the tent. Good night. Thank you sir/madam.” – David.
“I am very happy because I like these things 1- I play football with my friends 2- I slept in the tent. The bad thing was the rice was not good so we need to improve in cooking.” –Andrew.
“ I am very happy because I ate too much food at breakfast and for the games we were taught by them. I am not happy because I ate food with too much water.” – Doreen.
After a hearty breakfast we packed up our things and set off towards home.To complete the experience we allowed the children to canoe themselves back home, traveling in convoy until we reached our destination.We would like to thank the following people for making the trip possible: the residents of Habukomi Island, Douglas P7’s teacher, our paddlers- Andrew, Davis and Patrick and the Smiles team.
11. Apr. 2008
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