For the past few days, we’ve been in Mbarara (in central Uganda) doing presentations and meeting with our study teams. It has been a fabulous experience, and it will facilitate our work to better understand the projects and workflow here. Flavia was appointed as our chaperone and she did a marvelous job. 🙂

By the 2nd afternoon, we felt pretty comfortable with the immediate area and were able to navigate on our own, so we stopped for some coffee at a nearby cafe and watched the ugly birds perch themselves on treetops and power poles.

We were approached by a total stranger who wanted to tell us his life story. He saw us sitting on the restaurant balcony and came over. We also noticed (and were told) that kids in particular would call us “mzungu” and then wave or say hi. It is striking being so different in a country that is quite uniform. I never think about what people look like in the US because it is so heterogenous, and I can’t tell you what “typical” lunch might be because the US is so multicultural, but that is not at all the case here. Here, there is one culture, one palate, one look. There’s nothing wrong with it, of course, but it is different from what I’m used to.

After presenting on Friday, we hit the road to Entebbe. 5+ hours. Sigh. It was long, hot, and bumpy, but we made it. And we passed over the equator along the way!

Our last day had one and only one objective: to see a shoebill. Shoebills are basically dinosaur birds that missed the memo on extinction. They are 4+ feet tall and they are mean even to their own kind (a mother may have 3 hatchlings, but she will favor the first or strongest and allow the others to starve or let the strongest one kill their siblings). They are also rare and hard to see, so we set off at 7am for the docks where we got into a fishing boat and then eventually into a small canoe to navigate the swamps.

Shoebills are as weird as I expected them to be.

As is the Ugandan way, the sky turned while we were out, so our guides encouraged us to head back.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t soon enough. We huddled under tarps while it poured. Eventually, we headed back, and then got stuck in another massive storm, so we are soaked 100% of the way through.

All in all, I had a great trip. Ugandans are friendly, the country is lush, and the wildlife is special.

3am pick-up time. I signed up for that. Voluntarily.

Why, you might wonder?

Gorillas. Specifically, Mountain Gorillas, of which there are barely one thousand of remaining on this planet, and which we get to go and see.

So, we painfully got ourselves up and met our guide and driver for the next 2 days. About halfway across Rwanda, the car seems to be having some trouble. Our driver is on the phone (he seems to have a network of people to call at 3:45am!!). And then…

…the radiator blows and we are not moving. Thankfully, one of the calls the driver made was to somebody who was able to get us after only a 20ish minute wait and drive us to the border. Another call our driver made was to the office, where another car was waiting for us at the border station.

I was transporting supplies with me to take to Mbarara. This is common among our colleagues, and I knew what was in the bag, so I wasn’t worried. I knew I might have to pay customs fees, but this transaction felt weird. Ultimately, our driver spoke to the customs agent discretely and slipped him some cash so we could proceed. I was grateful because my experience with bribes is not terribly robust and I wasn’t really sure how that worked. Do you ask the price? Do you suggest an amount for him to forget about the bag? How much is fair? How much is insulting? Well, I don’t need to know those things because it’s all set. On we go!

One of the other calls our guide made was to arrange for us to potentially be assigned one of the gorilla families that was more easily accessible since we were going to be late and we had a long drive in the afternoon. We arrived at Bwindi Impenetrable Forest and met our trackers and rangers. We were very pleased to not have to join other groups on their hikes!

This hike was NO JOKE! Other than the single step from the road, you are never walking on solid ground. It’s a crazy jumble of vines, saplings, and other vegetation that the trackers had to machete through. It was hot, humid, very difficult physically, yet completely worth it when you catch your first glimpse of a gorilla in the wild.

There was also a massive silverback in this group. We heard him, and the rangers made grunting sounds back at him. Then they told us to have our cameras ready. (Ready for what? I wondered). Well, I don’t know what you do when 450ish pounds of muscle and fur comes flying through the air in front of you, but I help and flail my arms around. I do not have my camera steady, nor do I have sufficient brainpower to remember how to use it. Silverbacks are big, strong, and scary. They do their job well, and I was happy enough to let him be.

