The final report (Team 1 2/7/10)

It has been a while apologies for the lack of contact but well, we have been off conquering Mountains, Rapids and other general life threatening actions. (All risk analysed of course) All things considered an interesting last week.

Since our last update we travelled first from Kampala to Adrift, a day which saw two boats of eager challengers take to the Nile for some white water. The day progressed as we conquered 4 rapids, a buffet lunch, a BBQ and finally to conclude a coke while watching Italy get thrashed by Slovakia.

The day that followed was the introduction to Mt. Elgon with the organisational stage completed. The mundane tasks included the paying of park fees, sourcing guides, porters and cooks which we indulged in to make our summit attempt a more enjoyable task. That night we lodged on real beds in "Rose's Last Chance" where the hospitality was incredible.

Then the enormity of the final main stage of our expedition hit home, "The Challenge". Day One was the slow advance to Sasa River Camp, our first Base, where the delight to arrive to dinner was incomprehensible. The breakdown in communication that resulted in no lunch was one moral killer and after a hearthy dinner spirits were high again.

Day Two, we continued on to Mude Cave Camp, our base for the summit attempts. The walk this day was slowed due to a number of members of the team suffering from various ailments however we pushed through and all reached camp safe and sound.

Day Three, Summit number one. Today the team pushed for Wagagai Peak the highest peak in the national park at 4321m. The day proved enjoyable with the sight of glee in the eyes of all as we summited. We then all had our rituals to practice at the top including the display of our 4x6 inch Irish flag, a proud moment.

Day Four, Summit number two. It was the morning of the 30th of June when a group of 9 Crack Irish and 1 Brit made the attempt for Jacksons peak. They were the only St. Conleth’s team to attempt the harder peak in the park (althought 200m shorter than Wagagai it is a more challenging climb) and at approximately 11:05am they summited culminating our stay in Mt. Elgon National Park. The same day they also descended the 1200m drop in heavy rain to rejoin the rest of the team at Sasa River camp as the descent continued. It was EXTREME (Private Joke)

Day Five, The End. Our final day on trek. We all climbed down the ladders safely. We followed off the trail and loaded up on the transport to the Sipi falls our final activity before the return to Kampala.

Sipi was an enjoyable day, with some taking to the Crows nests comfortable sofas for a day of lounging, whilst others toured the local waterfalls and visited the local coffee plantations, even roasting a cup for themselves. All in all a good day was had by all.

Alas we are now all back in Kampala preparing for our inevitable departure, its been an amazing month one which words do little to describe. More stories will always follow and I hope next years teams will have just as much success as us.
Fair well.
Team one out!
Foley featuring Paul

Team 3

After getting a 7 hour bus ride from Kampala, we arrived in Mbale where Mount Elgon lies.
It took us 3 long and hard days to reach the 4321 metre peak, but all of us finished and we were the fastest World Challenge Team to do it. We finished at Crows Nest Campsite which looks out onto Sipi Falls and after a day of well earned rest we made our 6 hour bus journey to Kayunga to meet up with Team 2 and the Project.
We just finished our 4th day on the Project and its going amazingly well, the kids and teachers are great and we get served food twice a day in the school and the weathers very good.
We have 3 more days left on the Project and then were off to Jinja for white water rafting and staying at Hairy Lemon a Island on the river Nile.
This should be our last blog until we get back on the 5th of July.
Welaba Goodbye

Roggg..

Team 1 Takeover!

Good Evening Loyal Followers. Team 1 Here!

Apologies for the lack of action from our team, weve been busy being superheros around Uganda!
Sigh that is not the case, we simply havent had internet and for the fleeting moments that we did a facebook frenzy erupted which left the blog behind in the dust. But now that were back here in Kampala in the Backpackers hostel well try our best to fill in on all the adventures weve been having!

Our first week was in Kitatya Secondary school in Kayunga! We had an absolutly amazing week there working with the kids! Theres a primary school and a secondary school with us working in the latter. The kids range from 14-19 with us teaching all the classes. We split into groups of English and Science with about 2 peaople teching each class. The kids were incredible and especially liked it when we tried to prounouce their names. The singing of Molly Malone went down a great hit and for the rest of the week we were followed by an echoed chorus of "in dublins fair city, where the girls are so pretty" where it the drowned out into giggles!

