Gorillas!!!

Went to see the gorillas with Piper, a photographer who came to Rwanda to photograph the women drummers who started the ice cream shop. While she was here we hung out a lot and I got to watch the women perform a few times and then after speaking to one of the ladies they enlisted me to be their English teacher for June (they’re busy preparing for a large festival in May). She asked me what I did and I told her I work for SPREAD and teach English to the ladies who work at the ice cream shop and she asked me why I didn’t teach them also, so now I have two English classes, but not until June and then only for a month, cause I’m coming home!

I went into Kigali Monday evening and stayed the night there then met Piper Tuesday, we had lunch at the Indian restaurant in town together before getting on a bus to go up to Ruhengeri and stay the night. We showed up and called the travel agency she had booked through and they took us to a small guesthouse in town. It was nice enough, but quite expensive for what it was, considering how cheap places usually are here, but Ruhengeri is a tourist town, so its hard to find things for cheap. It had hot showers though and that’s really all we cared about! We went out for dinner, watched some CNN while eating and went to bed early, as our driver was picking us up at 6:15am! I took a hot shower, got dressed and ready to go, only to realize that I should have brought a bigger bag. I ended up taking my purple, patent leather handbag up the mountain with me so I could carry my passport, money, gorilla pass, a water bottle, my camera and video camera. It was pretty ridiculous. We drove to the park reception and got out to a table of tea and coffee and waited for others to show up and form groups. We stood around for quite a while chatting with some tourists and then finally a guy told us to come with him and we met our guide. It was just the two of us! It turned out to be really nice just being us. He explained to us the group we were going to see and then we got back into the car and drove up the mountain. We were surrounded by houses and people the entire drive. Rwanda is very crowded! The road was TERRIBLE! I have been on some bad roads in Africa, but my goodness, volcanic rock is the worst! Getting stuck in mud, bumping around on sand, creating huge dust storms have nothing on the incredible bumpiness of volcanic rock roads! When we finally got to the parking site, we got out, were handed a walking stick and proceeded to walk up the road then through pyrethrum farms to the edge of the forest, where we stopped and he explained a bit to us about it. There is a large stone wall around the forest and no one is allowed in unless they get permission and it is to help keep out the buffalo and forest elephants (which I’m not sure still exist). We then climbed over this and up the mountain. My, oh my, it was slippery and difficult! I was very happy when he stopped a few times to explain small things to us, so I could catch my breath. When we got close, we stopped and could see 2 of the gorillas climbing in the trees. We left our sticks behind and approached them. It was crazy to me how much ruckus we could create and they didn’t even flinch. They just kind of lazily gazed at us as we approached and came to a tumbling stop. The first gorillas we saw were 6 of the 12 in the family. A few teenagers, some females and a baby! One of the females kept walking towards us and we had to keep moving back and sideways to make space for her. Watched them eating a bit and then one of the gorillas stood up on a log and beat its chest before flinging itself down towards another. We stayed and watched them for a while before venturing up the mountain a bit further to find the silverback, Charles. We found him and very soon after we arrived, he decided to go down and join the others, so we just followed right behind and ended up where we came from. When we were getting ready to go, I said I still hadn’t seen the silverback’s face and the guide took us down and around so we could see his face. So glad I asked for that! His face is really what makes him look so massive. His head is HUGE! He stared at us and looked so bored and uninterested. Seems like he was thinking “will you stop staring at me and just go? I’m tired.” It was drizzling a bit while we were on the mountain so it was truly ‘gorillas in the mist’. One of the most fascinating things was that as we sat looking at the group, you could see the town below. People’s houses and farms were right there. I guess I always thought of wild animals deep in the jungle, but these gorillas truly are right on the edge of civilization. It is so necessary to educate the surrounding community and ensure their understanding and appreciation of these animals or it would be so easy to push them out. I pretty much slid the entire way down the mountain, sitting on stinging nettles and was covered in mud by the time I got back to the car. We drove back down and I had the guy stop at the market for me so I could buy a plastic bag to put my dirty clothes in to bring back to Kigali. We also stopped at a small craft shop for Piper to buy some souvenirs to bring home, as she was leaving the next day. Got back to the guest house, showered, changed and then went to town to eat some lunch and jump on a bus to Kigali. All in all, TOTALLY WORTH IT! It was so much fun. The rest of the week was full of birthday celebrations for Adam’s mom and me. Had dinner at his aunt’s and I finally met his grandmother. She is so cute and was so funny when I greeted her in Kinyarwanda, she just giggled and giggled. Next day, we had drinks and a delicious dinner of thai curry and sushi and then Adam and I went out with friends to a new bar and had some drinks and hookah then we went dancing until morning. Saturday, we went to a friend’s BBQ and then had a party at the house for me with a big chocolate cake!