A sanctuary not just for Rhinos

With the first week behind us, the group 3 North American teachers went to Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary for the night. (http://www.rhinofund.org/). We left on Saturday morning after our book club. The 15 of us with our driver travelled three hours toward Kampala in a van designed to carry 14 passengers.

After lunch (served much later in Uganda than in Canada) we headed out to meet the rhinos. We drove into the sanctuary and then got off the truck to look for the rhinos on foot. We found three of them: two pregnant females and one male. At one point one of the females was within 10 m of us. The owner of the guesthouse suggested we back up slowly while the ranger said “Bela, go back. Go back Bela.” Surprisingly Bela the Rhino listened to the ranger.

The sanctuary has 7 of the 9 rhinos in Uganda. On the 24^th of June, one of the rhinos had a baby, which they named Obama. We didn’t get to go see the baby because his mother is very protective and thus aggressive. In 1986, there were no rhinos remaining in Uganda due to poaching. Two of the rhinos at Ziwa were donated by Disney and flown over from Florida and four others came from Kenya.

When we got back to the guest house, we grabbed water bottles and went for a short walk before sunset. The whole thing was so relaxing. We had dinner and people played guitar and sang around a bonfire. Before breakfast we walked out to a swamp but did not see the hippos or crocodiles that lived there. We were accompanied by Jesse, the sweetest dog ever.

On the way back to Gulu, the van stopped at the side of the road and our driver said that we had to pick up the conductor. Now we had 17 adults in a van with 15 seats. Needless to say we were very happy to get out of the van when we reached the IC house. Some people headed into town, others went to the pool at Acoli Inn, but I decided to stay in the quiet house and finish my novel, the first I’ve read since arriving.

In the evening I went to a cafe in town for dinner with one of the other teachers. While we were sitting there Jolly Okot, the Ugandan director of Invisible Children came in and talked to us for over an hour. She talked a little bit about how the war affected her family and her thoughts for the future. Blake and I left the cafe a little star-struck. Jolly is an IC celebrity.

A note to all my generous donors, you did not donate money to send me to a rhino sanctuary and on safari, those trips are optional and at additional cost.