Photos

Isaac- my Ugandan partner from UCA

Isaac's family in front of their family home

how they keep the bees

Day 22 - Goodbye Uganda

I leave today for home.  One of the women in the group at Bwindi lives in Kampala and picked me up to do a bit of shopping for gifts for my family. I checked and my flight is on time. I’ll meet a CCA colleague for lunch and then will be picked up for the trip to the airport for my 5:30 pm flight. 

I’ll be spending the next 30 hours or so in transit with 4 flights so won’t be writing much till I get home. 

And so, it’s good-bye to Uganda and to the amazing people I’ve met here.  If I’m lucky I may get the chance to return. 

Day 21 - How to transport Tilapia

Other than another blown tire on the vehicle which the driver fixed fairly quickly, it was a pretty uneventful trip.  The most interesting thing was that there were people selling Tilapia on the roadside.  They were caught in Lake Victoria.  When people bought them they put them on a stick and attached them to the front grill of their cars.  The thought is that the airflow keeps them fresh and you don’t have to have them in the car.  Some cars had as many as 7 fish attached to the grill.  A wonder their vehicles don’t overheat.

Day 20 - GORILLAS IN THE WILD

We set off immediately after breakfast.  The place where we start the trekking is pretty close so we’re there in about 20 minutes.  We meet our guide Damien and are briefed on how to react when we see the gorillas.  There are 8 of us in the group and so now I have more new friends, a couple from the Yukon, a couple from South Africa who are currently living in Kampala and a couple from the Washington DC area whose daughter is working in Uganda.  Our guide explains that we’re not to approach closer than 7 metres to the gorillas and they even have it measured out on the ground so we can see how close that is.  As we discover when we finally come across them -  nobody told the gorillas about the 7 metre rule because they came as close as 3 feet.

We started on a trail and were climbing right up the hill in thick mud in several places.  It was getting steamy as the sun was brilliantly shining when we could see it through the thick trees.  We were advised to tuck our pants into our sock and boots to be sure that the ants couldn’t get inside our pants.  Within about a half hour of hard trekking we realized we wouldn’t be in the 15 minute group.  About half way up (apparently we climbed over 1800 metres) we left the trail and were in straight out jungle.  We had the opportunity to hire local porters to carry our packs as we had to take at least 2 litres of water each as well as a lunch packed at the hotel.  We each hired a porter and THANK HEAVENS WE DID.  We were also each given a carved walking stick and that was godsend.  There were points where the porters were pulling us up from in front and pushing us from behind so we wouldn’t slide back down in the mud.  I was surprised how well I did.

Finally we met up with the trackers and were advised that the gorillas were just ahead.  We left our porters behind and only went about 20 feet before we saw our first one.  And from there it just got better and better.  We saw the whole family including the silverback and the new babies (about 3 weeks old).  They just kept playing and were definitely not shy about approach us.  It was absolutely amazing.  At one point 2 of them were up in a tree and swung down almost directly into our midst.  It was everything I’d hoped for. 

While the trek up was hard the biggest challenge was yet to come – everything that goes up must come down and we had to take the same route down.  All the mud was more challenging coming down.   By the time we got down I think all of us were almost shaking because our legs were so tired. 

But – I SAW GORILLAS IN THE WILD !!!!!!!!!  I’ll send a few pictures.

On the way back we stopped at a local orphanage and the children sang and danced for us.  It was amazing and again, a real reminder of how lucky we are and how much we have in comparison to others.  They were all so happy and I just wanted to take some of them home.  I left my hiking boots behind so they could be given to one of the children.  I splurged on a massage to see if I could avoid the painful muscles in my legs, that I knew would be coming, and that helped.   

Back at the hotel we’d all become best friends from sharing the experience.  We sat by the fire and shared a drink as we compared pictures and then had dinner together.  

And so it’s back to George for me and my cozy bed with the hot water bottle – this time it’s on my knee in the hopes that I’ll be in better shape tomorrow.

