Rwanda 2010 – Day 6

“I feel more comfortable with gorillas than people. I can anticipate what a gorilla's going to do, and they're purely motivated.” – Dian Fossey

Because we weren’t hiking or trekking this day, we were able to sleep in – and sleep in we did! We both slept great, for once, and had a leisurely morning before heading up to breakfast at 8 am – over 2 hours later than everyone else. As we walked up to the main lodge my friend Grison came out with a big smile on his face. “Good result for Arsenal!” he said. “Arsenal 3, Chelsea 1!” I celebrated with him and then Sage and I headed to the dining room. Before we could enter one of the workers came out and said, “Not in here”, and she brought us around the dining room to a table they had set up right on the veranda! The view was gorgeous, overlooking Lake Burera, it was delightful to have our own little breakfast table set up for us.

Sage enjoys breakfast on the veranda

After eating we walked around the lodge, taking photos and exploring some of the short nature trails they have nearby. We also charged some of the batteries for our cameras in the main lodge, as there are no outlets in any of the bandas. During one of our walks, which had great views to the valley and village below us, I heard someone yelling, “HELLO!” Now this is something we’ve heard a thousand times since we’ve been in Rwanda, as any time you walk or drive by children, they love to run up to you and say “Hello! Hello!” But there was no one around, so I assumed it couldn’t be directed at us. Then we heard it again. I looked down into the valley, and I saw 2 little kids on a small lane, waving. They couldn’t be waving at me, could they? They’re so far away! So I put up my hand to wave back, and they both started jumping up and down and waving! One yelled again, “Will you come visit us?” I yelled back, “Maybe later!” He replied, “COME VISIT US!!!” If there wasn’t such a steep climb back to the lodge awaiting us after a visit, I probably would have headed down right then! But as it was, we were tired and the hike just seemed like too much.

View into the valley from our lodge

We relaxed on the patio outside the lounge, reading and looking at our photos. Our plan for the afternoon was to take Felix Ndagijimana from the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund up on his offer to visit the Karisoke offices at around 2:30. We had told Francis about this invitation the day before, but he was going to have to drive Mort, Judy and Jeff back to Kigali today, so we were getting a new driver. He told us it would be someone named Eric, and that he would pass along the message to him. He also suggested that before the visit to Karisoke that we go to the local market in Musanze, which we agreed, and we said we’d meet up with Eric at Noon. Unfortunately, since we didn’t have internet since we arrived in Rwanda, I wasn’t 100% sure if the visit to Karisoke was confirmed or not, or if Felix may have to cancel due to an emergency. So I figured I’d ask our new driver/guide to call Felix before we left, just to make sure the tour was still on. So at Noon we headed down to the parking area, and we met our new driver. It wasn’t Eric, but a young man named Theogene. (I didn’t know how to spell it until later in our trip, but he explained it was “Tea-o-gin”. And since that sounded like my two favorite drinks, I knew it would be easy to remember.) My first question to Theogene was whether I could borrow his phone to call Felix at Karisoke. “Oh, don’t worry”, he said. “I just saw him a couple of hours ago. We’re all set to arrive at Karisoke between 2 and 2:30.” Once again, everything detail is planned 5 steps ahead! We started the drive, and immediately it became clear that Theogene’s driving wouldn’t be nearly as good as Francis's driving. It’s not that Theogene was a bad driver, but he was a very slow driver, and also a very cautious one. Francis, on the other hand, would drive down the paved roads at high speeds, whizzing by the locals walking on the road with barely an inch to spare – but we also got to where we were going in good time. Theogene would drive extremely slow on the dirt roads, and was extremely cautious on the main roads with people around. It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it definitely would take a lot longer to get from place to place than it did with Francis.

Our first stop in Musanze was the local food market. This is where all the fruits and vegetables that we saw people carrying along the roads would end up for local purchase. It was pretty impressive, although they also sold meat there which was extremely smelly. They would simply hang the butchered meat on a hook in an outside stall, and I guess people would come up and ask for a hunk of it. With the amount of flies buzzing around and landing on the meat, I wasn’t in a hurry to try any.

Bananas for sale at the local food market

Our second stop was at the other market in town; this one was specifically for clothing, household goods, and the like. This one was much more crowded, and not all that interesting. It didn’t have any sort of handicrafts or local goods that would appeal to tourists, but was really for the locals to buy their shoes, a radio, a bag, or whatever else they may need around the house. I did notice in one stall, however, an Arsenal soccer ball for sale. When I pointed it out to Sage, Theogene mentioned that he loved Arsenal! Yes, Rwanda was definitely an Arsenal hotbed of fandom. With that quick run-through, Theogene asked if we were hungry for lunch. When we said no, he got a little bit worried, as we had time to kill. We told him that we could sit and have a coffee somewhere, and that made him happy. We drove to a small hotel that had a café attached to it and found a seat outside. We ordered coffee, while Theogene got a sandwich and chips. We chatted some, and found out that he was from Kigali, that he’s kind of a free-lancer for Mr. Francis (he always called him Mr. Francis) and helps out when he needs an extra driver or guide, and finally we learned that he only began to learn English a year ago! This amazed me, as his English, while not great by any means, was really good. I mean, I took French in high school for 4 years and I couldn’t come close to speaking it as well as he spoke English.

