Wednesday August 25, 2010 – baby gorillas, a trip to the fabric market, and pizza for dinner

Wednesday August 25, 2010 – baby gorillas, a trip to the fabric market, and pizza for dinner


After Leon’s breakfast – toast, eggs, coffee and tea, we met up with Magda, the regional field veterinarian, and went off to Kinigi to look at the orphans. Sarah’s big chance to see gorillas. Kinigi is about 30 minutes drive up towards the base of the volcanoes and is the trailhead/base for gorilla trekking as well as the site of the orphanage – a walled compound within which live 6 young gorillas, not really babies any more, with their caretakers. The views of the volcanoes are usually spectacular from here, but with the current dust haze they are barely visible across the horizon. There are 2 mountain gorillas, Maisha and Koboko, and 6 eastern lowland gorillas. All originated from Congo but there were no facilities to care for them there so they ended up here under MGVP. For about 6 years now, but the plans are underway for them to go back. But they are here now and one has diarrhea, so Magda dons mask and coveralls and gum-boots and goes off to look at them, and the girls and I climb up onto the roof of Magda’s truck to look over the wall and view the gorillas. They are mostly interested in what she is doing and line up along to far side of the compound, but once she finished her business and comes back to the truck to join us they all come back and start climbing on their play structure and beating their little chests and wrestling with either other. One of the care givers climbs up onto the structure as well and the smallest one climbs into his lap and settles in for a rest. They are cute and fuzzy and turning into big strong gorillas – no one actually goes in with them now except their caregivers as if they decided to go for you it would be nasty. But we enjoy watching them for another half hour or so, and then climb back down to the ground, which is rather a trick for Sarah, and head back to MGVP for a delicious Leon lunch. Mike is awake and is introduced to the girls.
In the afternoon we go to change money and buy fabric. The best rate for Rwandan francs is at the pharmacists, an Indian man who has been in Rwandan for many many years. And apparently its perfectly legal. He makes his money by giving a horrible rate when selling dollars to Rwandans. I have never seen him smile, and he didn’t smile much while we did our transaction. But as Sarah starts to melt down and refuse to leave and say she’s hungry, he gets a big smile on his face, tells me I must be patient and she reminds him of his daughter, and proceeds to get here a plate of cookies and crackers, brings her behind the counter to sit at his desk, and take her time over her snack. He then gives me a little lecture about how I must be patient, and how her problem is caused by a lack of oxygen and she must practice breathing in the morning and the evening. He gives Sarah a little pep talk about breathing as well, and is very sweet to her. You just never know.
Across the road from the pharmacy is the market – a large cement walled compound filled with aisles and isles of little stalls. Those in the front have mostly clothing and shoes, but in the back there are rows and rows of bright patterned African waxed fabrics. We go up and down the rows for a while, and finally choose a morseau for some pants to be made, and another for an over the shoulder purse. We get a bit swarmed by everyone trying to sell us their stuff, in a combination of English and French, but they are all good humoured about it. There are many small children with their mothers and Sarah has a good time talking to them, tickling them, and patting their heads. But one little boy hides his head under his mothers skirt, and then cries when Sarah tries to play peek a boo with him. Apparently some mothers tell their kids the muzungu will get them if they don’t behave. So some of the little ones think we might just be boogey-men. We take the fabric across the road to a tailor shop – a dozen men and women sewing away on treadle machines, and Elizabeth shows the pants she wants copied, gets measured for them by the senior tailor – a novel experience having a strange man measure her hips and inseam, and we tell him to make a purse like Jan has had made, and if there is fabric left over then a little one for Sarah.
Back again to MGVP to sort out odds and ends, look at some slides, and sort some of the beautifully clean and ironed laundry that Leon and Felicien have been working through. The water, which was off this morning and might have been off for several days, has come back on so we are all happy at the prospect of hot showers.
For dinner we walk down the road a bit to the Volcanos - a bar/restaurant with a wood-fired pizza oven and a nice open verandah on the second floor. The pizzas of course take some time, and are delivered two by two as I guess that’ what the oven takes, but it’s a nice evening.