Exchange report - incoming teachers
Home university: Makerere University
Study programme: Occupational Therapy
Exchange programme: Linnaeus-Palme
Semester: Spring semester 2008/2009
Duration: 23
Name: Julius Kamwesiga
Email address: jtkamwes@gmail.com

Accommendation

I stayed with my colleague in apartment 6 at Jagagatan 20 at Karoliska Institutet’s flat near Soderskuhuset. I stayed alone for the first two and a half weeks, then my colleague joined me toward the second week. It was a very nice accommodation with the kitchen and accessibility to the Pendaltorg train station (Stockholm Sodra) that connects directly to Karolinska Institutet Huddinge. Many thanks to International Office for that arrangement.

 

Language and Culture

 The language used in the teaching was Engish which is the official language for Uganda. The swedes however, dont like to use english so much and the Ugandan English accent is always strange especially the first time there is conversation between a Ugandan and a Swede. However, with time there is full understanding of each other.  The swedish culture is the good one that welcomes people. I attended many dinners at colleagues place. The main difference between the cultures is that Sweds are faster in most of the things than Ugandans and the health care, education and social services are a far much a head of Uganda.

Leisure time

Leaisure time was mainly taken over the weends and after work. it involved going for shopping, visiting Swedish colleagues in Stockholm and sometimes out on the country side. One time I had a nice time  watching the European music festival with many swedish and other nationals where Norway took the best position. I also attended the fire burning celebration near my other colleague's place. The celebration normally takes place during May of each year.

Miscellaneous

 

 

Finances were a little lesser than the previous years probably due to global financial

crunch and the dollar was much stronger however, there were negligible difference in commodity and service prices which made the cost of living in Stockholm the same as previous years. The only difference was that acquisition of Shangen Visa in Uganda changed and changes had financial connotation. Teachers and students participating in LP exchange programme used to be exempted from paying visa fee at Swedish Embassy but with transfer of visa issue at Norwagian embassy, a fee was paid which if possible should be reimbursed.

 

Other activities

 I attended the Swedish occupational therapy congress at the International fairs, Alvjo one of the afternoon , where I met some of my old professional colleagues. I also participated with Scout and walked in the forest in the north of Stockholm near Ikea. Also enjoyed many  dinners at various colleagues’ places. I really thank them for invitations and dinners.

 

Preparation

I had to prepare the lesson before I left Uganda because my topics to teach needed preparation to be done here in Uganda.

I had to prepare for the cold weather by buying clothes like Jeans and Heavy jackets. The others prepation was for the travel documents.

Reflections

It was a nice experience having many other international students enrolling on the CBR/Home based rehabilitation. teaching on the programme as a Ugandan gives us inspiratation and sence of recognition as a third world country that can offer some expreience to the other countries. Personnaly, I feel very happy and appreciate my experience that I can share with other internation colleagues.

 

I fell that I can employ the teaching methods used on the CBR/Home rehabilitation to my situation in Uganda. The teaching methods were that a teacher teachers while other teachers are in class and at the end of the session there is discussion where experiences are shares with the learners.

Teaching

Week one: As a co-coordinator of the CBR/Home based programme from Uganda, I had a lot of responsibilities to carry out. I arranged and coordinated teaching and participated in the class discussions with facilitators. Attended various meetings concerning CBR/Home based programme and future collaboration. I had two sessions which I conducted included introduction to CBR and health care system in Uganda

 

Week Two: I taught on the CBR/Home based programme CBR projects in a developing country like Uganda.  In the same week I participated in conducting first examination of   CBR/Home Based students.

 

Week three: I still coordinated the teaching with Chair of the international committee and also participated in the design of second examination of the students. Meeting the Swedish student coming to Uganda. Attending meetings with Swedish colleagues forging way forward for further collaboration between the two institutions.

Teaching hours

I had mainly four teaching sessions  but as one of the coordinators of the course, I was sitting in classroom throughtout the day, each day for discussions after other facilitators or lecturers had given. Therefore the actual teaching time was about 8 hours but adding the discussion time was much more.