RWANDA!!!

After crossing the border into Rwanda in torrential downpour, we ran into some vehicle problems – things were not looking too bright for the new country we had just entered. Rwanda is even more hilly than Uganda and while climbing one of the hills the exhaust brakes on the truck locked up – we all knew we were in trouble because the fumes were over powering on board. We decided to utilize the two hour hold up and eat our lunch to save time as we only had a couple of hours in the main city of Kigali. While waiting, Glen and Jeremy made an attempt to convince Mike (aka FITZY – totally useless but harmless and loveable guy – (to give you an idea about how useless he was, he did not know how to use a can opener, opened a can of kidney beans when I had asked for tomato sauce (a member in my cooking group) and never cut a zucchini or green pepper before in his life. To him, green food is useless and he will not touch!)) to run down a hill at full speed and back. We managed to fund raise $550 dollars for him if he would and although I think he was seriously considering it, he finally decided that he was going to break several bones if he tried...and by our rules any delay was going to end in no award being granted. To fill everyone in on why Mike? Well for the first week of our trip, Mike was this quiet English kid who just slept all the time because he was sick. After a visit to the doctor not only did his problems go away but he became one of the funnies t and most likable people on the trip. That doesn't really explain why we would make him such and offer but after meeting him you would understand.

Once the truck was operating we made it into Rwanda, with our first stop being the genocide museum in Kigali. This was a very eye opening but depressing start to our journey into Rwanda. Everyone I am sure has watched the movie “Hotel Rwanda” but you really don't feel the impact until you are there, in the country, staring at the faces of the people that lived through the ordeal. The downstairs part of the museum had the history and the awful statistics (over one million people were killed, the Hutu's targeted the Tutsi woman and the children to prevent future population growth and the “healthy young girls” as they called them were raped with HIV infected men to provide a slow and painful death). What is even wore is that when this was all happening, friends turned on friends, neighbors turned on neighbors and family turned on family. The upstairs had a memorial for all of the children and this was the toughest to see. In every room there were blown up pictures of the child and a summary board below indicating their name, age, favorite food, games etc. This was followed by, “Cause of Death”. This ranged from being macheted in their mothers arms to being shot in the head (humane way to die in comparison) to bludgeoned against a wall and so on. It was a very emotional time but something I think everyone, if given the opportunity, should see. Walking out of their we all felt depressed and shocked – it is so hard to imagine that all of this happened 15 years ago and when we look around at the locals, it is hard not to look at think – were they involved somehow? And which side were they on?

At the museum we met up with our final group of recruits which brought the grand total to 27 people on our truck. This meant the end of swapping seats and putting our feet and gear anywhere we pleased. It was worse because that night the truck problems we had experienced earlier occurred again. This time it was a little more unpleasant for Robert and Kanyo because they had to work and fix the truck in the dark on the side of the highway. This was also the first time we had not made it to our campsite before nightfall. It was little scary when we first pulled over because within minutes we were surrounded by heaps of people and some of the kids were carrying machetes. Luckily they were very pleasant and just were curious to see a bus full of Mzungu 's stopped on the side of the road. This is another weird thing about traveling here in Africa - whenever we pullover, no matter where we are, middle of the jungle or a deserted highway there is almost always a crowd of people who form around the truck.

When we finally arrived in Ruhengeri my cooking team and I whipped up spaghetti – we were all hungry and this seemed like the easiest thing to make for a crowd of 27+. We were all getting pretty pumped as we were now at the site where we would be trekking the gorillas...and it was starting the next day. After dinner we determined those people who would be trekking the gorillas the following day and the day after. We unfortunately had to wait until the second day for our chance to go. I was happy to trek on the second day because it was my Mom's Birthday (and I knew that would be a great omen) but when we saw how the groups were weighted out, I was a little disappointed. 19 members trekked on Day 1 and 8 members trekked on Day 2 and of course, by chance, the remaining 6 members to trek with Jeremy and I were the new additions. I did not bother to complain as I new it was luck and there was no chance in changing as the permits had been purchased months before. So before going to bed we let everyone know that although we wanted them to have an awesome day, we did not want to hear much about it (specifically see any of their photos) until we had all seen the Gorilla's.

The next morning (Day 18) we woke two hours later than the gorilla trekkers and casually did some laundry...again...for the third time hoping to once and for all get rid of the stink. After breakfast we met our guide for our trip to the local orphanage. This would be the second and last place we would make a donation to from our fund raising money (we had made the mistake of giving some money to a guide we had hired in South Africa named JJ. He was great! He was a single parent living with his mother and his two young daughters in a small village. He told us that he could not even pay for the tuition for his girls for the year and so Jeremy and I decided to help him and his girls out and pay a years fees. He was so grateful and thankful and sincere and we felt really good! As a thank you to us, he told us he would come and take us to an abandoned air strip the following morning free of charge where we could get a great lookout of the entire town. The following morning he came to us completely drunk and claimed he was robbed. He asked us for more money and we were so hurt. We made a vow to never give money out like that again and so that is why we have sticked to the orphanages and the NGO's). The guide was extremely helpful and he took us to the market to buy food and school supplies for the kids before heading out to the orphanage. When we arrived there we were greeted by thirty plus children who came straight to the door to give us hugs and to grab our hands. The kids led us by the hand to a small classroom where we sat down with all of the kids. Each kid or group of kid had taken claim to one of the six of us and we immediately had our own place to sit. Realizing that the class was much too small for all of us we were escorted to a larger classroom. It had started raining and it was cute to see the kids run ahead of us through the rain to our new classroom. Once we got there, Jeremy was immediately taken to a chair where he was told, using hand gestures, by three kids to sit down whom immediately jumped onto his lap. We were welcomed with several dances and songs and then helped to feed the whole group with the food we had bought. The seemingly moldy buns, bananas and sweets didn't seem like a gourmet meal but the kids were happy to have it. We also donated other vital ingredients like flour, rice, sugar, shelf milk and some money.

