Meeting the Batwas
Posted 21 June, 2007 by janette in Rwanda
Children swarm the matatu as we arrive at the Batwa village. These are the oldest recorded inhabitants of the Great Lakes region of central Africa.
The Batwa people, also known as Pygmies, have lived here for millenia as hunter gatherers. They have recently been forced out of the forest, because the other primates in the forest (gorillas and golden monkeys) are Rwanda’s strongest tourism draw.
The Batwa chief leads a group of 12 in a traditional song and dance. I’ve always hated the idea of the natives being trotted out to dance for the Europeans, but the beauty of the songs is deeply moving. And the lady elder with the maraca is immersed in the joy of the music.
The chief then lets us peak into a few of the homes. They are mud huts, and they smell of damp earth, wood smoke, and the eucalyptus leaves that they use to cushion their beds. Families with up to seven children live in each hut, which is smaller than a western double bedroom. (One wonders why they don’t stop at 2 or 3 children.)
The children are delighted to have their pictures taken and then see themselves on the LCD screen of the digital cameras. Soon my camera is taken over by a teenage boy, who turns the tables and starts taking pictures of us mizungus. At first his pictures are haphazard and off-center. But after taking several shots and checking the results, he takes a perfectly composed shot of one of the villagers who refused to let us outsiders photograph her.
This tribe used to have a male chief, but he drank away all of the village’s money. They’ve since elected a female chief, who leads the dancers. When the Batwa were forced out of the forest, they were not given enough land to farm to sustain themselves, so they now rely heavily on these tourist visits for income.
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Rwanda
Posted 21 June, 2007 by graham in Rwanda
We spent our second night on the trip camping by lake Bunyoni. It is the deepest and (I think) highest lake in Uganda. Idi Amin used to have his holiday home there. Now he’s gone and it’s a very nice place indeed.
The next morning we took a boat over to the other side of the lake to rendez-vous with the truck. Then we drove through the mountains to the Rwandan border. The drive was stunning, and very very bumpy.
We crossed into Rwanda at a very small border post with no hassle. Uganda was mostly mud roads, so it was pleasant to find tarmac in Rwanda.
So far it seems more prosperous than Uganda whereas I expected the opposite. Apparently this is because Ruhengeri is the only part tourists ever visit, to go gorilla tracking (we go tomorrow), so there is lots of ‘gorilla money’ around.
Today we visited the Batwa people (the ones dancing in the pictures), sometimes also called pygmies even though they are not very small. They were hunter / gatherers until very recently until the government re-settlement them as subsitence farmers. They are not yet all that keen on it. They danced and sang for us, great music and dancing. They we poked our noses round their village whilst the kids stared at us and pointed.
Janette lent her camera to one of them who took really good pictures with it.
Then off to the banana beer brewers and a stroll through some jungle. Make sure you check the photos on our Flickrs.
Tomorrow we go gorilla trekking!!
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Lake Bunyonyi
Posted 20 June, 2007 by janette in Lake Bunyonyi, Uganda
Lake Bunyonyi is a high altitude lake in the Great Lakes region of southern Africal. One of its 29 islands is called Akampene, which translates to “Punishment island.” It earned this name because the local tribe, the Bakiga, used to leave unmarried pregnant girls to die of hunger or while trying to swim to the mainland. This was to serve as an example to the rest, to show them to not get pregnant out of wedlock. It also served as a discount bride center – a man without cows to pay the bridewealth could go to the island and pick up the girl.
We camped at the Bunyoni Overland Resort, which had immaculate gardens and was just a few minutes’ drive from Idi Amin’s bombed out former holiday home.
We had a smooth boatride across the lake, where we met our truck for a very bumpy ride over washed-out, steep roads to Rwanda. We had a rather “Wages of Fear” moment when we met a petrol tanker on a steep, narrow part of the road, and had to squeeze right past it.
