Day 1: Entebbe
Arrive in Uganda and settle in after the international journey.

An opening orientation introduces the program’s service-learning approach and establishes expectations for respectful engagement, group reflection, and community partnership. Students begin to consider the systems that shape access to water, food, education, and opportunity in their own communities and in the Lake Bunyonyi region.

Day 2: Entebbe to Lake Bunyonyi
Travel southwest through Uganda’s changing landscapes to Lake Bunyonyi, where the group will be based for the program’s community-engaged work.

A sustained stay in one region allows students to move beyond a series of brief visits. Over the days ahead, repeated encounters with hosts, project staff, and community members provide the context needed to participate thoughtfully in the water-tank initiative and to situate that work within everyday life in the region.

Day 3: Lake Bunyonyi | Project Preparation
Meet the project team and community hosts for an orientation to the water-tank initiative and the work planned for the days ahead. Students review project priorities, the roles they may play, and the practical and safety considerations that guide participation.

Conversations with hosts offer context for the project before service begins, including how water is collected and stored locally and how the initiative fits within broader community activities. Students can begin to consider how a community project is organized over time, who maintains it, and what responsible participation requires of short-term visitors.

Day 4: Lake Bunyonyi | The Work Behind Water Access
Work alongside local hosts and community members on activities connected to the water-tank project. Depending on the stage of construction, students may assist with preparing materials, sorting resources, fetching water, or other tasks that support the project’s progress.

This hands-on experience offers a practical lens on the work behind water access, including collection, transport, storage, maintenance, and the ways these tasks shape household routines. A guided nature walk around Lake Bunyonyi broadens the conversation to include the environmental setting in which local water systems operate.

Day 5: Lake Bunyonyi | Community Knowledge and Shared Responsibility
Participate in a workshop with community members and project participants. Conversations may explore Ugandan culture and history, water safety, education, community development, and the opportunities and constraints facing rural communities.

Students can consider how mutual support is organized through families, neighbors, schools, shared work, and local initiatives, while recognizing the diversity of perspectives and aspirations within any community. An informal football match creates another setting for connection and exchange beyond structured discussion.

Day 6: Lake Bunyonyi | Food, Livelihoods, and Everyday Life
Continue community-partnered project work as needed, then turn attention to food systems and household livelihoods. Through a locally prepared meal and conversations with hosts, students can explore how food production, preparation, care work, income, and cultural knowledge intersect in everyday life.

In the afternoon, travel to nearby island communities and meet project beneficiaries. These encounters offer an opportunity to consider how water storage, agriculture, and community initiatives may shape daily routines and future possibilities, while avoiding easy assumptions about what progress should look like.

Day 7: Lake Bunyonyi | Landscapes, History, and Belonging
Contribute a final day of work alongside community members before taking a boat excursion on Lake Bunyonyi. Visits to nearby islands, including Punishment Island, introduce the lake as a landscape shaped not only by ecology and livelihoods, but also by memory and social history.

At Punishment Island, students can consider the historical treatment of unmarried pregnant Bakiga women and the ways gender, social expectations, and community authority have shaped life in the region. A conversation with local elders offers further perspective on Bakiga traditions, cultural continuity, and changing community life.

Day 8: Lake Bunyonyi | Foodways and Reflection
Prepare breakfast with local hosts, including regional dishes such as akatogo. The activity provides a final, grounded encounter with the skills, labor, and relationships involved in everyday provision.

In a closing session with hosts and project partners, students reflect on the work completed, the perspectives they encountered, and the questions that remain. The conversation can return to the program’s central themes: how communities secure essential resources, how shared responsibilities shape daily life, and what ethical service-learning asks of participants.

Day 9: Lake Bunyonyi to Entebbe
Say farewell to the Lake Bunyonyi community and travel back to Entebbe.

The return journey creates time for guided reflection, connecting students’ field experiences to their own communities and considering how access to resources, time, and social support is distributed in different contexts.

Day 10: Entebbe and Departure
Depending on flight timing, conclude with a visit to the Entebbe Botanical Gardens or the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Centre. These visits can provide a final environmental lens through which to consider the relationship between ecological systems, conservation, and human well-being.

Depart Uganda with a more nuanced understanding of the work involved in securing water and food, the relationships through which communities meet shared needs, and the responsibilities of participating in service-learning across cultural and economic contexts.