In Which Carrie Encounters the Silverback Mountain Gorillas

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The last week has been, quite simply, amazing. It’s been four days of pure amazement and a feeling of stupefaction that this is, in fact, my life. Whether it is because I chose this life, this life chose me, whether it’s something good I did in a past life, or that it’s completely unrelated to anything mystic and I’ve simply been randomly birthed into this wonderful life, I write this with the awareness that I have privilege, and for that I am thankful. Without privilege, these experiences would not be mine. True, I’ve worked hard, and dedicated my life to making these dreams my reality, but it comes down to so much more than that. This Sunday I am extremely grateful for the scholarship that sent me here, and for my parents and grandparents, who filled my bank account even further so that my work can be supplemented with play in the form of extraordinary experiences. It is a day of reflection where I am grateful for everything that has led me here, thinking to myself “Damn girl - you are really friggin’ doing it.”

I left Rugazi on Wednesday afternoon, saying goodbye to our sweet Ugandan pals who waved us off as we squished into a public taxi. We made formal goodbyes the night before, going around the supper table “acknowledging” each other for all our unique personalities and quirks. I thanked my friends for being good men and women, for being so patient with us, helping us navigate Ugandan culture and customs, for making us laugh, and for making our experience what it was. They in turn acknowledged me for being so funny (especially at the club), for my dance moves, and for my “bright ideas” and hard work. It ended up being a forty-five minute ceremony, super touching and super hilarious. What a great six weeks; the experience was so much richer for having had spent it with them all. Ambrose, Stevo, Rehema, Stephen, Simon-Peter, Marius, Julius, Maria, and Martha – I acknowledge you!

The goodbye was made easier by the promising weekend ahead of us. Thursday morning, five of us were to head off to Lake Mburo Park for game drives, lakeside camping, and a horseback ride through the park. Joline and I departed on our horse ride at 3:30pm Thursday afternoon, while the others embarked on a game drive. The horses were healthy and strong, and the ride was beautiful and surreal; the zebra, impala, and waterbuck looked on at us curiously, and made for some pretty incredible photo opportunities. Though I longed to gallop across the savannah, our guide was concerned about Joline’s uncontrollable bouncing body in her saddle when we attempted a trot, so we took it at a walk for the three and a half hours. No matter, it was fun anyway. I’ve always wanted to ride in the Serengeti - maybe that is where I will fulfill my dreams of galloping across the African landscape, on another adventure at another time. We loved every minute of the ride, though I am grateful we didn’t extend it longer than the three hours – our butts were tired and sore, and that was just the beginning of the weekend.

We spent the night in tents, enjoying the unique atmosphere and sound of the hippopotamuses in the water nearby, and the taste of the delicious spread our hired camp cook prepared for us. We retired early after a drink around the fire, as we were to be up at 6:00am for our Friday morning game drive in the park. We saw more of the same animals as the previous day, in addition to giraffes – a pretty neat way to start the morning. We headed back to camp around 9:00am for breakfast (another great meal) and to pack up our gear. The five of us headed south to Lake Bunyonyi, where we deposited Tenielle and Jillian who were to meet up with the other seven who drove down earlier that morning, and Dayna, Joline, and I carried on to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest. We spent the night at Broadbill Forest Camp, a great place high up in the mountains of the jungle, where we enjoyed a four-course meal by candlelight, and delighted in the luxury tents that had flushing toilets and HOT water. It was another early night, for another early morning awaited us. We all three slept through our alarms, so Silas (our guide) woke us at 6:10 to make it for breakfast at 6:30. We ate and departed to the meeting point where the day’s hopeful gorilla trekkers congregate for a brief orientation, and to be split into groups of eight. There are currently five families that are habituated in the part of the park where we were, and each family plays zoo animal for eight excited tourists for no more than one hour a day. Though controversial, as any money making animal enterprise is, ultimately the habituation of a few gorilla families has resulted in increased conservation of both the gorillas and their homes. Exponentially less poaching occurs, and the money that pours in from tourists helps maintain the park and ensures the 880 mountain gorillas have a place to thrive. Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are the only three places in the world where this species can be found.

