Chasing the Sun

Next on my bucket list was Gorilla tracking.  My expertise in this area is limited to watching a BBC series, a few Nat Geo specials, and at this point I’ve read about half of Dian Fossey’s book Gorillas in the Mist.  So I speak with more passion than knowledge.

Here’s what I can tell you:  A group of gorillas are lead by a silverback.  (A very successful silverback may have up to 30 members in his group.)  In Uganda there are nine groups that are habituated.  Visitors are assigned a group.  Naturally, it’s incumbent upon us to travel to where the assigned group is located.  We were assigned Busingye (which means peace) and his group.

The group of human trackers are limited to eight and the time of your visit will be an hour.  Obviously this is so that the habituated gorillas only have to tolerate the camera-happy public one hour a day.

We stayed at Nkuringo camp (loved it!) which was amazingly remote on the edge of the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest.  From our back porch we could have a cup of coffee and look through the mist into the Congo.  The drive from Kisoro was a 40km (2 hour) riverbed like road.  The locals call the ride an “African massage.”

The other folks who were staying at the camp came back from gorilla tracking with stories of walking for 45 minutes to an hour and sitting among gorillas that played and frolicked all around.  Some younger ones showing so much interest they actually touched the visitors.  So our expectation was set.  I even commented to Tony, “Gosh, I hope we have to walk for at least a couple of hours, when else will we have the opportunity to hike through a jungle?”

As is often the case, one should be careful for what one wishes…..

First thing in the morning, we are treated to another African massage on our way to the briefing area where we met our guide Benjamin and our assigned police and military guards along with the other six trackers.  Tony and I also hired porters to carry our stuff as well as push and pull us as needed.  This of course lightens our burdens and provides much needed jobs for the locals, many of whom benefit only tangentially from the Gorilla Tracking $500 permits if at all.

After about an hour and ten minutes of walking in the rainforest, Tony recanted his aspiration for a two-hour hike and said he would feel content if a gorillas materialized right in front of him.  We plodded on.  After about 3 hours, Benjamin got a squawk on his radio and we turned off the narrow trail.  From this point on the guides were hacking a path for us through the jungle.   We weren’t actually walking on the ground.  It was more like we were suspended in mid-air on a system of floating roots, vegetation and occasionally old elephant dung on a virtual vertical down hill newly established path (kinda).

At this point, I learned by observation that my porter, John had aspirations of being a guide and we were going to stay at the front of the queue of hikers and porters.  He clenched my sweaty hand and pulled me through vines, under branches, around trees and over logs with such speed that it would be best described as a controlled fall for over an hour.

At last we arrived to where the real trackers who had found the Busengi family awaited us and lead us the last 100 meters.

Busingye proved to be shy.  He and his clan were fully habituated, but not necessarily of the country club variety like our fellow campers’ gorillas.  These gorillas were more like brilliant techies who will tolerate company, but would rather keep to themselves or their own kind who better understand them.

Nevertheless we were able to chase and watch for a full hour.  I think I saw one of them look at furry wrist at about 59 minutes then look at us…time to go Mzungu.

Fortunately the way-out was not as exhausting/exciting/explorational as the way in.  Wonder if Benjamin has a sardonic sense of humor?

Bucket list item checked and loved!

On to the Maasai Mara….

Once again it’s best to let the pictures do the talking – – one because they are far more expressive than I can be, two because we are just now back on the grid (in this case ‘the grid’ means the internet, air con, a real shower, and a mattress) and I want to enjoy all the wonders of modern conveniences!  In our last hotel, Tony inquired with the manager if there was WIFI, she said, “let’s get electricity, first, then we will think about WIFI.”

My favorite moment at Victoria Falls happened one morning before breakfast.  Tony and I walked the five minutes from our hotel into the little wooded path that leads to the Falls and realized we had the place to ourselves.  Imagine being at one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World–alone.  It was magical!

There are virtually no fences, bars, nothing but common sense to keep you from going over the edge.

Sunset on the Zambezi.  Good days.

Two weeks ago, Tony and I met 19 folks at the airport in Lilongwe, Malawi.   Everyone came from the UK, but in addition to English folks, there were Scots, Aussies, one Greek and we represented America.  Married and unmarried, gay and straight, all ages with various reasons for coming.

Within 24 hours of arriving, we had donned our fashionable steel toe boots and hard hats, learned how to lay brick using mud as mortar, and began to jell as a team.  Over the next nine days, we played football, tic-tac-toe (crosses and naughts) and paddle ball with kids, snapped about a million pictures, ate a lot of nsima, discussed personal plumbing issues, learned a few Chichewa words, squirted a couple gallons of Deet, built the better part of two houses and became friends.