After lunchtime and some info from one of the workers we all went into the courtyard and played games with the kids. Jeremy, the Mzungu, skipped with the kids while I showed them how to walk on their hands (my only cool trick!). The kids loved to look at the photos and as soon as we took a picture, they would squeal with excitement when they saw themselves on the screen. Right before we were leaving, a little boy asked me if I had any parents. I was shocked...I did not know how to react to this question especially considering we were in an orphanage. I informed him that I did and I told them a little about them. The young boy then said, “cool” and it broke my heart because I didn't even need to ask him the same question as I already knew the answer. These kids were so well behaved and all they wanted was a little bit of love and attention. Unfortunately, we discovered their favorite thing as we were leaving. While walking back we had grabbed one of the kids by his hands and lifted him into the air. He immediately wanted more (and more and more!) and after the other kids heard his shouts of glee we had twenty odd kids lining up for more. The kids were devastated to see us leave and we wish we only could have stayed longer. We told them we would send our friends the next day to come and play and they ran down the road trying to chase us...too cute!
We arrived back to the campsite in the early afternoon, well before we figured any of the trekker groups would return. To our dismay, two of the three groups had already returned – they were completely filthy and seemed not all that impressed. The third group had opted to do the advanced difficulty level and trek the famous family called the 'Susa's'. It wasn't until supper was prepared that they had returned. Of all the groups that had gone that day, they were the only ones that were truly excited about their day/experience. This pushed us to want to do the same hike as them. However, being the last group, we had less people to pool with and were informed that to do different hikes, we would have to pay extra money for transport (always a catch in Africa). We discussed in a group and decided to split up into a moderate and an advanced group. We figured we paid so much for the Gorilla permits that an extra $20 US per person to trek the family and difficulty you wanted would be worth it.

Before heading to sleep, we passed the bar with all 19 members celebrating. It was really hard to see because we so wanted to be part of it and revel in the moment. Despite heading to bed early (so that we could be well rested before the big day of hiking) we did not fall asleep until 1:30am – 3 hours before we were to wake up. The following morning (Day 19) even though we were exhausted the groups energy helped to lift our own enthusiasm. When we got to the park we tried to split into our two groups but for some reason the driver tried his best to persuade us that going for the longest trek (the Susa Family) was pointless. Despite his efforts we did not cave and told him flat out that no matter the additional cost and distance, we were going to see that largest family in the park.

It took us much too long to arrange a driver and another hour driving before we got to the base of our hiking spot. Although, we had awoke at 4:30 and left at six it was 9:30 before we started hiking. The hike up the mountain was by no means physically difficult but was rather painful as the trails were crowded with Stinging Nettles. One of our members named Alberto had not brought enough water and was drinking all of ours. I thought this was crazy because how do you willingly go for a full day climb with a small bottle of water? This was obviously more common then I thought because the two girls who joined in on our group had not eaten breakfast and packed a small box of biscuits and small water bottle for their entire day trek – obviously not as smart as us Canadians. After three hours of hiking we ran into the first signs of the gorilla and our excitement peaked...any tiredness disappeared. After another twenty minutes we made it to where the group the day before us had left their bags before completing the final part of the hike. After four hours we were so close and begun to spot fresh gorilla dung. When our guide finally informed us that we were to leave our bags behind and bring only our cameras we were jumping with excitement.

We treaded quietly into their nest and the first glimpse we got was of a Silverback, facing away from us, eating. Without listening we started snapping pictures but were quickly told not to continue because if we upset him our trip was over. We were led into a section of rather dense trees where two females were pulling apart the bushes. I think we were all still in awe of the sheer size of the silverback, because we had trouble hearing him when he said you could start taking pictures. It was difficult to figure out the correct light settings on the camera (no flash allowed for obvious reasons) and while we were doing so a female charged towards us. The first ten minutes were a bit tense because we were all crowded into a tight section of trees and could barely move when they told us to. And no one wanted to be the person who got their arms grabbed by these females who were capable of snapping thick branches with barely any effort.

After we had loosened up a bit (our guides had a lot of laughs at our expense) we toured around looking at all of the different members of the group. The final count was seventeen with two or three silverbacks, the adult females, plenty of juvenile males/females and the most playful - the babies. We spent time with each part of the family but most of the time we watched the females as they ripped by us to keep us farther from their babies. The silverback just sat back and watched us without a care in the world. He would alternate from getting groomed, to scratching himself to laying down and just resting himself on his chin. The favorite of the group was the baby who would constantly come nearer to us and try and show off. At one point he was swinging on the branches and hanging upside down. While hanging down on the branch he tumbled to the ground as the branch broke. He gave us a seemingly embarrassed look and sauntered away only to fall off another branch 5 minutes later. The time flew and before we knew it the guide told us our time was up. None of us wanted to leave, I am sure this is normal, but after watching the group walk away into the jungle we finally made our way. The gorillas was truly an awesome experience. Not because of their size but because of how human like they were. They love to play, to be affectionate and to just relax which seems no different than what we like to do. The walk down the mountain was more painful than the way up (and slippery too) but I think we were all so high from our hour with the gorillas that we just didn't want to complain.

The following morning (Day 20) we were to head out of Rwanda and into Tanzania. The Gorilla's, which was the only reason for traveling into the country, had come and gone. The experience was over and all that remained was our beautiful photos and our memories that will last forever.