Missing Danes were teachers in Africa

By Goodluck Musinguzi and Søren Willumsen 

IT is Day Six (Monday) and the two Danes are still missing. Burtin Sebastian, and Svith Thomas taught students and teachers at Nyanchwa Mixed Primary School in the western Kenyan city of Kisi.

The two old friends from Åbyhøj, a suburb of Aarhus in Denmark, went missing last week on Wednesday when they reportedly drowned in Lake Bunyonyi in southwestern Uganda. 

School Project

Before coming to Uganda, Sebastian and Thomas started off in neighboring Kenya where they launched a groundbreaking educational project.

Armed with 15 secondhand laptops, they instructed both students and teachers at Nyanchwa Mixed Primary School in Kisi. It was a life-changing experience for most of the students who had never touched a computer before.

At one time, the new teachers at the school posted on their Facebook page about the mission: "The project has been met with extreme support from students, teachers and the board, and it is the first time students are being offered computer training at Nyanchwa School .”

 The pair set their hands onto the more practical part of the project. They painted one of the existing classrooms at the school, raised money to have electricity available in it and transformed it into a permanent computer lab.

They even hired  a local carpenter to make the tables and chairs for the school.

Donations

Their charitable venture attracted a substantial number of donations, which kept their hopes for the survival of the project high.  As donations streamed in, Sebastian and Thomas knew that even after they had left the school, the computer project would continue to strive.

In fact, the duo was joined by three other Danish volunteers who wanted to take responsibility of the project when Sebastian and Thomas left Kisi. This meant the mission would be secure with teachers for another six months, or so.

"All in all it has been a huge success. The children have really learned a lot in the relatively short time we've had to teach them,” said the project initiators on Facebook.

“School teachers and inspectors are overwhelmed and see it as an important investment that can help to ensure a better future."

Back in Denmark, deputy police commissioner Mogens Brøndum from Østjyllands Police on Friday announced that an intensive search was on in Uganda with the help of divers from the military and police for the missing pair

We have been in contact with the father of Thomas, who is a journalist and a well-known teacher at the National School of Journalism in Denmark. He is totally devastated and has so far declined to talk to the press as regards his missing son.

The search team of UPDF/Police marines Sunday morning hit the lake waters in an attempt to recover the bodies of Sebastian and Thomas but efforts remained fruitless as the day fazed out.

Mystery still hovered Itambira Island from where the two went missing on the fateful day. The police said they were relying on the information provided by the locals and workers at the lodge where the Danes stayed.

Ambassador joins team

The Danish Ambassador to Uganda, Nathalia Feinberg on Saturday joined the rescue team to oversee the search efforts. She toured the area with the team and hailed their endurance in trying to recover the bodies.

Colonel Michael Nyarwa, the UPDF Marines Commander received the Ambassador who traveled to the island by road. Another support team of marines had also arrived at the Itambira by means of a helicopter, as others hit the journey by road.

The team on Day Three of the search set out with the Danish Ambassador.

Upon her arrival, Nyarwa briefed Mrs. Feinberg on the whole situation and later took her around the island with his team. She was also shown the methods employed by the rescuers to try recover the bodies.

A brief downpour put the tour on hold, but later resumed immediately it had stopped.

“I have seen the conditions the team is working under, and I hope we get the results we need as soon as possible,” Mrs. Feinberg said after the tour.

She said the team will stay at the island until the two bodies are found. 

In their attempts to retrieve the bodies, the police explained that the waters are deep and dark, which strains visibility. Lake Bunyonyi is reportedly one of the deepest lakes in Africa.

Part of the search team look on from the shore, desperately but still hopeful that the bodies will be found.

Hooks and hope

On Friday, the Regional Police public relations officer (PRO) Southwestern Uganda, Elly Maate, said that the marines took four dives but failed to find the bodies, which prompted them to employ an alternative method – hooks.

Maate, however, said that the rescue team started using hooks towards that afternoon, but the search remained fruitless.

There had been some faith in using the hook method alongside diving.

“The hooks will be used as a guide to detect the bodies and should they [rescuers] feel anything heavy, divers will be let in the water to find out what the heavy object is,” Maate explained.

However, the use of hooks had before then been abandoned because the type that was to be used was that which the local fishermen around the area use for fishing. It was then that the marines decided to get the right type of hooks.

The PRO said that the type of hooks they are using now are the genuine ones, officially suited for recovering bodies in deep or muddy waters.

But the Danish Embassy officials present at the island protested the use of the hook method, which prompted the intervention of the Ugandan ministers of defense and internal affairs.

At the time, eight plunges into the lake had been made, with the team diving in pairs. Each dive takes about an hour, after which the oxygen tanks must be refilled upon resurfacing.

Thomas and Sebastian are said to have stayed at Backpackers guesthouse in Kampala before traveling to the southwestern island for adventure.

As the search continues, the police have refused to draw any conclusions as regards the circumstances leading to the drowning of the two Danish nationals. They could have been robbed or murdered. 

If the bodies are found, police will check whether they had hikers’ shoes on or swimming gear.

Thursday

 On Thursday, the rescue team called off the search after efforts to find the bodies remained futile.

Colonel Micheal Nyarwa of the UPDF explained that they had to call off the exercise due to heavy rains which caused the waters to turn muddy and more invisible. The mud was estimated to be a meter deep into the waters.

The search was put off to Friday.

The marine team brought better equipment with headlights to substitute the ones earlier used by the police which did not have any lights.

Some Danish Embassy staff deployed at the site where the two are said to have left the island to coordinate the process with Ugandan authorities.

Part of the marines team arrives at the island.

The Southwestern Regional police commander, Olivia Wawire, said they had contacted marines to help recover the bodies because if they used local methods, the bodies could get decapitated. She intimated that the police was guarding the area ahead of the arrival of the marines.

Witness account

Wawire speculated that the two Danes could have been wearing heavy hiking boots and got tired while swimming in the middle of the lake.

The first one drowned and as his counterpart tried to help him, he drowned too.

Jason the owner of the lodge at the island where the two were staying had a similar account. According to him, the two had finished swimming and when they decided to take a walk. While walking on the island, they decided to swim on their way back. 

However, the boots became too heavy, which resulted into their drowning. They drowned before they reached at the dock, Jason said.