Gorillas and a Sad Farewell

Last week was spent trying to piece together whether Acts would be able to handle a $2.5 million pipeline. We spent Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday re-visiting the source and running through the calculations, but by the end of Thursday we were no closer to having a plan that would enable Acts to submit project requests to CIDA. But we’re still unwilling to give up.

Friday morning I spent two hours going to five separate banks in Mbarara, trying to convert my surplus Rwandan francs to Ugandan shillings. But despite being a stronger currency, a major trading partner and only 3hrs away by bus, none of the banks were willing to convert the notes. Running out of time, I quickly ran to the bus park and caught the next bus to Kihihi. Once in Kihihi, I managed to get (I later realized) an absolute bargain basement deal for a special hire to Bwindi. One of the conditions was that we wait in the next town for more passengers, which was fine because it meant I was able to get lunch. It was my cheapest meal yet with beans, matoke and posho going for the rate of $0.63CAD. And it was unlimited; I could have as many beans, matoke and posho as I wanted. It was also the only option at that restaurant.

Made it into Bwindi well before dark and found a nice community rest camp to stay for the night. I’d brought my tent on the off chance the rates for staying in a room were prohibitive. But I soon found out that I didn’t have enough shillings for lunch and they wouldn’t accept my emergency stash of American dollars (they were new, but had microscopic tears). A quick calculation showed that I had enough to pay for the nights camping and local transport back to Mbarara, but not for any meals at Bwindi (which are significantly more expensive than the local villages). I was very happy I’d loaded up at lunch, and had a ample supply of Cliff bars that Liz had sent over, because that was sustained me for the next 24 hours.

Woke up the next morning at the crack of dawn and headed off to the park orientation seminar with the other tourists who would be visiting the gorillas. Its estimated that there are just over 700 mountain gorillas in the world, of which approximately half reside in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. There are currently four groups of gorillas that have been habituated to humans in Bwindi, and each group receives eight human visitors a day. The privilege of seeing the gorillas for one hour (and not a minute more) is $500US (plus all associated costs in getting the permit, which you have to pay for in cash at the UWA headquarters in Kampala, and the costs of getting to Bwindi).

The orientation was informative but I was on edge the entire time. If you’re sick, you’re not allowed to see the gorillas as they’re close enough to us genetically that they could catch our colds and don’t have the immunity to deal with it. So I’d loaded up on cold FX and ginseng tea in the days leading up to the tracking, but still woke up with a bit of sniffle. Since I’d arrived in September, I’ve had to sneeze every day, and sometimes that would develop into a sore throat. But it’s never really gone beyond that, so I wonder if I’m allergic to this country? Regardless, I was paranoid that I would sneeze during the orientation and be kicked out. I would also lose half my money and the chances of another available time slot to see the gorillas were slim.

Thankfully I didn’t sneeze (I did cough once, probably because I was thinking about how much I didn’t want to cough, but I managed to walk away at that moment and inspect a very interesting leaf on a bush), and we set off on our hike 30 minutes later. During the orientation they warned us that the hikes could range from 1 hour to 8 hours depending on where the gorillas had gotten to. So we were prepared for a long day (except for me of course, who didn’t have any money for a packed lunch, and so was relying on the energy bars) and were pleasantly surprised when we ran into our gorillas (Rushanga group) an hour later. Between the mothers clutching their infants, the juveniles constantly wrestling with each other and the big patriarchal silverback watching over it all, the gorillas seemed intent on putting on a show for us. I managed to get over 1GB of video, though I later realized that the majority of the video wasn’t pointing directly at the gorillas as I was trying to both film and watch at the same time. We weren’t allowed to get any closer than 7 metres, but the gorillas had no such restrictions and would frequently get within 2 metres of us, which was funny when one of the trees they were climbing fell down on the eight of us tourists.

Once the hour was up, we were kicked out and it was a happy hike back as the gorillas seem to have put us in a pretty good mood. I’m surprised to say that it was completely worth the money. I think half of the exercise was to see whether such an expensive undertaking was worth it and I’m pleased to say it was.

We made it back to the park gates before 11am and through a series of lucky breaks I managed to make it back to Mbarara before nightfall. Which turned out to be bad because nobody was in Mbarara, they’d all gone to the camp (which I’d passed an hour earlier) and taken all of the food with them. I was not impressed. I was also very hungry and running out of energy bars.

After a rather unsatisfying dinner of plain pasta and salty cream of mushroom soup (I can’t wait to get back to cupboards with real food), and an equally unsatisfying breakfast, I caught local transport back to camp. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday looking at a small source that will hopefully be large enough to turn into half a project for the Ankole diocese, but I doubt I’ll be able to complete it before I leave on Saturday. Yesterday we investigated a number of small sources that we could use to feed the local villages that will be neglected by the current project and found a promising one that could be developed to serve over 1,000 people. But again, that won’t be my project.

And then yesterday we left camp, which for me would be the last time. I hadn’t spent much time with the construction crew, but had still developed a level of friendship with them and it was hard to think I would likely never see them again. Also said goodbye to the interns who were staying in the camp, but there’s a much greater chance that I’ll see them in Canada again, so that wasn’t so bad.

So now it’s Friday. I’m leaving for Kampala tomorrow and catching a flight to London on Sunday. I’ll have a three day layover there to visit my friend Dave and then I fly back into Vancouver next Wednesday. Less than six days away.

I had an incredibly time here, and I think that while I didn’t travel nearly as much as I did in South America, by staying in one place and developing relationships with the locals, the travel was far more rewarding than visiting a place for a week and simply seeing the sights. But then again, it’s making the leaving part that much harder.

On the other hand, five months is a long time to be away from home, and I’m really, really looking forward to getting back. Especially to getting re-acquainted with sushi, dependable power, fast internet and of course, Liz.

So this will be my final “Gill in Uganda” blog entry. I’ve been amazed by the number of people who have been following it and am continually grateful by everyone’s help and contribution to help me get here. Hope to see you all soon.

Mike

Mbarara, Uganda