The youngers kids in the primary school also came to visit us on a regular basis and the introduction of a camera invoked such crowds your writer lost her boot for 20minutes :D

Also duriong out school week Mr Paul Kilgallon and John Prasifka participated in a Pineapple eating contest! And so, with the music of "the eye of the tiger" in the background bother fearless contestants prepared to eat two whole pineapples each! After a twnty minute battle, Paul emerged victorious as the Pineapple King! John battled on bravely till the end and was crowned Pineapple Queen!

After our week of comfort in a nice comfy hotel we travellled to Kilembe (9 hours in a bus is just the funnest,............) where we met our guide for the buwata trail, his name was Bongoman.....i dare you to find a cooler individual!
We trekked for one day and then camped on a rather small ledge for the night where Luke became too close for comfort with some biting ants! The next morning we awoke to heavy rain which continued all the way home on our 3 hour hike! It was....refreshing?

Next we travlled to Queen Elizabeth National Park to the Ishasha river camp only to discover we didnt have enough water :D So the next morning we packed up and headed to the north side of the park, its a beautiful place, massive green trees and miles of Savannah! We arrived and took a boat trip around the two lakes, we saw crocodiles, buffalo, eagles, elephants, LOADS! It was fantastic! We tghen headed to our new camp where we found out that Hippos and any other animal that fancies the place can wander into, we walked home from the canteen the first night to discover 4 hippos just having a ponder round the campsite! That night the fearless leader Ricky encountered a beast attacking his tent, but fear not! He took swift action by hiding in his sleeping bag till it disapeared!
No your writer jokes, Fearless Ricky managed to kick the tent enough that the intruding creature made a swift exit.
The third day the whole team went on a safari before heading up to the nearby lodge and indulging themselves in a day at the leasuire centre! The pool went down a great hit and dinner an even bigger one with Luke managing to have an eat off with Foley(Luke won with ten courses!)

We then travelled to Lake Ruzungo which was beatiful! We situated our tents right on the edge of a massive lake and that night we ate mashed potato with baked beans to the chorus of hundreds of Frogs! We also visited a cave where Paul managed to both drop and retrieve his sunglasses from a waterfall!

Today we then had an early start to take another 9 hour drive back to Kampala! Were now safe and sound in the hostel and looking forward to Italian for dinner!
Were all having a great time over here and we cant wait to see how well cope on Mount Elgon!
See you all soon!

Team One OUT!

Keano!

News from Kayunga *team2

Dear everybody,

We have arrived safe and sound here in Kayunga five days ago. We have the chance to stay in a hotel, where breakfast and a "buffet" dinner is provided everyday for us. Lunch is provided by teh school.

Talking about the school, each and one of the students are getting 100 per cent involved in the project. We are all fully enjoying this new experience. The warmth of the people here is enormous. The students greet us by dozen everyday, and we are all learning so much.

The St Conleth's students took part in a brick laying session, handcraft lessons *weaving and peal makin*, sports game, dances, singing ...

We are all very busy, but especially healthy and enjoying an experience of a life time.

So parents, family and friends, get no worries, we are all doing great!

Yours,

Julien

Team 3, 14 June 10

We arrived back in Backpackers hostel in Kampala today after a 5 hour drive. We completed the acclimitisation trek 3 days ago. It went very well and we had a very good guide by the name of 'Bongoman' to lead us to our campsite near the summit. After the 5 hour trek the owner of the campsite fixed us a hot meal which was well needed after the tiring walk. After dinner we sat around a campfire and enjoyed some live music courtesy of Eoin Noctor and Roger Mannion. The next morning we began our less taxing walk down the mountain. When we got back to our campsite near the base of the mountain we enjoyed a well needed day of rest. That night Bongoman treated us to an exceptional performance with his tradional ugandan dance group with the supporting act 'Cows on a Roundabout' (Roger and Eoin) which the dance group thoroughly enjoyed and even danced and attempted to sing along to the music. The next day we visited 'Queen Elizabeth national park'. That night we went on a boat trip on which we saw hippos, elephants, buffalo, crocodiles and Ms Sheppard, though we saw her before we got on the boat. The next morning we woke at 5.30 to go on an early morning safari. Much to our surprise we were lucky enough to see three tigers basking in the sunlight. That evening we left for Masaka and stayed in a quaint little camping site. Tomorrow morning we leave for the base of 'Mount Elgon' to prepare for our three day trek. Thats all for now, blog will be updated as soon as we get more internet access.

Barry Treacy.

