The End of an Amazing African Journey

The day has come. Today was my last day full day in Rwanda, since I fly out of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, tomorrow around noon. It seems like I was at Samara Private Game Reserve an eternity ago, when I was with Alwyn and Hayley tracking down Sibella the cheetah, and taking mammal survey game drives and walks with my newly acquainted friend Drew from South Africa. It was an amazing way to start off my trip, because they were all so welcoming, and enthusiastic about what they do. When I headed to Philippolis, 6 weeks after being at Samara, I was a bit weary about the change in scenery. After 2 weeks of building an elementary school, and helping teach and aide an extremely poverty-stricken town of South Africa, I felt very exhausted from all the hard work, but accomplished. With Kate Groch leading the way in her “Future Nature” education project, it should continue to be successful, and help educate less fortunate children in areas that are often overlooked such as, AIDS awareness and human rights. After Philippolis, I was very excited to meet up with my mother to do some site visits for her company, “Roar Africa”. We first headed to a very luxurious game reserve in “Londolozi”. The game viewing was incredible, and wasn’t really a dull moment to be had. I got my wish to see a leopard, and that wish was exceeded by being able to see that leopard feasting on an impala on its perch up in a tree. After 2 amazing days of game drives, and one very awesome game walk, we headed to Cape Town for wine tasting, and more site viewings at vineyards for my mom. I was more than happy to be “dragged” along with her for these. On our last couple of nights, we stayed in the heart of Cape Town, and had a chance to do a cage dive with Great White sharks. The whole experience definitely got the blood pumping, and being in the cage with my mom in absurdly cold water, with these massive sharks was something I’ll never forget. After Cape Town, my mother and I met up with the group of Mount Kilimanjaro hikers in Tanzania. My mom, dad, Jack Oliver, four others and I had a day to prep for the hike, and then we started our climb. I think the hike was physically more difficult than most people expected, and the days were a bit longer than advertised, but at the end of the day (or 6 day climb) all 8 of us made it to the summit! After one night of soaking my feet in scolding hot water, I was off to my next journey… Rwanda. I have to say, the people in Rwanda could not have been nicer people. Every single person wants to meet you, and tell you their name, where they’re going, how old they are, and then wants to know the exact same things about YOU. Although the constant staring, finger pointing, and non-stop “uMuzungu” & “Jesus” shouting was slightly irritating, I knew they were just fascinated in what my story was about. The kids on the streets and in three different schools I taught at (Wisdom Primary School, Nursery School, School for the Deaf and Orphans) were all eager to learn English, and the Conservation lessons I taught seemed to be beneficial. Seeing the Mountain Gorillas was a once in a lifetime experience, and I’ll never have the visual of that massive 600-pound Silverback charge our guide, Poppie. My almost 5-month African adventure has now come to an end. Some of the landscapes, and animals I saw were well documented with my camera, but photos don’t do them justice. I wish the best to all the African’s I have become friends with, as well as the thousands of people I encountered in Philippolis and Rwanda, that are struggling each day to survive to the next.

Pics from the Week

Final Week in Africa

Well, I finished up the final week of my African journey escapade. On Monday and Tuesday, I taught some conservation science to the primary school kids. Then after the lesson, I took them out around their school, and had them pick up garbage that was on the street. Rwanda is very vegetative, but people do litter a lot. The kids had no prior education on why pollution is bad for their environment, so it was good for them to learn a few things about conservation, and then witness first-hand, what I lectured about. In each of my lessons, I emphasized that many people come to Rwanda to see the beautiful volcanoes and the mountain gorillas, but if they kept littering and trashing the country, people would not want to come visit a polluted Rwanda. No tourism = No jobs = No money… that was basically the big picture of why they should keep Rwanda clean, because Rwanda is a very poor country, and trashing it will only further this downward slope into poverty. Wednesday and Thursday, I helped out teaching with English teacher, Syrus, and also helped him teach Social Studies. Although many of the other teachers that teach at Wisdom Primary School speak very good English for Rwandans, it fascinates me how many times they ask me how to spell certain words, and how frequently they make spelling errors while they write on the chalkboard. I’ve correct their spelling errors many times, but sometimes I just feel bad for correcting their every move, so I’ll just let it be. Today (Friday) I visited, and taught at the Deaf School for the last time. I woke up early, as I usually do on Fridays, and walked an hour up the hill to the Deaf School. As usual, one of the local kids accompanied me on my hour walk, and practiced their English on me. When I got to the Deaf School, I did a bit of wood carving with the kids, and then taught a lesson afterwards. We played some volleyball on their break time, and then they had lunch. At lunch, Louis, the man that runs the show at the Deaf School, brought me into the kids lunch room to tell the kids that it was my last day at the school. There were many tears, which was quite touching, and Louis cried as well, which kind of surprised me. I know I’ve given my time and effort to helping out at the school, but I guess I didn’t give myself enough credit as to how greatly I’ve touched some of their lives. Louis gave me a mask that he carved and painted for me, a thank you card, and then after I said goodbye to the rest of the teachers, I began my hour walk back home. It was a very rewarding day, and makes me sad to leave many of the nice and generous people I have met on my trip to Rwanda. Although it was hard to say goodbye to the kids and staff, I can definitely say that I am very excited to return back to US soil.

