-------Controlled Power----

Gorilla Trekking to Sabyinyo Mountain--------Rwanda
----Dear Friends

Gorilla trekking is an interesting phenomenon.: Basically you arise at some ridiculous time of the morning, pay an exorbitant amt. of money and walk (fancy name is “trek”) a long distance , all to see a family of Gorilla’s as they live their life in the wild.

Yes, we Americans and many Europeans, happily dole out $500 bucks for this once in a lifetime event ( only because few people could afford to do it more than once a lifetime- ha) .

In our case we had to arrange with our trusty guide Sheba, months in advance for the permits necessary. Though as a Ugandan resident, I would have received a discount if we had trekked from the Ugandan side, the difficulty in the hike from Uganda far outweighed the $25 I would have saved, thus I am happy we chose to hike from Rwanda.

Our First Encounter was with the Silverback-who seemed to be waiting for us

. The most difficult part of the hike was actually getting to the forest, as it had rained and the muddy trail was at times slippery and challenging. Once we entered the bamboo forest, we saw the Daddy of them all, the Silverback, just lying there with a look that said “Well, it’s about time you all got here, we can’t wait forever you know” And then the show began: The Silverback in all his majesty, the Moms and babies and young ones playing and vying for attention. We were able toe see a gorilla gnawing on a bamboo stick and a young one’s attempt to claim a Mommy as his own and her gentle but firm resistance that he go find his own Mama. (smile)

It was truly a remarkable excursion and yes Dion Fossey, it was worth every penny. Speaking of Ms. Fossey and her incredible work with the mountain gorillas: My town Kisoro, Uganda was one of her bases, and besides a small museum in town, there is also a well known hotel called the Travellers Rest, where she stayed, with many writings and artifacts about her and her work..

I haven’t particularly enjoyed the food at the Travellers Rest, but the atmosphere is very inviting. . I have been wanting to rewatch the movie “Gorilla’s in the Mist” but there have not been any available copies. That movie and” The Last King of Scotland” (which I do have) did a good bit of filming right here in Kisoro with the volcanic mountains as backdrop.



Carol rests a bit before going on!

Back to our Gorilla Trekking: We and many other people arrived bright and early to see which group we would be in and receive our briefing. We expected the division would have more to do with physical ability but to our surprise it was based on whether English was your first language. So in our group there were 5 American (the three of us and a father-son duo) We also had two people from Ireland, one from the UK (or was she from Australia Carol?): We had a great guide named Patience and he lived his name to the fullest, as besides our slipping and sliding on the muddy rocks, we had to learn “Gorilla Etiquette” which is to crouch down if they walked near us , lowering our eyes to the ground. We had to do this twice when Daddy Warbucks (my name for the Silverback) walked right by our little group. Wow, it was a powerful moment and he is a most powerful yet good man That is how our Guide referred to him as a ”good Man”..





I recalled many years ago when I lived in Arizona and had an opportunity to attend a basketball game between the Phoenix Suns and the Phila. 76ers. I had watched Dr. J (Julius Erving) on TV many times but was astonished at his largeness in person. His body, his hands, even his ears seemed so huge! (Is anybody reading this old enough to remember Dr. J-smile?)

Well because I was from Phila. And then lived in Phoenix, I seemed unable to decide which team I was for, so I cheered for them both-Ha. Didn’t matter who got the points, I cheered! Until, at break time, when walking to the Rest Room, Dr. J himself said to me “Make up your mind what team you want to win.”, with a huge grin on his proportionally massive face. Ha

There is something about ”Controlled Power” that I find compelling (in my younger days, I’d say “turns me on”-smile) and that same trait was evident in the Gorilla’s , specifically the Silverback, as in Dr. J.. But where I found it most compelling was in the “Water Buck”, a truly majestic Deer, which we were honored to see and photograph in our travels..


For those of you that find my writing interesting, you should really get into my brain-ha. It is just a whirlwind of free association, as evidenced by this blog. That is why I initially took up Meditation some millions of years ago, which now has become the bedrock of my spiritual life.

Someone once said” Prayer is talking to God, Meditation is listening to God.” Not sure that is completely true but there is something to it. If I don’t “make time to meditate ie: to “listen to God”, my life goes awry . If I do, then I seem able to handle whatever comes at me.

AMEN! (Enjoy the photos-‘specially you, Cousin George)

------------------------------------Marie------------------------------