and now for the children

A little boy plays with a bicycle tire and a stick to keep it rolling, another sits up on a hill to keep various creatures, such as monkeys, out of the planted fields, children with hoes over their shoulders to spend a day with their mothers in the fileds, boys and girls in school uniforms walking on unpaved roads, often at a distance, sometimes barefooted, holding hands to get an education, and carrying yellow containers to fetch water for their family.  Peggy and I were enchanted by the faces of the children we encountered during our time in Uganda and Rwanda.  If only children in the US realized how much they have and take for granted.  Now for some photos:

School children performed native dances for us....these girls balanced baskets on their head while dancing !

Lodging

Our accomodations varied from hotels to luxury tents.  It was the latter that we really enjoyed...especially the ones where we had to tell them what time we wanted to shower and what temperature water we wanted.  Water was poured into a receptacle above our shower head and we learned to get wet, soap up, put the water back on and rinse.  We did so well we actually had water left.

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More of our adventure

I'm not sure if anyone else is reading this but I'm still going to blog as it has become a journal of sorts.  I was looking through some of my video and wanted to share some others from our gorilla trek.  Again, I am still learning how to use the camera so ignore the parts that seem to focus on nothing in particular.

Women in Uganda

The first impression you have of the women we saw is how very hard they work.  If they live in farmland they are often seen walking up the road at 6:30 AM where they will likely stay until dusk.  All tilling the soil, planting and harvesting is done by hand.  We often saw women working with an infant on her back and a toddler at her side.  I doubt if I would last one week following in their footsteps.  Responsibilities at home are also included in their day.  Cooking is over wood or charcoal, water is hauled from a well, often at a great distance.  The children learn to do chores, such as haul water, at a very young age.  Using one's head to carry a variety of supplies is very commonplace.  Clothes are washed in a stream and laid out to dry either on a line or across bushes, etc.                          Grinding peanuts

Off with Mama to the fields

Off to the fields

Washing clothes

We were fascinated by women's ability to balance almost anything on their heads.

chimpanzee trekking

Although gorilla trekking was the priority for me we also had a morning of trekking for chimps in Uganda.  The terrain was much easier, mostly flat and more like a forest than a jungle...in my opinion.  Our guide Richard had no trouble spotting a large group after about an hour of hiking.  We were actually quite close to several of them.  Photos to follow:

 
                             Look closely..do you see the baby with its legs wrapped tightly around mama??

I'm not the best cinematograher but hopefully you can tell its a chimp.

The actual gorilla treks

Feb 10th and 11th we arrived bright and early at the park headquarters where the groups are organized to trek the gorilla families.  Thanks to Paul we were placed with other "trekkers" to see a family that was relatively close, less than 2 hours from the starting point.  I say close because some of the gorilla families are over 5 hours away.  The gorillas move according to the food supply.  I knew I was in good shape when one o f the other participants was on crutches.  Our guide, Hope (actually a male) placed the "disabled" individual and myself in front so the rest of the group wouldn't race ahead........for example, Peggy and her porter.  There are about two "trackers" assigned to each family and they are up in the jungle with walkie talkies providing our guide with the approximate location of the group we are to visit.  So off we go, macheties used to forge a path,. until the gorillas are spotted.  We were given instructions not to use the flash on our cameras, not to point, to whisper, to sneeze or cough into our arm to protect the gorillas from our diseases, not to carry our walking sticks and the person with crutches had to leave them behind.  I think these photos will speak for themselves:

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Learning to swing

I thought we had similar profiles except she wasn't perspiring half as much as I was.

At the end of the trek our group gathered back at the park headquarters to receive our "official" certificates with the name of the gorilla family we visited that day. 

Sacred Ibis

131 species of BIRDS!!! Saddle Billed Stork

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Dian Fossey's gravesite

So to finish with our adventure on 2/9/11 at last we viewed the graveyard where Dian Fossey and 26 of the gorillas in her research group are buried.

While the original structures were burnt to the ground there are markers throughout the area such as the one below.

Although we were not "slated" to see gorillas that day, Francois and one of the soldiers heard and then spotted a mom, infant and a silverback.  My birthday wish came true and I looked into the mom's eyes and communicated on a spiritual level with this magnificent creature.

I'm including this last photo which was taken by Peggy on our way back down to give you an idea of the terrain.  She, along with her porter, were way down the path as Francois and my porter kindly fell back and let me go at my own pace.........slow!!! Although it was easier than going up the mountain you had to always be looking at your feet to try and put them where the guide had just walked.

A post script to this day:  It only took a mere 2 1/2 hours to get back down.  I'm sure that was a very long day for Francois compared to his usual treks.  I envisioned that he had to be on bedrest when he got home for his back to recover from helping me.  When we were almost at the bottom (you actually end up in terraced fields) he probably felt I'd never make it all the way down so he called Paul on his cell phone (which works, by the way, in the jungle) and Paul brought the vehicle up into the fields to get us.  I'm sure those poor folks working in the fields had never seen such a sight.  It was a birthday I'll  never forget!!!

More about Francois

Francois was quite a character and we loved him immediately.  Not only had he actually worked with Dian Fossey but he gave us information about those times, first hand.  He also had this unusual talent in that he could mimic various gorilla vocalizations.  Although this video is soft in the beginning, hang in there because it does get louder and ends up with this "interesting" dance in which Peggy becomes an active participant.

Where to begin

Now that Peggy's photos are on my computer its hard to know where to begin a more thorough description of our journey.  Since the primary motivation for this trip was my driving passion to see the mountain gorillas it seems appropriate to start there...which is actually the middle of our adventure.

We were signed up to take 3 treks in Rwanda.  two for gorillas and one for visiting the site where Dian Fossey lived, did her ground breaking research on the mountain gorillas and where she ultimately was killed.  The permits were such that the Fossey trek was first and on my 70th birthday.  This was the day I wanted to be looking into the eyes of a mountain gorilla but that was now an unlikely encounter.  Why I decided we needed to do this particular trek is still to be determined because it was the most strenuous activity I have engaged in during my adult, and perhaps all of my, life.  It was a 4 1/2 hour hike uphill into the mountains although it takes someone younger just a few hours to complete this climb.  Several times I turned to Peggy and said I thought I could go no further.  But remembering it was my birthday I pushed on.  Thanks to the porter hired to help me and carry my backpack I trudged on.  However, if it hadn't been for Francois, our guide, who pushed me from behind up rocky terrain, I'd never have reached the site.  More about Francois...he actually worked with Dian Fossey during her time at  Karisoke so we got to hear some first hand stories about those times and the gorillas.  Now for a photo of Francois..........my personal savior.

Birding

In case we haven't mentioned this previously, thanks to Paul we spotted 131 species of birds in our time with him.  The colors are so vibrant that they make our own painted bunting appear pale in comparison.

last video

I think I might have been somewhat successful uploading the young gorilla so I'm going to attempt another one of the two toddlers playing while Mama watches close by.

attempting to add a video

I am attempting to share some of the videos I took of the gorillas, etc.  Bear with me if things don't go the way I hoped :)

Home safe and sound

I'm not sure about Peggy but I am still very tired from our adventure.  The picture I added of the silverback gorilla is from our second gorilla trek in the Virunga Mountains in Rwanda.  He is the largest silverback of all the groups and we were in awe of his size.  He never took his eyes off of us when we were close to any infants or toddlers.

On our way home

About ready to leave Uganda and head on to Amsterday.  We have so much to share but will continue our blog at home.  We have photos to share and stories to tell.

Mountain gorillas

Birthday Girl

Giraffe family

Elephant

Our guide made me get in the truck as this fellow came walking over toward me and my camera!