Gorillas in the Rain and other adventures

So left Dad in my place listening to Sam Roberts while I wandered over to the office to take advantage of the power and functioning internet and up date you all on what's been going on. Dad arrived a week ago now. The first weekend was a little overwhelming for him I think but he was able to play golf and meet Jess, Jane and my co-workers plus Roxane who was visiting from the Toronto office. Sunday was good we went craft shopping (aka helping Roxane find the souvenirs she wanted/needed and picking up a couple of our own) the to the ndere centre for the traditional dance show. Worked Monday and then Tuesday morning bright and early we set out for the bus station. Man that was interesting, thankfully we called Captain Carlos (Jess and my cab driver of choice most of the time) who was able to help us find the correct bus amid all the bus guys yelling and telling us where to go and which bus to take.....
We weren't sure whether the bus left at 6, 630 or 7 so we were there really really early especially considering in true Ugandan fashion the bus didn't leave til 740.
12 hours on a bus later through some gorgeous countryside with not so gorgeous roads (saw zebra by the side of road though) we finally arrived at the end of the line Butogota which is still 17 kms from Bwindi National Park where we were going to track mountain gorrillas. On the bus ride Dad learned one of the harder lessons of being a mzungu here - that often when people start talking to you especially when they say they want to be friends with a mzungu they want something, they want you to help them in some way - some people are under the impression that north americans/europeans can solve all their problems when in reality we can't even solve our own problems. On the plus side one of the people who started to talking to me on the bus was actually just trying to be nice. She lived in Buhoma the town right outside the park and helped us find a good pick-up truck driver to take us to the park and took me literally by the hand as we got off the bus to guide me to the truck and keep the crowd of boda drivers, and truck drivers who were actually grabbing me away. So she made sure that all three of us got on the right pickup and even though she got off before we did, she talked to the driver to make sure we got where were going. So yes we drove 17kms on a dirt road sitting in the back of a pickup truck with about eight other ppl, their luggage, other goods going to Buhoma and assorted vegetables. It was classic!!!!!
Stayed at the community camp which was pretty nice and had a western style dinner(no matooke!!!!!) with some Fins who were there for the bird watching.
Next morning got up early and got ready for the gorrilla tracking adventure. Also tracking our group were a thrity-ish British couple and a couple of mountainerring Poles, they were all so impressed with our guts to do this independently and not through a tour company. Honestly I didn't think it was that gutsy a thing to do but ah well.The other two people didn't show up.
Turns out our gorrilla family was super close. We managed to find them in like 20 minutes!!!! Sometimes it can take hours to find them. Although it started pouring with rain soon after we found them it was soooooooooooooooooooooooo cool to watch them just hang out and then sulk their way through the downpour. When the rain let up the big silverback got up and started down the hill. The whole family followed him with us behind them a bit. They then decided to go for a walk along the trail!!! Awesome. Did you know that gorillas actually do do the whole beat their chest and roar thing????????? Saw it!! Then the littler ones (there were a couple one year olds in the group) tried to copy him - so funny!

The big silverback gorilla wandering back towards us...

Spent our hour with the gorillas and then had to leave them. Got back to the ranger station by 11am which is shocking I was expecting to have to walk for hours or something.
Since we were done so early I tried to find a way to get us into one of the bigger towns because I really didn't want to stay in Butogota that night (can't stay in Bwindi and get the only bus to K'la which leaves at 530am) unfortunately it wasn't possible so ended up spending the night in Butogota. It definitely could have been worse but don't think I'll do that again....
Bus honked at like 510 so we headed out and got on the bus which took off very soon after and drove through town honking like crazy but we weren't actually on our way - the bus turned around at the end of town and drove back through town honking again and picking up people. Then we finally turned around again and set off for real. Poured with rain most of the way back and the bus leaked though not as bad as the bus before had.
It took over 12 hours from leaving the hotel in Butogota to arriving back at my house....
Worked today rewriting for the third time a project proposal about information communication technology because it still isn't research-y enough for the donor. The decision was made that when this thing is finally handed in and done there will be a large bonfire of all the draft copies of the thing in the backyard! Now we're heading down to Rwanda with Jess for an extended long weekend. Seeing Kigali and then the Diane Fossey mountains in the north. Pretty excited but yay another 12 hour bus ride!!!
Before I go I have to rant a little bit. Got back to work today to find out that Alex (one of our construction guys in Lira who is a great though frighteningly quiet fellow(one of my favourite people b/c was willing to learn how to throw a frisbee so i had people to play with when we were all in Loro) who I didn't think was that much older than me) was married with kids but lost his 6 year old son this week to malaria. Apparently his family lives in the village and didn't call him to take the boy to hospital until it was too late. I feel so bad, so mad and so helpless. MALARIA!!!!!! If the disease was killing children in Canada or anywhere in the 'developed world' at the rate that malaria kills kids over here there's no doubt in my mind that there would be cheap and effective treatments if not a cure or a vaccine. Why should Alex's little boy have been any different? We have drugs for hair loss, obsity and dieting, impotence and other not so deadly disease but we can't find the money or the effort to deal with malaria which kills one person about every 30 seconds. So that means in the time it took you to read this entry at least six people died of malaria. That is six more fathers like Alex who now have to bury one of their children.