(Posted 24th April 2024)
How remarkable that we were there again — in the clearing next to a simple tin-roofed house, above a campsite with a couple of spacious tents, on the hillside of a medium-sized Lake Bunyonyi island — where the January newsletter was set. Over the years, legendary Tom had hosted hundreds of hikers on this Ugandan isle but that evening he was cooking for his colleagues: Mama Bena, Annah the craftmaker, herbalist Barara, Yohana from the Rwamahano Batwa “Pygmy” community, Gerald of Lake Kayumbu, teacher Justine from Bufuka Primary School.
We once more had a resident of Ghana with us — the always smiling Christine from the Canadian diplomatic corps — who was about to trek into Rwanda through the swamp of Echuya Forest Reserve, doing the 3-day Rebellious Cultures route. When we asked Christine if she was fine with us utilising her overnight as a chance to assemble our local partners, she didn’t mind. On the contrary, she said that whatever she could do to help us, she gladly would!
It turned out to be a beautiful get-together, with plentiful laughter, banter and … slides! Owen’s translation into Rukiga helped mightily as I went through the current status and long-term plans of Gorilla Highlands Experts, the vital aspects of responsible tourism and other essential elements of our ideology. I would finally pass my iPad into the hands of Mama Bena to help her review everything closer to her ailing eyes.
This was the second stage of my Rally the Troops Tour of 2024; the first was when we called all our guides and other staff to Kigali (Rwanda) for an All-Hands summit. There will be a gathering in Kranj (Slovenia) on 25 April, and, who knows, we might also do something somewhere else before 7 May?
But let’s first tackle something that was intended to present our work on the global stage … A section to remind you of how silly this world can be.
When we won our responsible tourism award in London in 2022, it didn’t make financial sense to fly there just to collect it. The Rwandan delegation already present at the World Travel Market would not agree to get it for us (because we weren’t members of the not-so-affordable Rwanda Tours and Travel Association). The organisers arranged for a Nigerian expert to pick up the framed certificate, which I would retrieve later at the African edition of the same trade fair.
I was thus invited to attend WTM Africa in Cape Town in April 2023. Living in a rural Rwandan town, I thought the best way to obtain a visa would be online, taking advantage of my Ugandaness (only certain nationalities are allowed to skip the physical queue). That was a mistake. I had to eventually disappoint the people who were counting on me to speak at one of the panels. All I was left with was regret and an anecdote: for a two-week visit to South Africa, I was asked to provide, among other papers, proof of legal separation from my wife!
Being someone you can rely on, somebody whose promises can be counted on, is essential to me. I felt bad about my failure to show up in Cape Town last year, so in 2024 I made sure I started my visa battle a good month in advance. As the phone numbers published online weren’t working, I went to Kigali and obtained a contact number from the security guard at the gate of the South African high commission. The lady on the other side helpfully told me that they couldn’t issue visas but that she would ask Pretoria about what to do for a Slovenian in Rwanda. (I assumed this passport would work better; another own goal.)
I soon received an email with detailed instructions on how to — wait for this — apply for a permission to apply! I did my part, sent a number of emails, made countless international calls, received a couple of vague promises, and waited and waited and waited.
Alarmed, I rushed to Kampala (Uganda) by bus on the last day of Easter to potentially apply as an Ugandan citizen since my Pretorian hopes were quickly dying out. Sadly, I miscalculated. They would start counting their seven working days only the following morning, and that would mean reaching Cape Town too late.
But I learned something from those expensive conversations with South Africa: that in Nairobi (Kenya) visas could be issued in a day! Trying my luck one last time, I boarded a night bus to the city I last visited 20 years ago …
… That orange section on the map is not lying; if anything it’s too short! It took ages to get out of Kampala, but I was actually thrilled about that. The delay would allow me to admire the grand Kenyan landscapes in the morning light. Nowhere else in East Africa do you so profoundly feel the presence of the Great Rift Valley!
Have you noticed the kilometre count in the screenshot? That’s 721 miles if you are still feeling Imperial … Who would bus himself that far without any guarantee?!
Well, I had another reason to go. I wanted to check on Nushka who is not only from my country of birth, not only from my home town, but who in fact lived a couple of minutes away from the block of flats where I grew up. Some years ago she sent me a picture of her cutting an 80th birthday cake, and I knew that it would need to be me to travel if we were to ever re-connect.
Nushka met her future husband Jimmy when he was a student of demographics at the faculty of economics in what was then the northern frontier of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the late 1960s she followed him to Kenya where she established herself as a psychotherapist and a life coach. It was deeply inspirational to find them still living together in a pretty home overflowing with ravishing flowers — not exactly an expected outcome of a cross-cultural marriage (or any contemporary union for that matter).
When Nushka heard about my predicament, she requested the magic phone number in Pretoria. I told her it was hopeless but she is a stubborn lady … The official listened to her complaints for some minutes, told her I should wait and then cut the call short. And that was it. A month of emailing and phoning wasn’t enough to get the required permission letter from the Director-General of Home Affairs … I was not allowed to request a visa in time for WTM Africa, and the “Nature Positive Tourism” panel took place without me. Again.