Me and my favorite student- Zuzu - an Orphan at the Orphan & Deaf School

Gorilla Pic

Gorilla Picture- Mom and Baby

Mountain Gorilla Adventure!

Yesterday was an absolutely spectacular day, and quite possibly the best day of my African journey. I woke up at 5 am, had some breakfast, and then headed to the Gorilla Hotel, which is right down the street from where Elie lives. A driver met me there, and drove me to the Kinigi Headquarters, where all the Virunga National Park tours leave from. Once we got there, I told him that I would like to go on the longest walk possible, so that I get my “bang for the buck”, if you catch my drift. The drivers of all the people seeing the gorillas that day meet with the guides, and assign groups of 8 people per group, and which of the six volcanoes they will be going to. I was assigned to a group that was going to Visoke Mountain, and seeing the Amahoro group of gorillas, which consisted of 15 gorillas. Our guide, named Poppie, which I eventually referred to as Big Poppie, gave us some guidelines on our hike, and also told us about the members of the Amahoro group. In the group, there is a 3 month old baby, that Poppie said we most likely won’t see, since the mother is very protective of her newborn, but also three more babies that are in the 1 to 3 year-old range. Also in the group is the biggest Silverback gorilla in the entire National Park, weighing almost 600 pounds! I assumed I wasn’t going to see the tiny baby, but really wanted to see the big Silverback. My driver then drove me 45 minutes to the base of the volcano, through some brutally bumpy roads, and called it an “African massage.” We were the only hiking through this area, which was nice, and we started our hike through a local village and their crop fields. After about 45 minutes of hiking, we entered Virunga National Park. There was so much vegetation, that in many places, it was very difficult to maneuver from point A to B. Our guide, named Poppie, which I eventually referred to as Big Poppie, had a machete to clear the path in several instances. There was also a tracker, who ultimately led us to the gorillas, and porters that carried a couple of the women’s backpacks. The tracker carried an AK-47, in case of an animal or potential guerrilla attack… I just didn’t ask questions about the gun, and just presumed it was for our safety. Anyways, in our three track to the area where the Amahoro group of gorillas were spotted, we saw a group of male Golden Monkeys, and the porters and I saw a buffalo. The rest of the group didn’t see the buffalo, because I was in the back of the line taking pictures, and soaking up the incredible views. Once we got 100 meters from the gorillas, Poppie told us all to take all the gear we needed to view the gorillas (camera, batteries, video camera) and take our backpacks off. We were told to do this, because the gorillas could become interested in what is inside the backpack if it is on our backs. So, we took our backpacks off, and bushwhacked about 40 meters through some thick bamboo, and literally the first thing we saw was the 3 month old baby gorilla suckling on her mother. The mom took off about a minute after we arrived, but that minute was ridiculously incredible. We then kept up with the Amahoro group, which was in the process of eating, and stayed with them for an hour, which is all that is allowed by the park authorities. We hadn’t seen the big Silverback for the entire hour, until as we were leaving, Poppie spotted him out, and he took us around an area of thick bamboo to try and get a view of him. He struggled to find out exactly where this huge male was heading, until all of the sudden, with zero warning, the massive Silverback came bursting through the vegetation straight at Poppie with a shrieking noise I will never forget. It scared the absolute Buh-Jesus out of the entire group, and had to of given Poppie a freight, as the gorilla came only a few feet from him. I asked him afterwards what happened, and he told me that he startled the male, and since he is literally the king of the jungle, he came up to him in a hurry to see who was intruding his space. Once the Silverback saw Poppie, he still seemed upset, but once Poppie knelt down, it showed the Silverback that he was in control, and everything was okay. Before we saw the gorillas, Poppie gave us a few guidelines on how we should behave, and what we should and shouldn’t do. He told us that the closest we can get in 7 meters from the gorillas, and also that if one of the gorillas should by chance charge someone in the group, DO NOT RUN. For that hour that we observed the gorillas, we were in very thick brush, and most if not all times we were viewing the gorillas we were only 3 meters from them—Rule #1 broken—Also, when Big Poppie was charged by the 600 pound Silverback, one of the group members took off running for her life—Rule # 2 broken. All 8 of us arrived back at the starting point three hours later… A day I’ll never forget!

I will put pictures up tomorrow... Internet is deathly slow right now