These excerpts from travel stories are changed regularly.  Visit this page often to read about travel experiences from Africa and other destinations around the globe.

Uganda

1. Volunteering at a Preschool
2. Bwindi or Bust – Tracking Gorillas
3. Life in the Village

Volunteering at a Preschool
The second day I was there, I was wandering down the village road, when about 12 kids adopted me.  They took me into their mud house and showed me all of their possessions, consisting of a water barrel, 3 filthy beds for 7 children and a chair. They all sang songs for me, even the toddlers, taking turns and singing together.  They were so sweet. One song was called "We are happy to see you today" and I really had to blink back the tears.  It was just what I needed at that moment.

My volunteer job was at a preschool for orphans.  If you ever want to feel needed, go visit a preschool in Uganda.  Every day when I arrived at the school,  the kids would all come running to greet me, grabbing my hands and climbing all over me.   I usually had 4 or 5 kids hanging on each arm at a time.   Sometimes they would fall asleep with their heads in my lap.  I taught them nursery rhymes and songs and helped the teachers with correcting letters and numbers etc.  I quickly found out that teaching kids is much different from teaching adults; you must repeat yourself dozens of times.  The kids were taught in their local language, Lusoga, and English.  They called me Madam "Sinseeah" or "Finfiya". 

I normally walked to work, 35 minutes along the main road that passed many villages. The people were very friendly, especially the kids.  The adults would often ask me who I was and what was I doing there.  They were very appreciative when I told them that I was helping out at a school.  I have never shaken hands so much in my life.

Our school had one classroom outside; the other two rooms had a dividing wall them that was open at the top so you could always hear the other classes.  It got very noisy, especially when it rained on the tin roof.  The teachers are ecstatic when a visitor brings books, pens or just anything. Only 2 or 3 of the kids had shoes, a few wore flipflops and the rest were barefoot.  It was so muddy when I first arrived, as it was the rainy season, so red mud got tracked everywhere, including my clothes. 

There was no running water at the school, so the kids drank from a jerry can and shared 2 cups.  Occasionally, they were given toys to play with for an hour or so.  The toys consisted of a few balls, grass dolls, broken plastic trucks, some bits of playdough, and some stuffed animals, all covered in dirt.  The kids are so thrilled to have something other than the usual empty water bottles that they normally play with.

One little girl that I noticed, an AIDS orphan, was very bright and it broke my heart that her grandmother would likely not be able to afford to even send her on to primary school.  Her eyes would follow me all day long, as she smiled shyly.  Everyday she wore the same ragged blue t-shirt.

Education is basically free for primary grades 1 through 7; however, the kids must buy a uniform and their own exercise books and pencils.  For some families, those expenses are prohibitive.  A typical primary school has over 1500 children, and many classes are jammed packed with 100 - 150 kids.  Some kids board at the schools, and their rooms are often just a bare cement floor with a thatch mat on the floor to sleep on.

Every morning, when I arrived at school, I made a point of shaking hands and greeting the teachers.  We would ask each other how was the night, how’s the family, how is “there” and how are the crops, chickens, or goats. We would also shake hands again when I left for the day, wishing each other a good day.  The headmistress would thank me profusely every day and about once a week would say to me "Cynseeah, thank-you for loving us".

Bwindi or Bust – Tracking Gorillas
5 women in a rented car, no collision insurance, driving across Uganda – what could possibly go wrong with that?  4 of us were in search of gorillas at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in southwestern Uganda; 1 of the gals had been before so she just came along for the ride.  Our trip started with madly shopping in Kampala for a few necessities.  Since it was on the way, and they sold so many things that we could not get in Jinja, what do you expect 5 women to do?  After stocking up, the next few hours were spent driving around in extreme heat, with mega traffic, and Sheila yelling out the window, with her Irish accent “Which way to Kabale?”.  So we were off to a bit of a slow start.

The main roads there were busy with people walking or cycling, matatus (mini-buses) and large trucks.  There were villages and towns every few miles, it seemed, and they all had huge speed bumps.  Every time we drove over one of those speed bumps, our car would bottom out, and we wondered why.  We noticed some other drivers taking the speed bumps crosswise so thought we should try it.  It became a series of zig, zag, hold your breath, scrape and thump.  After 12 hours of this, it was getting dark and we still had to drive 8 km up a steep mountain road to reach Lake Bunyoni, our destination for the first night.  The road was so full of ruts and holes that 3 of us had to get out and walk, as Emily attempted to navigate around or through them. We kept questioning why the guy would rent us a car like that knowing what the road was like.  The car kept scraping and finally Emily just stopped the car, and said “No more.”  By then, it was pitch dark and none of us was feeling overly optimistic.  Thank God for cell phones.  We called the camp and they sent someone to come help us.  I couldn’t believe when he arrived in a car just like ours; we had expected something bigger and tougher.  Then we realized why we kept bottoming-out, we had overloaded the car with our luggage, food, and about 40 liters of water.