And if you think this story is a rant about my personal experience with an African bureaucracy — not at all. I could have applied to apply six months earlier. I could have called many more times, and earlier. I could have allocated two March weeks to staying in Kampala while my visa was being processed. I should not moan about my peculiar South African experience while hundreds of this newsletter’s readers face such obstacles whenever they want to go anywhere.
This story is a reminder of how one’s place of birth (or residence) totally unfairly impacts his or her life chances. When I reflect on social and economic development, I primarily think of widening the scope of opportunities presented to an individual. Being able to travel (or work) wherever you see fit is an aspect of that, as much as making the Gorilla Highlands region more attractive as one’s career choice, not a life sentence.
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One of the most exciting projects we are currently working on is a 2025 Rwanda trip for a group of Italian students. We hope that excursion grows into a cooperation that one day makes it possible for some local youngsters to experience Italy.
Every year Liceo Cambi Serrani in Falconara, a town on the Adriatic coast, organises three to four exchanges around the world — with Australia, Japan, Israel, Norway, Washington DC, … The kids normally stay with families and thus make friends with their age mates. If you keep an eye on our media output, you have already encountered Alex from DC, and you can guess how the connection was made — but this aligns perfectly with a wider initiative of ours.
It was Nushka who pushed me into ultimately making a web page addressing teachers around the world; it had been on the back burner for half a year. And so I sat down at her cozy home in the lush, peaceful suburbs of Nairobi, supported by her tasty Afro-Slovenian cuisine, and put it online in about six hours. When I showed her the page, she forwarded it to scores of friends of hers, educationists or not!
What about a page for adults? For kids? For others? — that was the feedback she shared with me. There shall be other specialised pages for sure.
For example, in August we will be in charge of a 6-day hiking and Youth Spaces volunteering challenge for 27 global professionals from the Dubai office of Omnicom Media Group. This should give us a cool case study for corporate groups (we have already added food experiences to our packages with this exact target market in mind).
For instance, in the same month we will organise a week of touring for a 17-member Greek group of parents and kids. That will add a great example to our list of successful family trips that have so far been much smaller in size.
By the way, these Greeks are just one wave of Wheeling2Help volunteers who will keep Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi fully booked throughout most of the summer. They always attend in droves, and need to utilise every inch and facility of Edirisa. For them and with them we have recently built something that will blow the mind of anybody who has lived through that Robinson Crusoe simplicity: a fancy new toilet and shower!
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But right now we are zeroing in on teachers, lecturers, professors and coaches who are looking for an awesome tour for their youth. In this context, maybe my ridiculous failure to attend the trade fair in South Africa is a blessing in disguise?
For months WTM Africa provided us with a powerful motivation to get better trained, organised and presentable online. (Just look at the links sprinkled over this text — each regional location name now leads to a helpful short summary and a list of articles.)
Who knows, perhaps random international connections made in Cape Town would challenge our current focus? Instead of tour companies and agents we should really be talking to suitable schools in Europe, America, Kenya and the Gorilla Highlands region … We absolutely are uniquely qualified to give student or pupil groups extraordinary field trips.
Maybe you have some contacts we could utilise?
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If you have been reading these lines and wondering what will happen to the travel plans you have made with your spouse — or for a solo trip — I can assure you that there is no need to worry. We are not abandoning serving everyone exactly what you dream of, and can afford! At heart we are not a company maximising economies of scale but a team of passionate people itching to introduce our staggering region to pretty much anyone.
Just last week I created an itinerary for Susan, an American attorney who was looking for a personalised approach to her adventure, for a tour provider who would not only sell but honestly advise. Her transition from caution to enthusiasm was truly satisfying for me!
This demanding job of mine does come with meeting some wonderful people. Last year I organised a Rwanda + Uganda expedition for Mare and Nuša and even joined their camping feast in Akagera National Park. Nuša, who runs an art school in Ljubljana (Slovenia), heard about my daughter’s desire to study painting in the same city and has been remotely training her ever since. Mare, whose family found a new home on an amazing island in the Croatian archipelago, kept telling me about how special the place was.
And here I am, with them, on Unije Island, as a sweet culmination of my first holiday week in years … They weren’t exaggerating — the symphony of Unije’s raw natural beauty, the epic Adriatic sunsets, the tastefully renovated old buildings with fascinating owners from around the world, Nuša’s striking paintings, Mare’s fresh cuisine straight from the sea and above all the overwhelming peace of a car-free town has a soothing effect on my exhausted soul.
Yesterday my hosts took me to the lovely Karniš Ethnograpic Collection in an old house on the waterfront. The collectors themselves, Davor and Branka, gave me a private tour. As they explained the artefacts one by one, quite a few reminded me of the Bakiga Museum we used to run in Kabale … Of my late friend Festo Karwemera … Of what I feel my duty to him and our tribe is.
The Covid years ended his illustrious existence and erased his historical creation. The building that was once a museum is now a clinic, however, the items remain with his family … 2025 will be the centenary of his birth, and we should better bring his museum back into existence by then — do write back if you are ready to play a role in this effort!
You see, I can’t help myself, even on holiday my mind flies back to those enchanting volcanoes, hills and lakes right in the middle of Africa … One day they may become a refuge for architects, sportsmen, musicians, fine artists and other creatives just like Unije already is.
Because that’s where the planet’s heartbeat can be heard best.
