Assignment Uganda: Dispatch Number 5 - Buhoma

We wake each morning while it is still dark. Nancy and I have to light our kerosene lamp so we can see to find our way to the pit latrine down the hill.

We are still on the edge of the Bwindi Impenetrable National Forest, still visiting Dr. Scott. Everyone here knows him, from small children to tour guides to the man – Lawrence - who runs the internet cafe. He is well-liked and most people say they have themselves visited the clinic - likely since it is the only medical facility for 10 miles.

The past few days have been quite busy for our dentists. Final tallies have yet to come in, but between the three of them about 150 teeth have been pulled – on the first day, all the pulled teeth were kept in a glass jar and somewhere there is a photo of it.

The first day was at the permanent health clinic in Buhoma, which is a small town just outside the gates of the national forest. Few pygmies came in that day, most of the patients were Bakinga – the predominant group of people who live in this area.

The next day – yesterday – our group split in half. With the Creaseys leading the dental team that loaded up and headed to another health clinic that is about 45 minutes away. The second half of the group went gorilla tracking for the day. I was part of the first group and spent the day visiting with other patients at the hospital, including a young boy named Solomon who came in to get a front tooth pulled because he’d been eating too much sugar cane. He was quiet and patient, Jean said, unlike a little girl

Abut ten children were seen that day, many of them needing permanent teeth removed for eating too much sugar – drinking coca cola, chewing on sugar cane, and eating candy.

It was a long day for the dentists, cramped in the small room at the clinic. Doors and windows were shut for privacy – otherwise everyone crowds around to catch a glimpse.

Barry led the dental team today when the group went up to a pygmy settlement. I haven’t heard details of the day, but one person said that about 200 people came to be seen.

The rest of us went gorilla tracking – this included me!

And while the highlight of the journey was seeing three baby gorillas play on a small tree just a few feet from us, the adrenaline rush came when the alpha male charged at me, looking me directly in the eye.

He came within about 7 feet from me when he abruptly stopped and veered off into the jungle. I don't think my heart stopped beating until we returned to the bottom of the hill.

Before we even saw the gorillas, however, we hiked in for about two hours, up steep slippery hills in the rain forest. The hike can be difficult some say, depending on where the gorillas are. The group we were tracking had been seen the day before on the top of the nearest hill. Seeing a gorilla in the jungle is a tremendous sight, and quite humbling.

While walking through the forest I couldn’t help but think about how this had been the home of the Batwa for hundreds of years until only recently when the park was made into a national heritage sight. Now the Batwa are homeless, a displaced people, living on the edge of the area they used to call home.

P.S. The container still has not arrived.