All Good Things Come To An End – It’s Time To Say Good Bye

The big day has come quicker than expected: on April 17^th it was for everyone the last day at school. All the 10 projects have been handed in 2 days before and were presented on the final day. It was very interesting to see how our fellow students spent the previous 2 weeks and what their brains were occupied with. The presentations included all kinds of information: ranging from research topics, theories applied, to challenges faced in the field and of course the findings – but most importantly, there was enough space to have some good laughter’s based on the different groups experiences. CBS students, MUBS students and professors and facilitators from both institutions ended the day together at a local restaurant where we had a dinner in the dark followed by some fun dancing.

Working in an intercultural team was a great new experience for all of us, especially because we managed to be the first group consisting of 5 people in the history of the MUBS-CBS collaboration (Rita, Tonka, Pamela, Pat & Kädi). Following the motto: “the more the merrier” we spent our days driving trough town, trying not do get into an accident, conducting interviews with local artists, diving into the world of the rich and famous and most importantly spending time together sharing stories, going out, laughing (a loooooot), and building a friendship. Our intercultural teamwork experienced it’s peak when teaching the Ugandan students the Austrian “Schere, Stein, Papier” (scissors, paper, stone) game in order to determine who has is the “lucky” one asking the questions during the interviews. Hearing Ugandans speak German ended in tears of laughter for everyone involved (which is pretty much how we would describe a normal working day in our group).

After experiencing the crazy, busy life in Kampala for 3 weeks we were eager to explore a bit more of Uganda and chose to end this field study with some relaxing (and adventurous) days in Jinja. There we decided to do some rafting in the river Nile, and pumped with adrenalin, some of us were then even brave enough to dare their first bungee jump ever. Our Easter gift this year was Rita, coming all the way from Kampala to Jinja, to see her Mzungu friends again and to say Good Bye once more. We will leave Uganda with a lot of amazing impressions, awesome memories and new friends that we will definitely stay in touch with. Participating in this field trip was a once in a lifetime experience and we enjoyed every single bit of it.

Now we have to get some tissues…Good Bye Uganda!