Tanzania with Mama Nora

We've been staying in Usa River, Tanzania, a small community on the road between Arusha and Mt Kilimanjaro. One of

www.canassistafrica.ca 's projects, Mama Nora's Orphanage, is here. So we've been visiting Nora and the kids for the past week. You can read more about this amazing woman and the kids at the CanAssist website under "Current Projects."

This is Johnny, who loved the monster finger puppet Virginia gave him. Johnny is deaf and doesn't speak. He was left at Nora's door several years ago. He's also HIV+. Nora is great with him. They communicate in sign language and starting in June, Johnny will be attending the local school for the deaf.

The little gal beside him is named Miracle. She is a little pumpkin! When she was brought to Nora, she had a hole in her skull (still visible). Unable to care for her, her parents had tried to take her life. Under Nora's care, she has become a bright, healthy little girl. She's an energetic soccer player when we head out to the neighbour's garden with a ball!

Ugandan Lodges

The foyer of Mweya Lodge, Uganda: we had a flat tire near this lodge and had to stay two nights! It was positioned high on a ridge at the end of a peninsula between two lakes. In the evening, we took a boat trip with a guide through the Kazinga channel that connects the lakes. The bird-watching was incredible. Along the channel were Nile crocodile, cranes, storks, elephants, hippos, fish eagles, bee eaters, kingfishers and buffalo. We enjoyed the trip so much that we did it the next day too. Virginia is turning into a bird watcher/photographer. Stay tuned for some of her bird photos.

Lovely Lodges in Uganda

The Ugandan lodges were the most beautiful we stayed in. I'd say the one shown above was our favourite. A good way to end a trip! The photo above is the thatch-covered tent we stayed in at Mihingo Lodge, half-way between Kampala and the place where we went gorilla-tracking. There is a viewing platform at the front looking down over a large plain and Lake Mburo. The bathroom is screened on three sides for the best views ever! You feel as though you're sleeping in a treehouse and you can watch the sunrise from your bed. French-press coffee was brought to your tent before breakfast. It was heaven.

Baby Gorilla Antics

The youngest gorilla in the group was a real entertainer. He did all kinds of flips around the bamboo pole and then would run back to the big silverback and watch us from there.

Apparently the gorillas spend most of their day in one place, eating leaves, sleeping and grooming each other. They make a circular bed of leaves and branches each night to sleep on. We saw two of these as we were walking through the forest. We were about 3500 metres up in the National Forest, on the lower slopes of one of the mountains in the Virunga Volcanoes chain. Diann Fossey conducted her research at a higher altitude on the Rwandan side, coming down to get her smokes and food supplies in the town where we stayed.

We were just astounded at the gorgeous scenery and friendly people in this part of the country. They asked us to tell our friends all about them and their park, which is much well less known than the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest Park. People hike here more often because the gorillas there don't move to other countries and travellers can book far in advance. However, the hiking is apparently much harder there.

More gorillas

This gorilla is taking his time responding to Ginny's questions about hierachical structures among Mountain Gorillas.

This was our first glimpse through the bamboo forest of one of the three silverbacks in the group. This was the most senior and the biggest!

Our closest relatives!

We hadn't planned to do the gorilla tracking in Uganda because we'd heard that you needed permits months in advance. But our driver, a soft-spoken man named Sinani, told us that we could hike in another national park where you can get permits the day before if the gorillas are on the Ugandan side of the border. (When they cross the mountains into Congo or Rwanda, hikers can't go out. Okay by us!) So he called a friend at that park who told him the gorillas were on the Rwandan side, and there was space available on March 9! We couldn't believe it. Only 8 people a day are permitted to visit the gorillas in one group for one hour. This is one of the young males in the family group of 8 that we observed: 3 silverbacks, two young ones, one female, and two young males.

Ugandan Highlights

Sunday, March 13





We're in Usa River, Tanzania, not far from Mt Kilimanjaro, staying at a Danish-designed centre for Development Studies. It's like being in a mini-IKEA village! We're the only "wuzungu" or white people here. There's a real buzz in the air at every meal in the dining hall...people from all countries in Africa discussing education, agriculture, aid, property rights, etc.

The photo above is the Travellers' Rest Lodge in Mgahinga, in the far SW corner of Uganda. It's the same place that Diann Fossey stayed when she needed a break from her gorilla studies. The lodge is in a small town called Kisoro, where we walked into a coffee shop on the main street and met the owner. She said, "You're from Canada? Not Nova Scotian, are you?" The young woman in the shop with her was from Hants County and went to Hants East Highschool. I couldn't believe it. She'd been teaching in Kampala, and married a Scottish anthropologist who works with the Batwa (Pygmy) people. Small world, for sure.