A little bit past 2 we made our way to the Karisoke offices. Felix met us, and said that he wanted to take us first up to Bisate, a small village about 30 minutes north of Musanze, where the DFGF’s field work and trackers are organized. So with that, we got back in our car with Theogene and followed Felix on the way north. The ride was another bumpy one, and when we arrived we went into a small building that only had about 4 or 5 rooms, mostly with benches and tables. Felix told us they had about 65 trackers that worked for them, and their job was to track – every day – the 9 research groups of gorillas that the DFGF monitor. (Up until 3 years ago they only had 3 research groups, but through a series of splits in the groups, they now monitor 9.) Felix then gathered all the trackers that were there into one room for us, and then spoke to them in Kinyarwandan. He said he told them that our support is what allows them to do their work, and how they wouldn’t be able to do it without us. We were taken aback a bit, and we asked Felix to tell them many, many thanks for all the work that they do, and how the work they do is very important and it definitely doesn’t go unappreciated. I then threw in at the end a couple of “Murakoze! Murakoze!”, which means “Thank You” in Kinyarwanda (and Theogene had taught that too me just a few hours earlier). All the trackers immediately broke into applause, which I wasn’t sure was a collective “thank you” to us, or maybe they were simply impressed by my weak language skills. Either way, they made us feel like celebrities, which we definitely DON’T feel like, so it was strange/nice/awkward, all rolled into one.

After meeting the trackers Felix showed us the school and health clinic in Bisate that were both built with funds from the DFGF. The thought is that in order for the locals to really take ownership in trying to save the gorillas, they need to give back to them in the things they need most: healthcare and education. (Schools across Rwanda were on their Summer Vacation, so there weren’t any schoolchildren to meet, unfortunately.) Afterwards we made the drive back to Musanze and to the DFGF main offices. Felix gave us a tour of the building, showing all the notebooks of data collection they’ve accumulated over the years. Interestingly enough, they still use the same format and process of field data collection that Dian started decades ago. This is crucial for their research, as it enables the researchers to easily track the data flow for specific gorillas or groups over time without having to “translate” one person’s method of data collection to another. He also showed us numerous binders that kept Dian’s actual notes from when she started her research. (They were actually photocopies of her actual notes; her originals are kept at the main offices in Atlanta.) Finally a man named Deogratias showed us around his area at the Fossey Fund, as he’s in charge of biodiversity studies in the park – basically all plants and animals EXCEPT for gorillas. He was especially happy to show us where they keep all of their stool samples, in freezers until they can ship them out for analysis in Germany. By then it was time to say our goodbyes. We thanked Felix profusely for taking the time to show us around and promised him that they’d always have our support. It wasn’t until after we left that Sage realized that we didn’t get a photo with him like we wanted -- and she was wearing her Karisoke T-shirt and everything! But that was the only disappointment on the day.

Back at the lodge we put in our order for dinner with the chef and made our way to the lounge for drinks at 6 and to see what new folks have joined our little crew. Unfortunately for us we were soon joined by Ethel, who sat right next to us and started to complain about the following: Her LONG trek on the day, that lasted over 2 hours each way; the rain during the hike; the bumpy road to get to and from the hike; the fact that there wasn’t any hot water when she got back; and there was no hair dryer in her room. (This last one made me laugh, as her hair, which yesterday was all curly and full of body, was all flat and stringy. Hee.) But then some of the newbies showed up, and we found out that the 7 new folks joining us were all together. The main guy in charge introduced himself as Robin West from Washington, DC, and immediately I thought he was either a lawyer or lobbyist. (Sure enough, a quick Google search when I got home found him, as the president and CEO of some energy consultation company. And he worked in the Reagan administration. But even so, he was a nice guy. With him were his wife, Elaine; a daughter Kate and her boyfriend Carter; another daughter Lily; and the twins, Laura and Wyeth. We found out that Lily currently goes to grad school at UVa, and she went to her undergrad at Chapel Hill, so of course I loathed her immediately. The twins were both juniors in prep school, which came as a surprise as Wyeth immediately ordered a beer and started sucking it down. But overall they were nice, interesting people. At one point I asked Carter where they traveled in from, and he related an interesting story. They had been in South Africa for a while, and were catching a RwandAir flight from Jo’burg to Kigali. (If you remember, in a blog a while back, our travel agent had told us that RwandAir was VERY unreliable, and we should avoid them.) When they checked in at Jo’burg, the RwandAir agent told them they had no reservation for all 7 of their flights! Even though they had printed out confirmations, the RwandAir agent told them sorry, they weren’t on the flight. So they asked if they could buy tickets on the plane, and were told sure. They handed over a credit card, and the agent told them, “Sorry, no credit cards. Cash only.” So they spent the next 30 minutes withdrawing as much money as each of them could to pay for the tickets, and they were able to make the flight. (Please note: This story is told in detail for a reason. It’s what we call in the industry a “tease”. You'll see.)

Dinner started at 7, and while Sage grabbed a seat I went to use the restroom. When I got back I noticed that Hollywood Chris was seated next to me, but his wife Cindy was not; she was across the table, a few seats over. Across from Chris was Ethel, which means she was near us as well. Sage murmured to me, “I’ll have to tell you what happened later.” (Okay, I’ll tell you now so you won’t have to wait. So everyone was sitting down, and Cindy sat down on one side with one empty seat next to her. Ethel came in behind Cindy and sat down in that seat! Without thinking, so, maybe Cindy’s husband might want to sit next to her. Chris came in, looked around, and, there being only one seat left (next to me), sat down in it. Again, keep this in mind for a future blog. I'm all about the teases tonight.) We spent most of the night ignoring Ethel and talking to Chris about his non-profit. There wasn’t much else of interest that happened on the night, and we had an early wake-up call the next day, so we excused ourselves at 8:30. After reading for a bit, we both curled up with our hot water bottles and fell into a sound sleep.