the gorillas. wow. definately one of the most amazing experiences of my life to date. if you've seen the movie gorillas in the mist then you kinda know a bit of what rwanda looks like, but let me tell you when you get there and you see the volcanoes rising out of the land, its breath taking. so we hiked up into the mountain and the excitement's building and building, i felt like a kid on christmas morning! it took about an hour to find them, and then, holy wowza!!! we visited the sabinyo family of 8, guhonda, the big daddy silver back, a couple of his wives, an adolescent male and then a few babies. and they say guhonda is the biggest silver back in the world! and he's massive! his head is like the size of my entire upper body, his arms were like tree trunks and boy can he move! he spent most of the time just sittin there chillin out, but occassionally he'd make a run for it, and one lady copped a slapping from him cos she was in his way! thats one thing i really didn't expect, i thought cos they're so used to humans, they just carry on with their business and don't pay you any attention. yeah, no!! they charge at you, hit you, punch, bite and slap you. they try to grab you clothes off you. its hardcore, i was so scared cos they get really rough and i'm thinking, i can see my obituary now, angela bowen, tragically killed in rwanda by the biggest silverback in the world, last words, holy f@!k!!!!!!!!!! so most of my photos are blurry cos my hands were shaking uncontrollably, but most still look pretty cool. but it was cool cos one of the guides realised i was freakin out a bit and was like holding my hand the whole time saying don't worry, don't worry, so then i kinda calmed down a bit. its so exciting, exhilerating, its hard to even put it into words. but i can say this, if you do nothing else in your life, save the money and visit the mountain gorillas of rwanda or uganda, its the experience of a lifetime!
so while in kigali i also visited the kigali memorial centre, devoted to the genocide of 1994. its one of the saddest places i've ever been. you just walk in the front gate and feel the heaviness of the place, its strange. there's a room that has the bones of victims on display and at first i couldn't walk in cos its was too spooky. you just feel the presence of others in the room, i was the only living person in the room at the time but i know i definately wasn't alone in there. its just unbelieveable that something like that could happen, how does one human being do those terrible things to another human being? i'll never understand it. 1 million people massacred in 100 days. there are mass graves at the memorial centre as well, around 250 000 just at the memorial centre, graves streching on for hundres of metres. its really sad, moving, humbling. we are very lucky people being born in a land where we haven't had to deal with anything on that scale.
on that note pets i'm out, i'm back in mombasa at the mo, catching up with my kenyan family and having a bit of r&r before i have to head back to kampala do join the working world again! its gonna be strange, but i'm totally ready for it, i'm getting bored with all this doing nothing bar travelling and relaxing, i know i'm a freak, but i need to be busy and have mental stimulation and structure to my days. remind me of these words when i'm back in oz complaining about how much i hate the 9-5 rat race! peace love...ange
