Yes, it started to rain again! Exactly in the moment we finally reached the top...
Anyways, after we climbed down a bit it stopped raining and the only proof it ever rained were our wet trousers.
In the evening, we enjoyed a great home cooked meal by Erisa's wife and after all the exhaustion went to bed at 7 pm :-)
Our walk on the second day led us through more villages and we could observe rural life a bit. We all know the statistics about how many people actually don't have access to clean water etc., but it was still shocking to see that virtually nobody had tap water at home. Everybody in the village (usually the women and children) has to get water from the nearest well (which might be many kilometers away) every day. So you constantly see people walking along the road with their water canisters on their heads (most of the 8 year old children here are definitely stronger than us!). Another big part of the day is spent by collecting fire wood (also women and children) or taking care of the goats or cows (children).
Given their tasks at home but even more so that the next school is usually far away, quite many children cannot attend primary school... Furthermore, the children tend to hang out alone for quite some parts of the day with the bigger siblings (5 years or older) taking care of the younger siblings while their parents work in the fields.
This is one of the huts we came across on our second day. No adult was in sight. The small boy on the right side of the house was an orphan. When his mother died, he and his siblings were spread to different families to share the burden. Now they receive enough food not to starve but rarely the care a child of this age needs (understandably, considering that the adopting families already have many children of their own and usually not enough means to take care of them). Apparently, the boy was 4 years old but looked no older than 2 to us...
Uganda has an unbelievable number of orphans, mainly due to the long years of (civil) war and lately also due to AIDS and of course a number of other diseases. This area we visited was occupied by rebels from DR Congo for 4 years until 2001. During this time, not only were many people killed, but the ones that survived could not take care of their fields and cattle and mainly had to start from scratch after the rebels left. Also shocking is the number of people we see here that suffer from easily preventable diseases like polio...
Later on during the walk, we met this cute grandpa that was very proud of his kittens :-) He was very keen on showing them to us and hopes that they will catch all the rats around his house.
DIY - toy! You just need somebody who is taller and stronger than yourself to actually push you. I have some nice videos of this and will upload them once back in Germany.
Strong children...
After the trekking, we went to a crater lake region (more than 30 crater lakes!) close to Fort Portal to relax for a few days and do some smaller hikes. But we were definitely happy to be out of the mountains and not walk uphill anymore:
This was our hut on the lovely campsite we stood for a few nights. Profits from this campsite supported an orphanage of 157 children, most of which lost their parents due to AIDS. Fortunately, "only" 11 of the children themselves are infected by HIV.
One of the many crater lakes (if somebody wants a picture of every single one - drop me a mail :-)).
Our usual fan club... Wherever we go, children just come running and follow and observe us for quite some time. They practice their few words of English with us and the bravest ones even dare to touch our white skin.
Good thing: the youngest kids can't escape yet!
Okay, one more crater lake...
Visitors at our campsite
Apparently as many lazy days are not good for us: Natalie got food poisoned on the last day... Given the fact that chimpanzees are easily infected by human diseases, we decided not to track them in Kibale NP but rather go back to Fort Portal to have Natalie tested for malaria (80 cents, negative).
We learnt from our mistakes and quickly signed up for the next walking safari, this time in the south of Uganda. We intended to walk from Buhoma through Bwindi National Park all the way to Kisoro within two days.
But getting to Buhoma was the first challenge! Apparently there is no public transport to this village, particularly not on Sundays, the day we had to travel... So we walked around Kabale (where we were stuck) for a while and let people know of our problem and after a while a pickup-driver going to Buhoma found us. We waited for some more time to find more passengers and in the end we were 4 people in the front and more than 30 (!!!) standing at the back of the pickup. The road was in really bad shape (or better no shape at all!) and every time there was a slope the people in the back had to get out and walk up the hill. As if this wouldn't be enough, our driver happily zipped his banana whiskey and after he finished about 75 ml of it he even more happily opened a beer... It took us about a day to drive these 118 km...
On the first day we walked through Bwindi Impenetrable Forest NP (pure jungle!) and the two of us were accompanied by five (!) guards. Our real guide, one porter, the required guide for anybody entering the National Park and two machine-gunned soldiers. Quite a hassle, considering that we would prefer to just walk by ourselves...
We had to cross dangerous rivers...
... fight wild animals ...... and climb a really steep and high mountain (unfortunately we were too exhausted to take a picture from the top).
Overnight we stood at the village of Nkuringo, where the local youth group performed some really impressive dances for us (movies on this later on). The youth group is led by our guide Asgario and consists of orphans and non-orphans to make the orphans feel like "normal" children which in fact they are. Asgario plays soccer with them, teaches them how to do handicrafts and most importantly they learn songs and dances which they often perform at surrounding villages.
After an early night (don't get the impression we are too boring, but after walking for hours, darkness at 7 pm and no electricity, exciting activities like reading, doing handicrafts or playing cards are usually not an option), we walked about 20 km (trying to spot the Virunga Volcanoes) to Lake Mutanda which we crossed by canoe.
Sorghum - either used to make flour or beer.
The fan club is getting bigger...
Lake Mutanda! If anybody manages to see 9 volcanoes behind it, I pay you a drink.
Finally no more walking!
But then, as on every trekking tour I embark to: a huge thunderstorm came across and we actually had to leave the canoe (and walk a bit more than planned) since there was lightening and the waves got huge.
As soon as we left the boat, it seemed like there has never been a thunderstorm before and we walked to Kisoro in perfect sunshine :-)Kisoro was our last stop in Uganda and it was from there that we crossed the border to Rwanda on July 24th. Uganda is an impressive country and diverse country. Although its recent history of (civil) wars (some fights are still going on in the north of the country until today), the people are cheerful, open and welcoming. However, it is quite challenging to deal with the personal tragedies on a daily basis. Nearly everybody we met has lost at least one close family member at early age due to the wars or other, in Western Europe uncommon, reasons. I have never been in a country with as many orphans, but it was good to see the energy of local people to actually tackle all the challenges Uganda still has today. The only reason that actually makes us happy to leave this beautiful country is the food - beans, sweet potatoes and matoke make you grow very fat in a very short period of time! Uganda is an amazing country and hopefully more tourists will come and discover its treasures in the coming years and thus support its people.
More news from our time in Rwanda follow soon!
P.S. Women in Uganda constantly thought we are man because we wore trousers instead of skirts :-(
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