Like any other Sunday

It was Sunday morning. I’d slept in a bit, dinked around in the garden, and I had been invited to Fabien’s wedding today. He’s one of the 2 head gorilla orphan caregivers in Kinigi, and I was so very honored to be invited - I was beginning to be part of the community! I’d picked out the skirt and blouse I was going to wear, and was in the process of ironing when I got the first call. There was a professor from Princeton trekking gorillas today, and I was to have lunch with him at one of the resorts. What a dilemma. I did some quick calculating and figured I could go to the wedding but slip out early in time to make it to this lunch. It would work out just fine.

Then I got the second call. There was a silverback gorilla who was still in his night nest at 10am. NOT a good sign at all. Now all bets were off. No wedding, no lunch with the professor from Princeton. I was so sad to miss Fabien’s wedding, but I knew he would understand. He was a gorilla caregiver after all. I prepared to go to the forest to assess this silverback.

As I put my raingear, camera and fleece in my backpack, I had a million questions going through my head – had he been in a fight with another silverback? Did he fall? Was he coughing? Others sick? Will this require anesthesia?

I climbed in the truck and drove to pick up the tracker and porter who accompanied me. We then drove down a long, curvy lava strewn “road” to the “parking” area. It must have been a market day because I passed bag after bag of potatoes along the way, piled outside a small shop, on people’s heads, and 3-4 huge bags on bicycles that strong men were pushing up steep hills. We parked the truck outside a small village and started up the slope. It was about 60 degrees, overcast and windy as we headed up the slope to the edge of the park – I have a feeling my nose was bright red as it dripped steadily in the wind... And it was MUDDY. I was priding myself in how well I was keeping up with the tracker when I slipped and fell in the mud on the way up – sorta embarrassing. It took us only 30 minutes to get to the park edge. We were following the Susa River on the way up. I couldn’t see it, but I could hear it rushing down the hillside. Then we came to the falls - absolutely beautiful. I still can’t quite believe I get to work here!

I had to take a pee at the wall at the edge of the park (too much coffee that morning). The trackers are used to this, but I was a little embarrassed. I said in my best English “I have to go have a pee…” and point to the bushes. The tracker said “Number one?” and I thought, did he just ask me that??!! I said, “Yes, number one - the short call.” And he somberly nodded his approval. I wondered what he would have said it was number two… I found a bush that is nicely situated to provide me with privacy from the trackers, but I imagine the whole valley could probably see my glowing white bum. Yikes.

It was another 30 minutes through the forest until we got to the group. As soon as we entered the forest the wind stopped and everything was quiet. We were in a bamboo area and there was moss hanging from bamboo, and bamboo going every which way making the path a little difficult to navigate, not to mention the ankle deep mud. But we kept going, and it wasn’t far until we came upon the silverback, laying on his side with 3 juvenile gorillas playing around him. He lifted his head to acknowledge me, but then laid back down. I was a worried. The tracker and I moved off to look at the rest of the group, and in about 15 minutes we saw the silverback moving in our direction. He was limping a little, but sat and ate well while we watched several others in the area. What a relief. We watched the group for about an hour, and once the tracker and I were both satisfied that he was okay, we headed back out of the park. We both thought he had probably fallen and hurt his leg, but not seriously. I learned later that he was back to normal the next day. Phew!

I’m doing a lot better with the altitude – still very slow as we climb, but this time we were at around 8800 feet and I kept up pretty well! The mood was light as we walked down the mountain. When we got back to the falls I stopped and told Joseph the porter I needed to be a tourist for a moment and took a picture. Joseph and the tracker laughed. And I practiced my Kinyarwanda on them. I now know to say “nitwa Jan” when the kids call me Mzungu (my name is Jan). I can say “muramutse”, which means "good morning". And respond with “yego”, meaning "yes, it is a good morning". Or to say “Amakuru” in greeting (Peace) to which one responds “Nimeza”, meaning "and also to you". Joseph and the tracker seemed to get a kick out of my trying to learn Kinyarwanda, and they tried to teach me so many words! I know I won’t remember them because I can’t write them down as we walk – the words are still so foreign to me. But it was fun. I told them about Amahirwe and they laughed at the name (it took me a while to get across the concept that I have a puppy with that name, but we eventually got there between my bad French, their a little better English, and pantomiming!). I told them that some days she is Amahane, and they busted a gut.

I am feeling settled in. I've learned to always expect the unexpected. I love this place and the people, and of course the gorillas.



Ugenda feeling stiff and sore.


Other family members enjoying lunch.


Susa falls.