Our final week! Such a bittersweet end to a wonderful trip to the Pearl of Africa! 

Week of July 21st-July 27th

Monday, July 21st: Started the morning editing our Conservation Education/Laidlaw Final Report (which can be found here: https://laidlawscholars.network/documents/kasiisi-conservation-education-report-2025) and then attended our last weekly CE team meeting and KFSP staff meeting. We also had Dave's presentation on PowerPoint and Theo's presentation on how to use Google Drive, which was part of the skills exchange with the KFSP staff. 

After lunch, Luke, Eavan, and I went to the kitchen to help Chef Izaac and Anderson make bread rolls and pumpkin soup for dinner! I was thrilled to get to work in the kitchen finally, and it was a lot of fun! I chopped onions, kneaded the dough, and helped stir the soup before heading back to the office to finish up the final report.

The rolls ended up being delicious, and I spent the evening playing Bananagrams with Alexa and Dave before heading off to bed. 

Tuesday, July 22nd: On Tuesday, I was at the office bright and early to finish working on my presentation about graphic design, and then I started working on a goodbye/thank you video for the staff. 

In the afternoon, the CE scholars and Kenneth rode bikes to KFSP primary school, Kigarama, to test out our new birds, bats, and butterflies curricula and games. It was great to see the students engaged and responsive to the content we had researched and developed almost entirely on our own. On our way back to Kasiisi, we got caught in some rain, but that just made the biking experience even more magical! 

After dinner, I attended P5 preps with Cecille, but we left a little early after realizing it was a religion class. Also, highlight of the day, our WCD video was finally posted to the Laidlaw Scholars Network! 

Wednesday, July 23rd: Finished book #10 this morning, before heading to the office to put the finishing touches on my graphic design presentation and to revise some of the new curricula after getting to see it in action on our school visit the day prior. Alexa and I presented the graphic design presentation later in the morning, sharing the basics of Canva and how to use ChatGPT to generate graphics with the staff. Afterwards, Eavan and Cecille took headshots of the staff members for their resumes and the KFSP website. It was so cute to see everyone all dressed up! The scholars even joined in at the end to take some group pictures with the guest house staff. 

During lunch, I uploaded and sorted all of our CE WhatsApp photos into Google Drive folders, and then we all went into Fort Portal with Patrick for guest talk #6, with Harriet, a public prosecutor for the district of Fort Portal. The talk was very informative, emphasizing the importance of integrity to leadership roles and providing insight into the Ugandan Justice System. It was heartbreaking to learn that the most common criminal issue that the public prosecutors encounter in their work is defilement, the rape of a minor; however, the school outreach programs that Harriet spoke about, aimed at making victims and bystanders comfortable with speaking out about sexual harassment, sound like a great step in the right direction. 

When we got back from the talk, Eavan, Dave, and I helped Cecille teach ten of the girls at Kasiisi how to ride bikes. I ended up helping a girl with no biking experience and little English comprehension, so it was no easy feat teaching her how to balance and peddle, especially with such a heavy bike and no training wheels. In the end, we made progress, though, keeping the bike up on the kickstand while she practiced peddling. 

After dinner, we had our last full group movie night, watching Legally Blonde while eating fruit cups for dessert, the perfect way to end the day! 

Thursday, July 24th: What a busy day! I spent Thursday morning packing up most of my belongings, accidentally missing the final skills talk on data analysis from Eavan and Nina (which ended up being fine with me since it lasted 2.5 hours). Instead, I learned how to play Sires, a form of Uganda Uno that uses actual playing cards, with Anderson, Cecille, and Elio. We sat outside by the kitchen while Izaac made lunch and chatted with us, snacking on fresh Mandazi, and playing several rounds! I won 6 times! 

At lunch, I stuffed my face with the final plantains of the trip and then digitized more WCD posters we had received from the schools and filmed some of the scholars' thank you messages for our staff thank you video that I made.

Later in the afternoon, I rode over to Kigarama for the second time this week with Dave, Cecille, and Kenneth to teach more girls how to bike. Biking is a good skill for these girls to have because it decreases the chances of them being sexually harassed or raped while walking on the side of the road. Unlike at Kasiisi, none of the girls at Kigarama had prior biking experience, but they were fast learners, and it was really rewarding to both watch and help so many of them progress so quickly in such a short amount of time. 