We started with a foundation and the corners, we ended with two almost completed houses.  The ‘real’ builders will plaster the walls and concrete the floors in the next couple of weeks.  The families will move in after that.

I expected to learn a tiny bit about building a house, I expected to learn something about people in Malawi, I expected to feel good about my contribution.  I didn’t expect to  cry when I said good bye to the families for whom we were building, I didn’t expect to boo-hoo when I said good bye to my fellow builders.  I didn’t expect to be so wowed, humbled and inspired.

Favorite moments have to include watching the women of the village sing and dance their way to the Chief’s house to offer a gift as token invitation to a wedding the following day.  And going to church, singing the same songs I grew up singing in such a foreign environment, the sound of Heaven kissing Earth.

Habitat for Humanity builds in 70 countries.  Last year they helped over 96,000 families improve their life by improving their living conditions.  I really hope to do this again and again and again.

The house upon our arrival.

Me posing.  Tony working.

The parade from one house to another at ‘hand-over’ ceremony.

Granny is very happy to have her new house!

It all calls for a house party!

Next, we are off to Victoria Falls.  The tone of the trip is about to become much more selfish as we visit my bucket list!

80% of Malawi’s population lives in villages.  Best I could tell a village is 6 to 25 small mud or mud brick houses with grass roofs.   They are typically 6 by 5 meters or smaller.   The kitchen is a pot sitting on an open fire, on the ground outside.  An outhouse completes each homestead.  Goats and chickens roam around and do not seem to belong to anyone in particular.  Children run around playing with sticks, homemade balls, bicycle rims, and each other.

The villagers are primarily subsistence farmers.  The women keep life going.  They bring in water from wells in five gallon buckets on their head.  (I gave this chore a try.  I had help getting it on and off my head, they pop it up on their head like it was a feather chapeau.  I walked slowly with one hand on the precariously balanced bucket.)  They do it up to 10 times a day with no help, no hands, in a long skirt, barefoot and often with a baby strapped on their back – -all while looking incredibly comfortable and elegant, sometimes talking or singing while they walk down the dirt roads.

In addition, they are drying maize, picking tomatoes, peeling vegetables, gathering eggs and cooking on an open fire.  They may do some piece work or make baskets to earn a little money.

We went into a few homes.  There was nothing inside except mats on the floor for sleeping.  When I say nothing.  I mean it literally.  No clothes, no shelves, no books, no table, no chair, no cupboard…nothing.  They own the clothes on their backs, buckets for carrying water, pots for cooking and a few bowls for eating.

Most of the men are farming or fishing.  They walk or bicycle almost exclusively for transport.

This is how 80% of the 15 million Malawians live.

That said, they celebrate life!

Just a couple of words about growing up here.  Most children go to school from the time they are 6 until they are 12 or 13.  Primary school is free.  However, secondary school costs and parents can’t afford it.  (So the girls usually get married and start having their own family right away.  I met one woman who was 34 and already a grandmother of two.  I digress.) Here is the heart-breaker to educate a child in secondary school cost the equivalent of  £50 or $75 a year.  Problem number two, there isn’t enough room in the schools.  In the primary school we visited with 1,182 students and 19 teachers, 4 students from the previous year had gone on to secondary school.

I know this all sounds grim.  However, being here (Malawi is known as the “heart of Africa”), it doesn’t feel grim.  People seem content, even joyful.  They are incredibly polite, appreciative and fun.  Despite the limitations of the education system the literacy rate is 75%.

Yesterday we visited a Habitat kindergarten for orphans and vulnerable children.  The kids sang and played games while we toured their school room.

Classroom in the kindergarten for 70+ students.

After the pre-school/kindergarten we visited a public primary school.  We were greeted like royalty.  The head teacher spoke to us about their school, the children sang.

Next time, village life and the ‘build’!

Everything that I could write about the children has been written many times and you’ve read it many times.  It all seems so trite.  I’ll let the pictures do the talking.  The kids have no toys, no games, no playground.   Their balls are home-made tightly packed plastic bags tied together with twine.  They love having their picture made because they also have no mirrors.  They squeal and giggle when you show them their image on the back of the camera.

The girls start toting their little brothers and sisters when they are 4 or 5 years old.

Twins that have won our hearts.

My fellow Habitaters were much more prepared than me.  They brought bats, balls, jump ropes, coloring books and even nail polish.  These girls just got a Malawi Manicure.

We also visited a local school today, more on that tomorrow.

Ultimately we are here to build houses and we do that in between games with the children.