Mission statement

The aim of Cairo to Cape Town is to look at how different African international schools are engaging with their local community, and to develop strategies for successful positive links. We intend to create a network of 10 international schools and 10 community groups using the theme of global citizenship. By developing community connections we aim to promote mutually beneficial and sustainable local partnerships.
(For more information on global citizenship visit http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/schemes2/ks12citizenship/?view=get)

Nadine Bogan and Liza Uprichard

Nadine Bogan and Liza Uprichard
A little bit about who we are...

Liza Uprichard

My Northern Irish parents had already been working in Kabompo, Zambia for two years by the time I came along. With a teaching mum and an agronomist for a dad, I spent all of my childhood in Southern Africa, with Ndola being the first home I knew. Later, dad’s work with farmers and developing farming practices meant that the places we lived were often fairly remote and this, along with years of wonderful family travel made southern Africa a part of the world I came to know well, and couldn’t fail to love.

Choices through higher education in the UK first led me to study Agriculture and Economics… a brief two year affair which ended in another trip to South Africa before returning to the UK to do a degree in Primary Education. I loved teaching in Streatham, south London for a further two years before deciding, inevitably, to move overseas again.

A trip the length of Africa is something I have always wanted to do. The beauty, the people, the changing landscape… the ‘flats’, the ‘stucks’ the negotiating tricky situations! The frustrations, the mind boggling and the bizarre… all of it. And getting to do it not only without taking a break in my career, (which I love), but helping to push it in the direction I’ve always wanted it to go is an unbelievable opportunity.

Nadine Bogan

I experienced a very transient childhood, as a family we always joke that we have had far too many homes to count as we gradually moved into double figures. I was born in Gloucester and then grew up in the south of England.

As a family we became quick at adapting to new places. Being inspired by my mum, I developed a passion for music and enjoyed going to the theatre, therefore found myself joining numerous youth organisations such as orchestras, youth theatres all over the country.

To combine my interest in the arts and working with people I went on to study community music at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA). During my three years at LIPA I facilitated a variety of community projects, including working as a music teacher within primary schools and developing a carnival project in Nigeria.

My work as a community musician has always led me into education. After my years at university I went on to develop links between schools in Merseyside and Cape Town delivering arts programs alongside a number of NGO’s. Therefore it was natural progression for me to gain my post graduate certificate in education.

… and so here we are. Two teachers, with a shared vision of a huge project that is rooted in the idea of community… but why are we doing it?


Statistics suggest that many of the children who grow up as expatriates will choose careers that will take them overseas, one of them is co-writing this article! For the children involved we hope that experiences like being involved in this project will encourage children to take on views which reflect important human values such as dedication, understanding, respect, appreciation, kindness and empathy and all this with a strong sense of fun.

We want children to question what they see around them and to think about important issues such as equality and race - to take responsibility for their views and think about what experiences made them feel that way.

We know that many of the children we come into contact with on this trip will grow up to hold positions of influence in their places of work and maybe one day look back and remember the experiences they had doing a project with some other children in a place which was temporarily their home. A project that aimed to teach them how to work and play together with other people regardless of the differences they found between themselves. Maybe they will remember how satisfied they all felt when they had achieved what they set out to do together. And maybe they will help to influence views of those around them who were not so fortunate as to be a part of something bigger…

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Into Uganda

Because of the delays we had suffered in northern Kenya, we were short on time for exploring as we drove west, needing to get to Kampala before visitors arrived.


Crossing at Malaba into Uganda, with little thought about the day or time (it's hard to keep track sometimes!), we were lucky to get through a heavily truck congested border before it closed at 17.00...


We were however VERY happy to have arrived in the little cement making town of Tororo just in time for the 'Face of Tororo' pageant that night! As luck would have it, the action was happenning at the very place we had chosen to pitch our tent... Until 6 in the morning! Amazing.


Click here for a little taster of the delights we witnessed!
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Crossing the Equator


Driving down through Kenya and off west towards Uganda, we passed over the 'equator' dozens of times! This picture was taken in Nanyuki, where we stopped to hear about the Corriolis effect...

Click here for your own quick lesson about the direction of Coriolis force in the northern and southern hemispheres

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The road to Marsabit

Anyone you talk to about the road from Moyale has a story to tell... the main character in our's is a little fella called Jack and his 6 friends the tyres...

Act 1 - Nadine stuck in Turbi while Liza takes tyres to be fixed...
Act 2 - Nadine stuck in the desert while Liza does ditto...
Act 3 - Liza on day three, so near yet...

For more pictures of us stuck in the desert, click here...
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A big gap in the pictures!

Ethiopia proved to be a bit 'tough to love' shall we say! Although stunningly beautiful, we had our fair share of problems there... Later on and further south into the country we had the camera stolen, which meant losing all the lovely pictures that we had taken since leaving Khartoum... gutting.
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Monday, January 18, 2010

Laka Tana



Just 35km further South, on the shores of Lake Tana is the town of Bar Dir. We stayed here for a few days and went out on the lake to take a look at some of the island monasteries. Lake Tana was thought for many years to be the source of the Blue Nile, see video.


From here we also took a trip out to see the Blue Nile Falls... even with capacity at around one quarter of original size because of a diversion of the water to power a hydro electric project, the falls were still impressive. Plans for the area are geared towards restoring the falls to their former glory. See video

(Photographs from the web!)
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Friday, January 8, 2010

Village life in Larena

On our journey south we had so far slept in local banda’s or put up the tents in campsites and hotel gardens, but this was by far our favourite stop-off. Driving through a small roadside village, we decided to investigate places to camp, as it was getting dark. We were instantly met by smiling Wake who warmly welcomed us and said we were able to put up our tents outside his home. We had a wonderful evening cooking inside the houses with the cows and eating outside around the fire. We all relaxed into the evening listening to music under the stars. A real village experience.
(NB. This was also an opportunity to be eaten alive by the fleas living on the animals in the house… we both spent the next week trying unsuccessfully not to scratch!)
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Market day

The next day was market day in Key Afar. It was an extremely relaxing, colourful and friendly affair as tribes from all over the region met to buy and sell their goods. See video
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