Amos to Gorillas in the Mist (or the Impenetrable Forest)

As written on 29 Jan, 2004

Well our latest escapades include a very special dayon Jan 23 when we met our sponsor child, Amos (who very recently turned 7 yrs old) and his family in their village about 65 kms north of Kampala (the capital of Uganda). Two World Vision field workers and a driver accompanied us to the Kasangombe Project, one of 11 projects World Vision has in Uganda.

There we met Janet, who is the case worker for Amos and who helps him write his letters to us - they all love her and call her Aunty. After a briefing and some information about the project, goals and successes at the little office, where we also viewed Amos' file (which had copies of all our letters to him and from him, his health reports, school reports etc.), we headed out to meet the family at their home.

As we pulled in front of the mud hut, I recognized a little boy who

came running out from the side of the hut - it was Amos and he'd been waiting for us. Janet told us that his mother said he'd been so excited that he'd been waking up in the middle of the night for the past couple of weeks saying, "my sponsor is coming, my sponsor is coming!"

We met all the family, including g/mother and g/father (who actually spoke a little bit of English), Amos' father, mother, uncle (also some English) and little sister Luyiga (3.5 years) and baby brother Saul (18 mths). It was strange to see the photos of ourselves that I had sent him,

stuck up on the wall of his mud hut.

We gave Amos the school supplies and few little toys we'd bought with us for him, and he shared his color pencils with all the other kids who were crowding around - it made him feel really special to give a small gift to the others. He's lucky to have both parents, as most of the kids are orphans due toAids and the aftermath of the Amin era - in fact there's 6250 orphans in this project alone!! Anyway, Amos was very shy at first and we could tell he didn't like being the center of attention.

Then we drove out to see the community well that our money helped build and where Amos goes each day to get water for the household - his number 1 chore. We also checked out the family's vege/fruit garden. Prior to World Vision support they really only grew bananas, cassava and some tea. Now they have pumpkins, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, corn and many other fruits and veges, which they picked a big bag for us and the field workers to take back.

Back to the hut for a typical Ugandan meal that Amos' mother had prepared while we were out. As Sean was the head male guest of honor, he was given the chicken gizzards to eat (I was so thankful it wasn't me), but he dutifully scoffed it down and said aside from the rubbery texture it wasn't too bad at all!

With that done, it means we'll get an invitation back - hope there's something else on the menu next time. Actually gizzards aside, the local fare is pretty good: usually a meat of some sort in a broth, with rice, matoke (mashed plantains), greens similar to spinach, cassava and ground nut sauce. After graciously declining our gift of a live chicken and also turning down the goat, we sadly said our goodbyes to this wonderful, humble and extemely grateful family, and to all the smiling, waving kids that lined the dirt road as we drove by (we felt like the King and Queen in our escorted vehicle). A very special and emotionally tiring day, and one we won't forget.

Two days later we took a 12 hour bus ride to the SW corner of the

country to Bwindi National Park

(also known as the Impenetrable Forest)

to track theMountain Gorillas, of which there are only about 600 left in the world. After nearly 4 hours of trekking through thick jungle, up and down steep mountainous terrain and hacking through vines and branches, we find our elusive group of Gorillas and follow them and watch them for the next hour. They were not as playful as we would have liked them to be, but hey, you can't plan

nature. We did see the big Silverback, several blackbacks and also several mothers with babies. It was truly amazing to be so close to them (about 3-5 meters) and for them to be oblivious to us and just doing their thing.

A long, sweaty hike back to the vehicle was cooled down when it started raining, and we finally made it back to camp at 6:00 p.m. These kids had seen our vehicle parked at the trail head in the morning and knew that we'd be coming back at some point, so they were waiting all that time for us to walk down that last section of trail in the hope that we might buy one of their hand drawn pictures of the Gorillas. Of course we did, and we gave them some extra money too - they were so grateful and had waited all day for us. The picture of the little girl carrying her little sister is my favourite pic from the entire trip - these kids have so little and yet are happy.

Anyway, we learned that we really worked for our gorillas, as other groups back at camp told us they saw there gorillas in as little as 1 hour hiking!!!

The next day we headed to Lake Bunyoni

(dubbed the Switzerland of Africa) for a couple of days of R&R.

And what a serene and beautiful area this was.

Our room ($15 p/night) looked right over the lake, and we

rented a dug out canoe (which all the locals get around in) for a couple of

bucks and paddled for just over an hour to one

of the islands on the lake for a walk and lunch.

The food was so good, that along with4 friends

(whom we met at the Kampala backpackers)

who were also staying at Bunyoni, we headed back to the island for dinner that same night. After several bottles of Sth African Pinotage we were glad our transport home was a motor

boat this time around.

Now we're back in Kampala at our usual

backpackers place - it's like coming home, yet all the faces are different.

I will send another update shortly, and in the meantime, we send all our

love to everyone and hope you are all well.

Love Louise and Sean xx