The children in this area are adorable. They all chant “How are you? How are you? I am fine. I am fine,” when you pass them on the road. One little boy was so excited to say hello to us that he threw himself to the ground in a fit of giggles.
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Kampala Nights
Posted 19 June, 2007 by janette in Kampala
There is too much life in the Kampala night for my western head to sleep. The dogs are taken with a midnight madness. The rooster starts up at 4am. Twenty feet away from our tent, a neighbor restarts a smokey fire at 5am. I begin to wonder if the reason everyone moves so slowly here is that they are chronically sleep deprived.
This might be a long trip.
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First day in Africa
Posted 18 June, 2007 by janette in Kampala
We wake to the sound of lunatic laughter. We assume it belongs to the troupe of vervet monkeys that roam the compound. Later, we find that it comes from a couple of birds the seem to specialize in primate call impressions.
Yesterday, we left a place that is grey, industrious, and often joyless. Today, we begin our 5 weeks in a place where life moves slowly, in technicolor.
Everything about our room is wonky: the mosquito nets are positioned awkwardly for the two tiny beds; the windows are too high to see out of; the door faces the bushes rather than the courtyard. Our $15/night buys us only jail cell chic, but in Kampala, there is no reason to stay indoors.
The streets are delightfully chaotic. A scooter zooms past with twenty chickens tied to its back; another one has pineapples strung across it like christmas lights. Larger, newer 4x4s honk smaller cars out of the way, and giant petrol tankers, in turn, clear them off the road. The are no painted lines, no sidewalks, and only 5 traffic lights in the whole of this capitol city. Bodas (scooters) offer a 700 schilling ride into the center of town, and Matatu conductors hang out of windows, calling out their destinations.
Nearly everyone stares at us, but they will return a smile. Shoe shine boys frown at Graham’s ridiculous shoes. They are amused at our insistence on walking everywhere and eating Ugandan food. They are even understanding when we are 100 shillings (about 5 cents) short for the “African plate,” featuring matoke with groundnut sauce, cassava, pumpkin, Ugali, chapati, Nakati, and stewed chicken.
This is Kampala, the pearl of Africa.
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Red Chili
Posted 17 June, 2007 by graham in Kampala, Uganda
We’re here! After possibly the most pleasant airport experience in in 6 years (City Airport is great), a lovely flight (KLM airline food is good), we arrived in Kampala.
We’re staying at the Red Chili Hideaway in Bugolobi, a 10 minute cab journey out of Kampala. It has a troupe of monkeys that live in the trees around the compound – some great photos on Janette’s Flickr.
There are also birds I haven’t seen before (some peccaries?), and four varieties of local beer.
As we’re in the suburbs the streets are tarmacked, but it’s hard packed dirt on either side, with lots of people walking. Lots of small motorcycles (pizza bikes in London), carrying insane amounts of chickens / plantains / wood / a car windshield / you name it.
The children all wave and say ‘goodbye’ as they pass, and everyone else seems very friendly.
There are lots of overlanders at the Red Chili: Oasis Overland, Africa Trails, and our Dragoman truck got there this morning. We start the trip on Monday.
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A bit of inspiration
Posted 6 June, 2007 by janette in Getting ready
“There’s no lock on the cage. You can open the door, go outside, do whatever you want.”
I just came across this video again while cleaning out my inbox at work. It’s about a guy named Matt who, while travelling around Southeast Asia, started doing a silly dance in unlikely places, and filming it. He posted a video of his shenanigans on his site and it made the rounds on blogs and video aggregators. It was so popular that a chewing gum company asked him to go around the world and do it again, this time with his expenses paid.
How I love the silly dance!! Matt’s also got some great things to say about realizing just how much opportunity exists in the world, and how little we take advantage of it.
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Welcome
Posted 12 May, 2007 by graham in Getting ready, Kampala
Welcome to our travelogue. We’ll be writing about where we are and what we’re doing. Our first stop is Kampala, Uganda, on the 15th of June.
The wedding site has moved to Graham and Janette’s wedding.
Check back soon !
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