We finally got settled in a nice cabin and arranged for a 4-wheel drive vehicle and driver to take us the next day the last 4 hours to Bwindi.  We were quite thrilled to have someone else do the driving, and in a car that we were not responsible for.  Our driver, Moses, was lovely, but the truck was not. There were no shocks and the rear windows could not be rolled down.  Of course  there was no air conditioning and it was brutally hot.  We dubbed the ride “heaven and hell” - heaven because of the scenery and hell because of the ride.  After 4 hours of getting our spines and other body parts smashed around, we finally arrived at Bwindi.  Phew, I’d been waiting 12 years for this!

The next morning, we checked in with the rangers and met our guide, another Moses.  We were driven the first few miles with our guide, armed guards, trackers, and a few porters, so that we could begin tracking the Mubwere group of gorillas.

The first part of the trail was on a wide path and passed a few tiny villages, on the edge of the forest. The views were absolutely stunning, green terraced fields on the mountain sides and mist hovering over the valleys.  It soon began to rain heavily, and within minutes we were all soaked.  I think I was right at home in the rain forest, and really only felt more exhilaration.  The floor of the forest was slippery and spongy
soft from leaves and vines.  It was very dense, although we were able to easily bushwack our way through.  The guide had been in radio contact off and on with the trackers and they soon reported that they had found Mubwere, the group we were pursuing.  Since there were no actual paths in the forest, the guide and trackers then had to call back and forth to each other with a sort of hooting sound, as a way to locate each other. Our group got very excited then as we realized that we would, in fact, be seeing the gorillas.  I got goosebumps as we left our porters, bags, water and hiking sticks behind, and followed our guide.  We met the trackers then, and they spent a few minutes cutting at the tall foliage with machetes so that we could realize what we had been waiting for.  It had taken us just 2 ½ hours, although it felt like only 5 minutes to me.

Then we saw him, Ruhundeza, the silverback.  He was sitting with a baby and they were doing what they do best, eating.  Cameras were snapping away when a female came running out of the bush past us.  She then stopped, turned around, growled, and then charged us.  2 of our group tried to run away, but I stopped them.  We stood our ground and the female soon backed away.  There were a total of 9 gorillas in the Mubwere group – the silverback, 3 adult females, and the rest were babies.  The foliage was thick, and our view was obstructed at times.  We were not allowed within 7 meters of the hairy guys; they kept moving, so we had to too.  Next thing you knew, there was the silverback mating with one of his “wives”.  This was an extremely rare sight to see; one ranger told us he had only witnessed mating once in 3 years.  Ruhundeza soon resumed munching leaves, while the females tended and fed their babies.  One female sat scratching at a log, I believe looking for insects to eat.

We noticed the silverback looking up at the trees, turning his head back and forth, when all of a sudden he stood up, beat his chest (just like in the cartoons), and came running towards us.  We all stood frozen to the ground in fear, but thankfully, he kept going, within about 4 feet of the whole group of us.  He rushed up a tree, another rare sight, and began to eat up there.  For the remainder of our allotted hour, we watched most of the group join him moving around in the trees.  The whole time with the gorillas was not at all what I had expected; National Geographic always shows them sitting together in a clearing just eating.  So, I know my experience was special and I am so fortunate.

On our way out of the forest, we made a stop to eat our lunch at a grassy bluff with the most spectacular view.  By then it had stopped raining and we were able to dry out nicely for our hike out.  Moses was waiting for us, for another heaven and hell ride back to Lake Bunyoni.

After being jostled around again, we decided that we deserved another day off to relax, play scrabble and just relax with our memories before our long ride back to Jinja.

Life in the Village
Life in a tent was quite far removed from my apartment next to Stanley Park in Vancouver.  I did actually like it, though, because I could keep out most of the ants and spiders, and all of the geckos, lizards, snakes, cockroaches and who knows what else?

I decided that I loved living in the village because I could walk to and from work, and therefore, meet the local people.  People stopped me all the time to shake my hand and the kids were always saying "Muzungu, how are you?"  Muzungu means white ghost and even though it sounds disrespectful, it really is just a cultural thing.  When I said hello first, the locals responded “I am fine.”  

Most of the homes are made of sticks and mud, a few of cement or brick.  There was no electricity and no running water in the villages.  Women and children walk, sometimes great distances, carrying jerry cans on their head filled with water. 

It was incredibly green and beautiful in that area.  The corn grows 10 feet high, and everywhere you look you can see banana trees.  Other fruits abound as well as many vegetables.  I was invited a number of times to dinner with various local families.  Ugandans can really eat and if I didn’t totally stuff myself, I was considered a “bad daughter”.  Usually the meals consisted of steamed green bananas called matoki, ground nut sauce, cassova, rice, beans, cabbage and/or chicken.  The villagers were so generous, I could hardly cut through someone’s property without them insisting I sit down and eat.  Whenever I asked how many kids someone had, the answer invariably was 7!  They were so shocked and sorry for me that I do not have children and they all told me that I must have at least 1, so I must trust God and he will provide.

Uganda was very safe and the people were lovely and gracious. I learned so much from the people there, including the kids, and I knew I had chosen the right country to volunteer in.