The Gorillas

Where to begin?  It has been a very eventful four days; memories that will last forever; some fantastic and many very comical.

It started with the journey to the Northern part of Rwanda.  I am not sure how I always choose the packed buses, but at least the driver went at a reasonable speed.  I joined two women I met in Butare in Kigali.  They were going to see the Gorillas on the same day, so we joined together.  It was really nice traveling with people. 

We made it by regular bus to Mustanza, where we had to take one of the local mini vans.  Now imagine a mini-van with 20 people in it.  They put us in the very back row, four across.  I just kept breathing to keep from getting claustrophobia.

Three buses later, we finally made it to a little village outside of the National Park.  The people at the hotel were so nice, but definitely had in issue with English.  The manager made a little fire for us in the lobby because it was so cold.  We were only paying about $15 per night; I guess you couldn’t expect hot water too.

We got up early to do a hike to Dian Fossey’s gravesite.  It had rained the night before, but was clear in the morning.  It was around a 5-hour hike, but we were confident we could do it in less time.  Obviously, we did not understand, when they said it could be muddy.

In the beginning we tried to walk around all the mud… impossible….  In the end we were walking almost knee high in the mud.  There was as much mud in my shoes as out.  It was actually safer to walk in the muddy water than try and walk on the wet clay dirt outside, where it was very slippery.  One time Rosa, one of the German ladies, had her foot caught in the mud and it took two people to pull her out.    

Then the rain came.!!  Many times I was on my butt in the mud.  Our porter, Bosco, was my savior; He kept trying to hold me up.  I almost made him fall more than once.  It was a very long 5 hours.  You just had to go with it in the end… I gave Bosco a very big tip.

When we got back to the hotel, the people took all our clothes and shoes and tried to clean them best they could.  There was no way they would dry by morning, given the dampness in the air.  They even tried to iron our hiking pants to dry them.

Next morning we were back for our Gorilla trek.  We wanted to be in the Sousa group, the largest group, so we got there early.  The Sousa group would mean another long hike, but I was with two twenty something girls from Germany.  They were ready for the hike… but was I???  I definitely was on Aleve after tweaking my knee the day before.  

We had a two-hour uphill hike through all the agriculture and we finally arrived at the beautiful rainforest.  It was breathtaking.  We were weaving through bush; sometimes almost crawling.  We were taking a shortcut to where they had spotted the Gorillas. 

We arrived!!

One of the babies

The #1 Gorilla and his family

I can’t even begin to tell you how exciting to be just a couple feet away from these amazing … and very big… gorillas.  They didn’t seem to mind that we were there.  There were so many babies… including twins.  It was an experience I will never forget. 

Just as we arrived, one of the Gorillas starting walking toward me and went right past me, almost touching.  My guide told me to step back… I did just in time.

The drive to both of the treks was long and very bumpy.  We had to go through many villages with so many children.  The children were showing us their report card.  It was their last day of school before Easter break. 

The kids would run after our car for more than a mile… these were 5 to 10 year olds running.  We kept on thinking about the long journey they would have to make to get back to their homes.  They seemed so happy and excited to see us.  Not sure I understand, since there are groups every day heading up to see the gorillas. 

Most of these kids were so dirty.  They live in mud huts and are in the dirt and mud all day long.  You just wanted to take them and put them in hot baths.  As we moved farther up the hill, you could see more and more poverty.  The little girls 5 and up were carrying the babies on their back.    Most families have over 5 kids, so the older ones have to take care of the younger kids.  Other kids were helping carry the heavy loads of potatoes to the market.  It was the only sad part of the two-day adventure!!!

A Family for the Chickens

I finally arrived back in Kigali to spend the day with the Faith Victory NGO to see how the chickens we donated were doing.  I was able to meet 5 families that received the chickens.  All the families consisted of a widow or abandoned woman trying to support a house full of kids; sometimes the kids were not even their kids.  The women were very excited and had high hopes that they can increase the number of chickens from 3 to over 10.  They showed me the eggs that would hatch in 21 days.

The women can receive 150 rwf for each egg, enough to buy salt, soap, etc.  These are basic needs and without the chickens they would not be able to purchase what is necessary to survive.  There are so many that need this help, but only so many chickens to pass around. 

Tomorrow is my last day in Rwanda!!  I am actually ready to go home.  Traveling out of a suitcase and having to use a net to sleep at night because of mosquitos is getting old.  I am glad it was a shorter trip this year.

As usual, I am not sure how I got all the stuff in my suitcase.  I haven’t even purchased much as gifts yet… that is on tomorrow’s agenda. 

I know this was a long blog and I really only captured a small portion of the last few days. 

Have a great evening, Paula