JOHN MAGINNESS & CONNIE LINTZ:
Our Time as JGI Uganda Volunteers
The trip began taking shape back in late 2005 when we attended a dinner with the famous conservationist and primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall. Each of us has teaching experience and we had done some volunteer work in South Africa and we asked about volunteer opportunities in Africa with the Jane Goodall Institute. A flurry of emails ensued and before we knew what had happened we found ourselves in Uganda in equatorial East Africa.
Uganda, like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa is poor. Even in Kampala, the capital, electricity is sporadic and it is totally absent in most of the rural areas. Clean drinkable water is just as scarce. Parasitic diseases and malaria claim hundreds of lives each day. Although years of war, government corruption and HIV/AIDS have taken their toll the last decade has been better. Schools are functioning once again and food is generally plentiful. Uganda is a beautiful country with handsome, friendly people but it has become overly dependent upon foreign aid from Europe, Japan, China, and the USA.
John Maginness & Connie Lintz
It was into this environment we moved. With the exceptions of our propane stove and our motorcycles we lived much the same as the natives. We lived in a banda, Swahili for “round hut with a leaky roof.” We relied on rain water for drinking and shopped at the local markets where Connie was always the main attraction. While my skin color darkened with each passing day her blond hair and fair complexion drew stress wherever we went. She was like the Pied Piper, always with a group of kids tagging along.
Dr. Jane’s goal to save the wild chimpanzees begins with conserving the rain forests which they share with an ever growing number of people. Competition for habitat is a major problem in Africa and throughout the world. Our job was to develop the sites and prepare the instructors who would teach the local school children the long term benefits of protecting the forests and the animals that live there. Our message, “The choices you make and the actions you take will determine the future,” is as valid here in America as it is in Uganda.
Before we could begin teaching we had to clean and paint the buildings, patch the roofs, contract to visit the local schools, and schedule class visits. Our most difficult task was training the would-be teachers, Vincent and Amnon. Their knowledge of the forest was vast but they had little teaching experience. Ugandans are quiet by nature and their methods of teaching and learning are very different from ours so we had to modify the wonderful program developed by Disney’s Animal Kingdom to fit their style. They would have only three hours with each class to affect a lifetime of change, a monumental task and we can only hope our contribution will make a difference.
It wasn’t all work and no play for us. we had many quiet moments around our banda watching the birds, butterflies and monkeys. We visited many of the national parks on our motorcycles and even rafted the rapids on the Nile River in Jinga. One of the highlights was the two days we spent at the Ngamba Island chimpanzee sanctuary in Lake Victoria where we walked in the forest with the chimps. We made friends with several of the Ugandan teachers and joked with the students and our Congolese refugee neighbors. I think it is fair to say that despite the hardships and hard work we took away more from the experience than we gave.