Team 3, 8th June 2010

We are currently in the Bagpackers Hostel. We arrived here on monday at around 1am, after having travelled for almost 2 days, including a 3 hour on flight delay in heathrow a ten hour stopover in nairobi and a 2 hour wait for buses in entebbe. We wer all very tired when we reached the hostel and were so grateful when John offered us free tea and coffee and pancakes and rooms for the night.
Today was our first real day in uganda and we visited the irish embassy and learned about all the work irish aid is doing over here. a few people fell asleep but it actually was very interesting..honestly. we then travelled to the slums and visited a drop in centre run by a man from brighton called joe cummiskey who does a lot for the community and gave us a chance to go in to the community and meet some of the families who are sponsored and helped by the centre.
tomorrow we're heading west for our acclimitisation trek.. its late.. blog soon...gossip girl xoxo

Sophie and Eoin N.. featuring Gav

fun fun fun!! with team 2

hi there folks! Jack here! its super fun in Uganda, everyone's have a swell time.
Some bad news though, tim's had a bit of an accident (joke ;) On other matters, was in the airport for about 10 hours. Went to the shops today, they had guns, Yay! Drinking some sparletta ginger beer right now, pretty enjoyable.
So we went to the embassy today, there was an irish person there.
toodles. tim is a loser


hoy, tim here. who is not a loser. I did'nt have an accident i delibratley stepped into the sewer to clean my shoes. Kampala is very big and a little smelly. People are friendly but sometimes point guns at us. There are no traffic lights.. or shops really. but theres lots of markets and motorbikes everywhere. Niall left our tent the funtent open tonight, so tim jack and niall will now be sleeping with tarantulas, bats, snakes, spiders and some small white furry monkeys. Nairobi was great. But we did'nt actually leave the airport. Which wasnt very great. ttylz brah.

hello0 there evan here heading to the falls tomoroz not looking foward to the 6-8 hour bussride to get there tho the locals are very friendly thats all,evan tha ledge

hey Daniel yake, pretty moto juu hapa sisi! kuona popo mijusi, mbuzi na watu weusi. everythings cool! dan mtu

Project Uganda 2010

St Conleth’s College, Dublin Ireland / Kitatya School, Kayunga, Uganda Project St Conleth’s College is involved in a 5-year project with Kitatya Secondary School in Kayunga, Uganda, which started in 2009
The Kitatya School receives very little assistance from the Ugandan Government and is severely lacking in facilities. The school is located just outside a town called Kayunga (an hour and a half away from Kampala). It had 400 students (Mixed) in July last year and they hope to have 500 by the time our students go over in June 2010. Out of that 400 only 100 students eat during the school day. There are 25 boy boarders at the school.
Kitatya School has the capability of bringing their student’s to the equivalent of Leaving Cert level but cannot provide science beyond Junior Cert level due to a lack of facilities, equipment and textbooks. The first phase St Conleth’s fund raising will help provide the financial resources to build a dormitory for the teachers, many of whom have to travel great distances from home to the school and this will ensure constant teacher cover for the students.
St Conleth’s has linked up with a charity: Self Help Africa – Ireland to co-ordinate and support the building work. The next phase of the project will be to equip a science lab, which will allow the Kitatya students to complete their second level education.
What we hope to do in June 2010!
In addition to the fundraising in Ireland, St Conleth’s students will share their skills in English Language, Science, IT and Sport. Kitatya’s students will share their skills in Music, Dance and Planting. Initially, the St Conleth’s students will meet and collaborate with the Kitatya students and plan the week’s activities. There are 44 students going on this project. They are divided into 3 groups who will each spend one week in the school before handing over to the next group. It is not possible for all the students to remain on the project at the same time due to the lack of facilities.
The St Conleth’s students will give gifts to their hosts at the end of each week. On completion of the project work, the group will travel to Kilembe where they will spend the following days trekking on the Kilembe Buwata Community Trail, Ruccochi Falls, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Lake Ruzongo, through villages and crater lakes returning to Kampala for rest and re-stock for the next phase.
The students then travel on to trek up Mt Elgon travelling to Mbale/Budadiri Mt Elgon – Sasa river camp, Mude Cave and trek up to Jackson’s Summit (4165m) in preparation for the summit attempt on Wagagai Peak (4321m). The group will return by way of the Sipi Falls to Kampala. This project and the whole experience of Uganda will help the students develop life skills in Communication, Teamwork & Leadership, Enterprise & Money Management and Personal presentation and enrich their lives and hopefully the lives of those they meet on this amazing journey.