Day 19 - Tim Hortons is everywhere!!

This day was pretty uneventful.  I got picked up and we drove for about 8 hours to Bwindi.  One interesting thing is that we stopped for coffee at a restaurant/shop that’s run by a group who have set up an orphanage and all the proceeds go to the orphanage.  You can imagine my surprise when the tea and coffee arrived in Tim Horton cups.  I’ve seen no other evidence of Tim Horton’s so I have no idea where they got the cups. 

We arrived at the Mahogany Springs Lodge.  It was breathtaking and the area is the most beautiful I’ve seen in Uganda. They raise tea here and so the hills are lush with green tea plants. The hotel is in a rain forest and this is after all the rainy season so you can just imagine that it’s a tropical paradise. The lodge is made up of different cabins and I’m in George, as that’s Cliff’s actual first name I don’t think I’ll forget where my room is.  After dinner when I return to the room they’ve turned the bed down and put a hot water bottle in the bed – how cozy is that.  It’s pouring rain so I can just imagine how wet the forest will be tomorrow. 

 

We’ve been told that we just keep trekking until we find the gorillas and it can take between 15 minutes and 5 hours depending where they’ve traveled to.  So, an early night is in order.

Day 18 - Debreifing the DLA

We all met at the hotel for a day of debrief. We talked about the work that we’d each done and the common themes. We also debriefed the process and provided thoughts on how it could all be improved as this is process and tool that will continue to be used in other countries in Africa and all over the world.  It would be interesting to do the same thing with Canadian credit unions and cooperatives. 

So, everyone is leaving tomorrow except for Bill and I. Bill heads off to Ethiopia to see if he can arrange for exports for coffee as he imports fair trade coffee.  I get picked up at 6:30 at the hotel to head to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest for a day of gorilla trekking.  I sure hope I see them.

Day 17 - Goodbye Lira

The adventure is coming to an end.  We packed up and left with many hugs to the hotel  staff and drove to Oyam South for the last day with them.  I was presented with a small purse that had also been made by the local people living with AIDS group.  One of the requests from the SACCO was to explore the possibility of finding a Canadian credit union that might be willing to ‘twin’ with them. 

At one point in the day we were on a break and I asked them to sing the Ugandan national anthem for me and I sang the Canadian national anthem for them.  I’d never heard their anthem before and it was very touching to hear them signing it together.  Unfortunately I was the only one singing ours so I’m afraid my solo didn’t compare with their group effort.

Before leaving we had to do some shopping for things to take to Kampala and filled the vehicle with various produce.  The most interesting was a box with 4 live chickens which was in the back.  When I say a box I mean they were just sitting in a cardboard box with no cover on it.  I was concerned that they’d be flying around the car but they didn’t . 

Just before leaving we got a call that one of our group was on the road to Kampala ahead of us and had an accident.  The wheel came off their vehicle while they were driving; it apparently came off and went rolling down the highway.  They were unhurt but their vehicle was no longer drivable.  Some of them got picked up by a car in front of us and we stopped and got the rest on the way.  Seeing the vehicle it was almost a miracle they weren’t hurt and a real testament to the skill of the drivers we’re working with.

Everyone is back before us and in the restaurant having pizza and beer on the terrace so I can catch up with all their stories.  You’ve read some of my stories so just multiply them 6 times and you can get an idea of all that’s been happening to all of us on this trip. 

I have mixed feelings about leaving Lira.  On the one hand I’ll be glad to get home and on the other I have come to really appreciate the Ugandan people and their amazing hospitality.  They have so little and yet they appear to be happy and are always full of smiles.  We were advised that touching other than handshaking was not the custom here but I have to say that I’ve received many hugs from the women we’ve met.  They’re all asking when I’ll be back and I just say that they are in my heart and maybe one day I’ll be lucky enough to return to Uganda and to see them in Lira.