Our prayers were answered and the sun came out after burning off a morning mist that must have inspired the movie, “Gorillas In The Mist!” We were assigned to the gorilla family called “Hirwa,” which means “lucky.” This name was given because the Silverback male broke away to form his own family just 2 years ago and he already has 4 females and 8 babies. He is the largest male on the mountain at 600 pounds. It only took us 45 minutes of hiking through the bamboo jungle (with our forward guide cutting our way through with a machete) to reach the family, which was on its way down the mountain. Treks can sometimes take 2-3 hours to reach a family that is travelling up the mountain, so we were lucky indeed! There are 10 gorilla families that are habituated to human visitors and there are strict rules that are followed. Visitors go in groups of 8 with 2 guides and are allowed exactly one hour of observing the gorillas once they are found from a distance of at least 20 feet away. The baby gorillas aren’t familiar with this rule, however, and sometimes came closer to check us out. They were ADORABLE! One baby had lost its mother to natural causes a few months earlier, and the Silverback male took over its care, which is quite unusual. From time to time this baby would “touch base” with his giant Papa, who was very gentle with him. The young gorillas were very playful, swinging from branches, wrestling each other, and rolling down hills. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime, not to be missed if you ever travel to Rwanda!
After a nice hot shower, we made our way to the Kids Across Africa Camp property. Bishop John’s church had owned half of the land, and the government helped assemble the other half from 90 individual owners. Bishop John is on the board of KAAF, and he is incredibly excited about the vision for this youth camp that would also serve as a conference facility and athletic training facility during the camping “off season.” The property sits on a peninsula that extends into one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. Tall green hills rise up throughout the lake, which is huge.
While Jonathan and Tim were showing us around, a group of children RAN over a mile onto the peninsula to reach us, and they really touched our hearts. Their clothing was filthy and they had ragged blankets to stay warm against the chilly air, but their smiles were huge and their strength and energy amazing! When you take pictures of children, they are always fascinated to see themselves on the screen of the camera, and this group was no exception. They were jumping around so much that we gave up on pictures and took out the movie camera. This inspired them to dance and sing nursery songs in Kinyarwanda and then in attempted English (which is now required to be taught in school). When they watched themselves on the replay of the movie, they became even more excited and performed again and again. We gave them some of our food, and it was clear that they were very hungry.Susan and I really felt the Holy Spirit fill the camp site and we were blown away. This leadership and sports camp is critical for a population where 80% of the people are under age 25. The youth just got out of school for their 3 month holiday and unfortunately, there is nothing for them to do. During this time of year, the camp will be centered around kids, sports, and leadership training. We were also motivated by the Rwandans who heard of the camp plans, and broke down in tears of excitement for their youth.
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