Monday, May 18, 2009

Up early to head to the forest to plant trees for the Great Ape Trust. We had told the hotel we'd all be leaving early so to just make eggs for everyone. When we came up they already had the table set. They brought delicious tea, fruit, crepes, and eggs. We were ready for a long day! We drove the hour and a half to the Trust's field office where we got out to look around. Madaline said we had another 20 minutes to drive and then and hour walk to where we'd be planting. Sometimes they get confused.... The drive was INTENSE to say the least. At one point we had to back up to try the muddy steep hill again, we were definitely sliding, it was scary! Not only was everyone silent...no one was even breathing!!Guillaume took care of us though! Then we got out for our 'walk'. Apparently there is no need to differentiate between 'walking' and 'hiking'. A lot of it was straight up hill! However, the view was amazing. It was pretty embarrassing because as we're huffing and puffing and taking breaks, these girls are walking right next to us with our trees on their head, and running most of the way up. Out of shape Americans! We used the excuse of the altitude and our not being used to it. We were above a lot of the clouds after all! It was so beautiful looking out at all the hills and fields. We finally got to our planting site and there were about 20 people there already digging holes. I can say that I have 7 trees in the Gishwati Forest in Rwanda! It was a great experience. One of my trees I planted with a young man named Andrew. He spoke a little English and he had walked with us the whole way from the village we started at. On the way back we stopped at some cow that were right next to our path. I asked Marshall (one of GAT's research assistants) to translate for me, and I showed the men with them some pictures of my cows. They loved it! There was even a woman who was just passing by who had a load of sticks on her head. She dropped them and came running to look. They can never get over that G is SO big, but we don't drink her milk! After we got back we made the long drive back to the hotel and rested. I found out later that the province we started out in was Karongi (Kibuye) which is where Immaculee is from. It was cool to have that connection with her, beyond just being in the country and enjoying Lake Kivu.