Inside Bwindi Impenetrable

The bus ride from Kampala was long but I felt like home when we stopped for road construction for an hour in the mid-day sun. They were placing a culvert and had just started digging when we pulled up. The bus easily could have driven across the broken soil (the trench wasn’t even started!), but the bossman wouldn’t allow it. It took so long, I was thinking of getting off to lend a hand, but decided a nap was a better course of action. I also planned my trip to Berlin: lots to see and do, hopefully I can fit it all in! I was joking about the chicken thing before, but it actually happened on this trip, a woman carried one in a bag all the way from Kampala!

I’m in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park , which is home of 340 of the worlds last remaining mountain gorillas (approximately 700 left). I really like this place so far, it is beautiful and we’ve made friends in the village already. I think the small town atmosphere will be more my kind of place. The mountains with their rainforest-covered slopes are straight out of George of the Jungle. I really want to do a forest walk inside the park. The volcanoes are surrounded by mist in the morning…this place is magical.

We rode a pickup truck from the end of the bus line to the park. A kind lady made sure we found the right place. We stayed in a hut inside the park; it was fantastic, but too pricey to remain there for 2 weeks. Yesterday, we found a lodge to stay at which even has a shower! The key to cold showers is warm thoughts: Jamie’s African philosophy.

Last night, we were looking for supper and met Immaculate, a teacher at a nearby primary school. She took us around the village in search of a 4 course meal for under 1000 Ushillings ($0.70). We had muchomo (meat on a stick), chips with raw cabbage, corn on the cob and mangoes for dessert. She even found us a place to sit and enjoy our food by lantern light. This was probably the most random meal I have ever eaten, but so good! Her sister, Penelope is the headmaster at the primary school. She invited us to come play football with the children when we have time. Game on!

We will be working on health monitoring of the gorillas including fecal floatation for parasites and PCR for other infectious disease organisms. A 3^rd year Vet student from Cornell, Missy, is here for a longer stay. We will be helping her in the lab as well as community education sessions. From the material I have read, I really agree with the direction of this organization which focuses as much on the community as the gorillas. The director, Dr. Gladys Kamela-Zikusooka, the founder and CEO of CTPH sounds like an amazing woman with incredible vision.