Immediately after we got back from the bike training, Cecille, Elio, Alexa, and I all went into Fort Portal to get our nails done! The nail technician kept trying to make me get extensions because of how short my nails are, but I ended up getting a gel manicure, and it was only 12 USD! While we waited for Cecille and Alexa to finish, Francis took Elio and me to the grocery and souvenir shop one last time. 

We got back from town just in time for dinner, and then Luke and I went to P1-P3 evening preps to say goodbye to the little kids. They are so precious, I am really going to miss them! 

Friday, July 25th: Our final day at Kasiisi! I tried to finish the staff thank you video in the morning, but the wifi would not cooperate, so I decided I would finish it when we got to Entebbe and had a better internet connection. After breakfast, I got in a nice long stretch in preparation for our 7-hour car ride the next day, and then Eavan and I made the last edits to the WCD report and our final report after receiving feedback from Derrick and Patrick. 

In the afternoon, I helped Anderson make the huge dinner we were having with all of the staff. I stirred the Irish potatoes, chopped up an onion, and stirred the beef for the beef stroganoff. Following my stint in the kitchen, I played Sires with Elio, Eavan, Alexa, and Cecille, before our staff/Laidlaw scholar soccer match. 

The teams for soccer were conservation education vs. health (+ a few other staff who wanted to play), and we played two 15-minute halves. Even though the Health team ended up winning 3-0, I still had a great time, and it was really fun having all the kids cheering us on from the sides! After the game, we all showered and then reconvened with the guest house and office staff to play games, listen to music, and hang out before having a delicious dinner at the guest house. I gave a speech on behalf of the scholars, saying thank you for an amazing experience, and then we gave out thank you notes and small gifts to everyone. It was a really nice way to say goodbye. 

Saturday, July 26th: Woke up around 8 am for our last group breakfast, where we did highs and lows of the week. My high was playing Sires with the kitchen staff, and my low was losing the soccer game (which was not really much of a low). After breakfast, we loaded up the cars and said goodbye to all the guesthouse staff and boarding students before setting off on the 7-hour drive to Entebbe. It was so sad leaving everyone behind, knowing I may never see them again. 

During our drive, we stopped halfway for lunch and to use the bathrooms, only to find out the town's water supply had run out, meaning we girls were forced to reconnect with nature and pee in a nearby forest!

We arrived in Entebbe around 5:30 pm, and after a very sad goodbye to Francis and Sam, we went souvenir shopping before our last group meal. We ate dinner at the Inn (I got Pad Thai) and did highs and lows of the entire trip. My high was definitely the giraffes (followed closely by the forest elephant sighting), and my low was the career day we attended (just a lot of waiting around). Afterwards, I said goodbye to the scholars, who were either leaving for the airport immediately or before I would be up in the morning. It has not really hit me yet that we are splitting up and may never all be together again, but I know it will soon, and I am not looking forward to it. 

I ended the night with some much-needed yoga and a hot shower with good water pressure, what a treat! 

Sunday, July 27th: Got to sleep in this morning, shower, and do some more yoga in preparation for the many hours on the plane that are soon to come. The three of us who were still left this morning had a light breakfast at the hotel and then set off in search of a charger for Cecille and dried mango, both of which we successfully found! We returned to the hotel and got ourselves ready to depart, had a nice lunch, and now are about to head to the airport. Luckily, Cecille and I are on the same flight to Doha, so I don't have to say goodbye quite yet. I have a 9-hour layover in Qatar (where I will be stocking up on all the Dubai chocolate, as requested by my family) and then a 14-hour flight home tomorrow. What a trip! 

Final Thoughts: My experience traveling to Uganda and getting to work with the Kasiisi Project has been the most amazing adventure, and one that has truly changed my life. Conservation education is not something I necessarily see myself pursuing in the future (although it is a cause I strongly support), but this experience is something I will take with me forever. Getting to work with kids and learn from them just as much as teach them was so rewarding, being welcomed into a new culture by everyone I encountered, and having the opportunity to explore the nature that Uganda has to offer has been incredible. I will never forget the bonds that I have built with the KFSP staff, the students at Kasiisi Primary School, and my fellow Laidlaw Scholars. We were taken care of so beautifully on this trip, and it made all the difference. Thank you to everyone who made this adventure possible. I am more confident and self-assured because of all of you. I hope to one day have the chance to not only visit more of the African continent but to return to Uganda to reconnect with my KFSP family here. You guys are the best! 

I highly encourage anyone who is interested in supporting the Kasiisi Project and Kibale Forest Schools Program to make a donation here: https://kasiisiproject.org/donate/