We spent one hour with the gorillas (they don’t sit still, so one hour with them = one hour navigating the challenging terrain). I loved every second, but my body was physically exhausted and so we did not protest when we had to leave.

I understand why the cost of gorilla tracking is so high – these magnificent creatures need serious protection and that is costly – but it is sad that most people will never get to look into the eyes of a wild gorilla. It’s magical.

After a lengthy drive, we finally arrived at our lodge for the night in Queen Elizabeth National Park. Ellie’s never been on safari, so tomorrow is a big day for her!

Sunday was our lone Kigali day. Despite the depressing tone, we wanted to go to the Genocide Memorial. I had memories of the genocide, but truly, no real appreciation for the scale and speed of the Rwandan experience. One million civilians (or 500,000-800,000 according to some scholars, although when speaking of lives lost in the hundreds of thousands, any number greater than 0 is too many) were slaughtered in 100 days in 1994. How humans can turn on each other like that is simply incomprehensible, but having just spent time in Budapest learning about the annihilation of the Jewish population of Hungary, it clearly happens again and again.

Moments after we set out, the sky ripped open and it poured, so we hunted for someplace serving coffee (tea is not the same, no matter how much people try to convince me otherwise). We read the guidebook, drank coffee, and admired these cool pink birds roosting up in the trees.

The Genocide Memorial is as somber as you might expect. Outside, it is beautifully landscaped and also simple in its displays. Large concrete slabs mark the mass burial site of a quarter million people who died during the genocide, and a wall of names is being constructed (most victims have not been identified, so it is a work in progress).

We thought it might be best to lighten the mood a bit for the afternoon, so we set out on foot to find a coffee roaster or local coffee shop. Being Easter Sunday, some places were closed, but we did manage to find some good coffee before heading out to dinner at a cool restaurant founded by a woman who uses the restaurant to train Rwandans in food service and hospitality jobs. food was excellent, as was the view!

We had an early bedtime because the next day was the highlight of the trip – gorilla tracking!

April vacation week is coming up. I’m not one to miss a vacation, so the $221 deal to Colombia seemed like the perfect fit. Leave Thursday, return the following Saturday. Kiddo misses 2 days of school because she’s a senior (and her parents are cool like that).

Then the plan starts to evolve and grow a mind of its own. Avianca decided not to fly from Boston to Bogotá on Thursdays anymore, so we had to rebook to Wednesday afternoon. A long contemplated work trip to Uganda suddenly falls into place for me and a coworker/friend. There’s a solar eclipse happening. The result is a schedule that is insane:

March 29: Ellie and I fly to Amsterdam

March 30: fly to Kigali, Rwanda

March 31: Kigali

April 1: land crossing to Bwindi National Forest in Uganda for gorilla tracking

April 2: Queen Elizabeth National Park safari drive and river safari

April 3: Mbarara, working

April 4: Mbarara, working

April 5: Mbarara, transfer to Entebbe

April 6: Shoebill swamp tour and explore Kampala; midnight flight to Amsterdam

April 7: Ellie and I part ways; I sleep a few hours in the airport hotel, then fly home

April 8: drive to NH for the eclipse and drive back home

April 9: normal workday followed by a Bruins game

April 10: evening flight to Bogotá

April 11: Bogotá

April 12: Santa Marta and Tayrona National Park yacht cruise

April 13: Santa Marta and Cartagena

April 14: boat to Rosario Islands and stay the night

April 15: return to Cartagena

April 16: fly to Pereira, drive to Salento and tour a coffee finca

April 17: valle corcora and drive to Manizales

April 18: hot springs

April 19: fly back to Bogotá

April 20: fly home

Tomorrow is day 1 of this epic journey. Tonight we barely managed to feed ourselves (very good Indian and middle eastern food) and now it’s bedtime. Tomorrow we start the day with the Genocide Memorial/Museum – a haunting experience, but also really important to learn about and it is thoughtfully done from what I’ve heard.