And what an incredible species they are! Though trekkers can usually expect to walk at least an hour through dense jungle foliage, being constantly vigilant of footing on the treacherous mountain slopes, our trackers managed to find our assigned family within fifteen minutes. While I was looking forward to an arduous hike, my excitement to see the gorillas over road any disappointment at the easy trek. How do I find the words to describe the brief hour we were granted in these animals presence? It was surreal, to say the least. We were fortunate to spot about ten different individuals of the Oruzogo family, of which there are 17 members total. They were of all different ages, including the head male (one of the two silverbacks in the family) of twenty-five years, down to a wee little infant, and all members in between. One was a 14 year old male who is beginning to show faint streaks of silver on his back, and who will soon either assert his dominance in the family or abandon his members to start a family of his own. This particular individual showed his mischievous temperament by charging three separate times; one time, as he ran to thump his fists on the ground in front of a fellow trekker, he passed so close we could have reached out and touched him. Obviously we didn’t, but it was quite exciting and terrifying all at once. Besides this one rebellious youth, the rest of the family members were quite calm and serene, gazing at us with their intelligent eyes, likely wondering how we came to develop what must look like a large, mechanical third eye as we all eight furiously snapped away with our cameras, attempting to get the perfect shot to show your friends and family back home to say “Look! Look what I did!”. I took pictures until I was satisfied, then spent the rest of the time ogling, mouth agape, simply trying to soak in their magic. Though it is nice to freeze a moment to last in ink and paper, there is much that can be missed behind the lens of a camera. I studied their black, leathery and wizened faces; their giant fingers that are so dexterous, and the bellies that protrude way far out, not from fat, but from holding the enormous amount of vegetation they must consume daily to stay alive and energized. My favorite members were the two little ones, not infants, but children, who played with one another in the treetops, breaking off limbs to throw at one another before tumbling to the ground and continuing there. They beat their chests at one another and hooted in mock aggression. The way they scrapped and tumbled reminded me just of Drew and I when we were that age. The most special moment came when the head silverback sat for us, about five meters away, before he made a deep hoo hoo hoo sound, which our guide said was to inform the family that we were there. Within a few seconds, a mother, one of the little children, and a baby emerged from the jungle bush to sit near him. They posed like a perfect family, the baby suckling and the child one leaning against its mother. They all looked at us, and we pushed our shutter lenses closed as fast as they would go. I must have muttered the phrase “Oh my god, oh my god” a couple of hundred times that hour. I also especially liked when one of the mothers passed by us with her tiny little infant on her back. She paused for a moment, and the little one looked back at us. His face and feet were so tiny, his little black hairs sticking straight up from his cute little head. It is infants like these that poachers will slaughter entire families for, to capture and sell illegally for private menageries. Simply tragic, metaphoric of the terrible capacity of some humans in believing they can rightfully wield power over others.

My hour with the silverback mountain gorillas makes me love the world all the more and all of its creations. It is a big and wondrous place that we are all a part of. Once in a lifetime experiences like these open my eyes to all that exists, far from the plains of home. It reminds that I am a part of something so much greater than my family and home, and it reinforces the responsibility I have as a citizen of the world. Our species is failing at stewarding this planet, too many minds and hearts poisoned with hate and destruction, despite the bounty and beauty we have been provided. This insatiable need for power and dominance…we have no rightful claim to anything, but we assume it. As if we, our materials, possessions, economies, status, matter so. We are rightful heirs to nothing. And we have just as much, if not more, capacity for kindness and greatness than evil and greed, but we’re drowning. When do wake up?

I believe in my heart that it is happening, that slowly we are becoming conscious of the light in the world, of our purposes, individually and collectively. I believe we will begin to work consciously and harder to hold one another up, use our minds and intelligence to heal, rather than destroy nature and one another. And for those that hold doubt in their hearts, they are poisoned, and cannot be part of the change that needs to happen. Without even letting oneself hope is to hold to nothing, dismissing humankind and Earth, our existence, as doomed, removing responsibility and freeing oneself from the burden of action. If you do nothing, at least try to believe in the goodness of others. The world can only be good when we believe we are accountable, and act accordingly.

Maybe if everyone had the chance to visit the gorillas, we would have the peace I dream of. Alas, it is a luxury afforded to few, one of whom I now am. Of all my journeys and experiences, this is definitely very, very close to the top.

We finished the trek around noon and bid farewell to the Impenetrable Forest. We drove just over an hour further south to Lake Bunyonyi to join up with the rest of our group. The scenery there is very charming; the lake has many hilly islands with tidy terraced farms and quaint lakeside resorts and accommodations. We spent the afternoon swimming and relaxing, enjoying the typical lake atmosphere. It was nice way for our team of a dozen to regroup after being apart for the last six weeks. We went to bed early, the trekkers tired from their early morning, and the others tired from their sociable playing the night before. Sunday morning after breakfast, nine of us rented out hollowed out trees in the make of a canoe, and set out around the lake for a bit of exercise and some sunburns. When we returned back to our lodging, Bunyonyi Overland Camp, we relaxed for a while on the dock before loading our bags into the vans to head back to the city, Mbarara.

It was an incredible four days, and my batteries are recharged for the remaining four weeks of work. I will do my best to work hard and enjoy them, because they will be gone before I know it. Soon it will be time for another week of safari, before preparing for the journey home to Saskatchewan.

Thanks for reading, and love to everyone at home.





Carrie Ann

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Comments

[Karen Pratt]

my besutiful niece
Fascinating my girl! Now you have to write a book. You have many years in this life and have already done so much?