More on Gorilla Trek

I am back in Kigali now. Still trying to get the cash flow problem resolved. In the end the only thing to do was to have my sister send me the money via Western Union. My bank refused to raise my daily limit because I could not remember my password. I am still really irritated by that as I spent $40 calling the bank with no sucess. Anyway, lets forget that because my blood pressure is beginning to rise.

Back to the gorillas. I stayed in a very nice lodge a few kilometers from the park for two nights. The morning of the gorilla trek, as I mentioned earlier, it began to pour before I even got up. At 5.30 someone knocked at my door to wake me up and I begrudgingly got up and wandered around in the freezing cold room looking for my clothes. Because of the cold I decided to leave on my flannel pajamas to ward off the cold. I then put on my long pants, sweatshirt, gaiters, shoes, silly safari hat and my rain slicker and then plodded through the soggy grounds to the dining room.

After breakfast we drove to the park and I was placed in Aygashas group. After our orientation we drove to the park entrance and began to trek up the misty mountain. We walked for about thirty minutes through family farms to get to the entrance to the rainforest. There we met our porters and the security patrol. Here we were informed that we could do "Number one" in the bushes to the right (girls) or left (boys). We were also told we needed to get a hand shovel from someone if we wanted to do "Number Two". After that was taken care of we then proceeded to climb a huge rock barrier to get into the forest.

That done we found ourselves in a thick jungle of bamboo, trees, stinging nettle bushes and lots and lots of hanging vines. For the next two hours we trudged through the muck of the forest floor, often stooped over or crawling on hands and knees. Most of the time the vegetation was so thick we couldnt see more than two feet in front of us. We followed each other by voice alone. Every oncein a while there was a little clearing and we could stand up and see a few feet all around. The mud was intense and abundant and many times I thought of giving up, especiallly at the times I heard the person a few feet ahead of me yell "Oh shit!" We were constantly battling the vines which wrapped themselves around us hlding us in place. Keep in mind we were also climbing up the mountain through all this. I dont think I could have made it withoutthe bamboo. Happily it was everywhere and one could grasp it and pull oneself up the mountain.

At one point the guide told us that we were really close but I didnt believe him. I thought he was trying to humor us to keep our morale up. But finally, we reached a clearing and there the family was. We spent and hour googling at them and then started the climb down which only took about 25 minutes because we were going straight down, no path to follow or anything. I did a lot of slipping and sliding on that part. When we finally reached th rock wall, we were covered in mud from head to toe and we rushed to our respective hotels to take hot showers.

The older couple that was hiking with us; he 65 with half a heart (literally...apparently he had had heart surgery in the recent past) decided that they had had such a great time they were going to repeat the experience the next day! Amaszing.

When they say this was an experience of a life time, I take it to mean, it is something that you would never want to repeat, interesting as it was.

One the way back to Kigali (a four hour drive) we stopped at a wonderful orphanage that was started by an 82 year old woman in August 1994. This American had lived in Rwanda for 49 years, left during the months of the genocide,and then returned as soon as it was over to start take care of the multitudes of children left orphaned after the carnage. The orphanage was clean, the rooms spacious, and the children looked healthy and happy. Rose, the founder,died in 2006 and she is a legend in the area. I was particularly excited to go to this orphanage because I had read about it a few years ago. A photographer had gone there in 2000, I think, and trained the children to take photos. Some of the photos were exquisite and were being sold to raise money for the orphanage. I had tried to buy them online; the site was not working well, but I downloaded by favorite ones on my home computer. Imagine actually going there and meeting the children! Wow. Such a wonderful experience.

This orphanage is so well managed it should be a model for other orphanages in Africa. Pictures to follow when I get to Morocco.