Category Archives: Africa

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PToXWq9FJr0

Following a flight from Entebbe to Kisorro in a toy airplane… two hip, young in their 20’s pilots and just the Brighams, we enjoyed a rough (worst roads I have ever experienced) two hour drive in a Toyota sedan through incredibly lush, hilly, steep terrain to the gorilla camp. Crops cut into the hillsides… at such an angle if you lost your step… you would roll all the way down.

The following morning we greeted our gorilla guide and two guards (with their trusty AK47s), three folks from Belgium and a couple traveling the world for a year, and headed out on a two hour steep hike downward to find the gorillas. The guns are to ‘protect us if the gorillas charge’, although I was unsure, because the gorillas are worth $500/day individual permits… if the instructions were actually to shoot the tourists and protect the animals in that scenario.

As we huffed and puffed up and down the steep hillsides searching, sweating through our clothes and chugging water, the local women in flip flops and with sacks of potatoes on their heads would gracefully pass us on the trail.

Success!! The male gorillas were huge (hands as large a my head) and the youngsters… very playful, rolling around wrestling in the brush.

So, I asked one of the guides back at camp ‘so, how are sales?’

‘We have not had many guests since Ebola came through here last year; we hope it gets better.’

Was not prepared for that news…

We learned the ‘Ebola handshake’ at that point, which is a fist bump.

Harry

On Saturday afternoon, on a rural, dirt road outside Entebbe, we heard an energetic evangelic church choir singing coming over the walls of the homes around us. Leland tracked down the sound and found this church, inside of which were 7 singers, a choir director and their pastor practicing for their Sunday service.

We stepped inside and were soon approached by the choir director who introduced us to the singers. After conferring with the pastor, he turned to me and asked if I would give the sermon the following morning and… using the bible, pass on the word of god to them… whoa…what? I pointed to Carter and said that she was the professional in that arena. Carter, of course, said yes… and we were directed to return Sunday at 10:30am (the service runs from 9-12, but I think the choir director saw me blanche at that).

We dressed in our finest travel attire and showed up promptly at 10:30 and proceed to clap and sway to a song that lasted the next 40 minutes or so. After 5 minutes, I was wondering when the heck it would end, after 10 minutes, my hands were getting sore from clapping and I was sweating, after 15 minutes I was still swaying and waving my hands, staring at the ants working on a project on the dirt floor and glancing sideways at the rest of my family, after 20 minutes, I was getting thirsty and was staring at the tin ceiling and the branches that were the trusses trying to figure out how the building was put together (this research had the added benefit of making me look like I was looking into the heavens). Occasionally, through this endless medley, I would recognize a melody or word like ‘Alleluia’ repeated about 1,000 times and I would belt it out to participate. The last 10 minutes??? I surrendered to the moment and thought about god and the good people around me.

Then it was our turn… Each of us spoke for a few minutes and Leland started us off. While the two boys and Carter were excellent, I had the weakest content to share, so I threw in a couple of ‘God Is Good’, ‘God Be With You’ and ‘Alleluia’, especially as that always generated a reaction from the crowd.

The minister, tall and very dark, dressed in a black suit, bright yellow shirt and black tie then gave his sermon. A very loud, animated event, all translated into English by the choir director. As his passion filled the room and he pointed and yelled, coincidentally, there were thunder clouds making noise overhead.