Its Gorilla Day ! We have rescheduled our journey and my gorilla trek had been pushed back. Finally, today was the day! Last night we arrived late from the Holy Land to Musanze. Due to the distances, unfortunately we have been driving in the night as well. Our schedules are packed. My mom at age 63 is holding up strong but she doesn’t want to hear about gorillas. She doesn’t like animals and is afraid of it. According to our guide, it’s called the esprit kazane. He wrote his thesis on the fact that people from developing countries lack curiosity as most Westerns have. My mom says she came from the bush, she doesn’t want to return to the animal kingdom. I asked when she lived in the bush? Considering she is from a major city in Nigeria, Port Harcourt. She couldn’t answer this question lol. My mom doesn’t want to believe we come from apes. She fully rejects this theory. So she told me to go visit my mother, father and siblings in the mountains. I couldn’t wait ! Every night before a hike, I can’t sleep. Again I was worried. So without sleep I left for the gorillas at 6:30 AM. I needed to be put with a gorilla mountain family at the bottom of the volcano. I was too tired to hike a long time. I fought for me to be with the best guide named Francois. He started as a porter 30 years ago for Dian Fossey. He knew her very well. He said that Dian loved gorillas more than humans. After seeing gorillas in the mist I agree. Dian had done a lot for the conservation of the mountain gorillas. She got the cows out of the forest. Apparently villagers used to take cows for feeding up into the mountain volcano. I can’t believe cows were up there even though Buffaloes live up there. Strange… Strange… Dian fought a battle against cows and poachers. Today there are 10 gorilla families currently on the Rwanda side. My family was named Umubano. The eldest is the silverback gorilla. Silverback because of the grey hairs on their back. On my way up the volcano, the military men who brought me up to bisoke volcano passed me. The senior military man who had set the pace gave me a big hi5 and smile. He said: Ha Francine !!! and laughed hard. Yes, yes my story of climbing up and down bisoke with the military and without guide had gone viral. I also saw Augustin, my porter from Monday. I asked the boss to make an exception and put Augustin in my group as a porter. I was very happy to see him and he was happy to hold my backpack. The group limit is 8 people. I was in a nice group. Two women were from the Rwandan Development Board, Chantal and Adeline. They were doing a quality control. The others were a family of 4 from Los Angeles whose daughter had been living in Valenciennes, France. For their father’s birthday, they were travelling throughout East Africa. There was one more guy from Canada also travelling through East Africa. The group was friendly and we were being entertained by Francois. Francois is also the guide of Rwandan President Kamage. He speaks English and mixes it with French in a perfect way. He is fantastic to listen too. He is beyond passionate about gorillas. He can eat their food, play and speak the language. Our family wasn’t a far a climb. There he was the first gorilla I ever seen in real live. He was calm, peaceful and enjoying his breakfast of leaves. We were less than 1 meter away. We were taking pictures and he didn’t mind. All of a sudden he got up. I got scared. They are strong. When they walk, it’s like the ground shakes a little. You can hear them above you in the trees but you can’t see them. They can be behind you without knowing. The Trekkers find the gorillas in the morning. As gorillas never stay in 1 place at night. Once you find your family, you start following them. Gorillas go to the market, gorillas go to the bathroom… Gorillas go for lunch. They are always on the move. So we began trekking them. All of a sudden a little baby gorilla child comes running out of the bushes. It wants to play with me but we are not allowed to touch gorillas. The human diseases can carry over to the gorillas. When you cough, you have to cough down in order not to infect the gorillas. When you are trekking gorillas, the porters stay behind. You can only keep your camera. You can’t eat or drink. You have one hour to enjoy your family. I saw children gorillas boys, girls playing. I also saw the baby with the mother. They are so human like. It was the cutest thing. One gorilla was really sad. There was a fight. According to Francois, the gorilla was punished because he wanted to get jiggy with a girl he wasn’t allowed to sleep with it. The eldest silverback gorilla had beaten him and so he was punished. He obeyed like a child sitting in the corner. I felt sad. Gorillas have strong emotions and you can feel it. After a while being in the park you forget that these gorillas are animals. I felt I was around humans and I was definitely not scared anymore. They touched my leg and I sat really close to take selfies :) After visiting the gorillas, I was very happy. My god! Nature is fantastic. I went to buy some souvenirs in the gift shop and didn’t even haggle on the price. I was too happy. I had forgotten my selfiestick and gloves with the porter. Off course Rwandan hospitality, the porter ran miles after the car to bring it back ! Augustin, my hero. Now I am in Mountain Gorilla lodge. Another amazing lodge hotel with the same group of American tourists that I saw fighting in Nyungwe lodge. Luckily I wasn’t in their family group. The lodge is huge and the place is amazing. While sitting in my living room, I spotted a wild animal. I don’t know what it is and no one can help me. It looked like a tiger/lion/dog or cat. It was beautiful. My mom had stayed in the hotel in Musanze and was now on her way to Mountain Gorilla Lodge. She was supposed to relax but she did not. Instead she was praying and studying the word of God because she was scared the wild Buffaloes would catch me and eat me in the forest. She had never been this happy to see my jolly self in the hotel. According to her, animals should be subdued by humans. In case you haven’t noticed, my mom is religious. I am trying to make her relax by taking a picture with a fake gorilla but she was scared of that too. When she got to her own private lodge, she refused to take it. She will sleep with me tonight. Her fears for wild animals is too big. We enjoyed an African traditional dance at the hotel and we danced along. This journey is beyond amazing and crazy. One small note to the Rwandan Development Board who is doing a great job. However, they had requested the group at lowest level of the mountain. They should have chosen the most difficult to reach group and should have requested the worst guide. Now they had a fantastic experience with the most experienced guide. While doing a quality control one should look for the worst guide in order to improve. Also quality controls should not be announced and people shouldn’t know that RDB is checking. When people are warned, they are at their best behaviour. While my bisoke guide wasn’t good and other people have had drunk guides. Also more should be done for the locals because everyday foreigners are passing in expensive jeeps through the village at the bottom of the volcano. This village is surrounded by expensive hotels and the villagers are dirt poor. The children are dirty and many of them without shoes. They beg and run away. I know efforts are ongoing but more could be done. A school for guides should be set up in this area. These kids need a future. The future is their volcanic mountain filled with wild animals that the entire world should see. Another fact that surprised me is that the tourist in my group were all in Rwanda for 2 or 3 days just to do gorilla trekking. They didn’t know about genocide and weren’t going to visit any memorials. I knew Rwanda had a genocide, I never knew they had gorillas till I planned this week holiday. Tourists should not only visit gorillas and leave, they should also learn about genocide. Maybe a small memorial museum should be opened near gorillas as well. I don’t like ignorance. Rwanda is so much more than only gorillas. However, it’s a lifetime experience.