The Final Farewell: Returning to my First Placement

From the lake, myself, Bronwen and the 8 other people in our tour group were driven to Nkuringo in Bwindi Impenetrable forest – which is where we would do our gorilla trek. The scenery was amazing and the views when we finally arrived at Nkurgingo were incredible.  We could see across to the Congo and Rwanda (including the volcanoes in Rwanda - see photo!) At night in the dark we were shown the volcano again where you could see the red smoke coming out of the top.  We had a nice relaxed evening there and had a nice mosquito net-free night as apparently there are no mozzies at that altitude!

 

The next morning we had breakfast at 6.30 and set off in the minibus to where we were going to start our trek to see the gorillas.  Luckily, we only had to trek for around an hour to find them - apparently it can take up to 4 hours!  When we were very close, we left our rucksacks with the porters and went off with the guides and our cameras to try and find them.  Apparently the family of 24 gorillas that we were aiming to see were making their way down a hill that we were currently at the bottom of.  So we started traversing up this very steep hill which had no clear footpaths…. and soon enough we saw the first gorilla – it was amazing, we were so close!  Soon, more started coming slowly down the hill in small groups. We tried to follow them so that we could see the different gorillas, by the end we had apparently see 21 of the 24!  This included 3 silverbacks which are the mature males and also a little baby one riding on the back of its mother!  We got incredibly close to them, although you are always supposed to be 7 metres away, sometimes they just walk past you – was kind of scary also! Definitely a once in a life time experience, there are only about 700 mountain gorillas left in the world.

 

After my trip to see the gorillas, I returned to my first placement in the village to see how they were and to see how they were doing with the accounting procedures that I had recommended and tried to set in place!
 

During my time there, I went through the suggestions from my previous visit to see what was actually happening and seeing what they still needed help with or whether any of the processes needed to be adapted.   
 

At the school, the business managers had been looking after their cashbooks and recording the majority of all transactions…although when it came to getting them to check what was in the cashbook to how much money there physically was, there were a few random things that they hadn’t yet recorded… but they seemed to know what the differences were and we soon reconciled them!  The secretary was also doing a good job of keeping the cash & bank books up to date. 

I also helped with setting up the term 3 summary – we set it up to link from the relevant columns in the bank and cash book so that hopefully it will update as transactions are entered between now and the end of term so that there is very little work involved when it comes to the end of term!   I also did a bit of computer training with a couple of members of staff and did a handout for the business managers and secretary for key pointers to consider when recording different transactions etc. 

 

 

At “Into Your Hands” (the American NGO), there had not been that many transactions since I was last there.  It seemed therefore that they had been updating the records monthly rather than weekly which I had initially suggested.  Some things seemed to be working, but other things the admin assistant needed further help with.  I was impressed though that the September monthly summary that she had completely was actually 100%, so that was one good thing!
 

I was definitely glad that I was able to return and try and help them with the queries that they had because it could be a while before another AFID volunteer comes again.

It was really nice to go back to the village and see everyone again, they are all so kind and friendly.  I was back sleeping in the nun’s compound and eating with the priests! It took a couple of meals to get used to eating the local food again, but the majority of it is fine, it just gets a bit repetitive! I also got to show Bronwen around so now someone back in England understands exactly what it was like where I have been staying!
 

While I was in the village, I managed to do some walks in the evenings that I had done when I was there before, but this time on my own, as the American girl who had been here before had been transferred to Kenya. 
 

I also visited a local site called Wa Jinja (hopefully spelt it right!) with Justine from Into Your Hands.  The site was basically these very large rocks together just positioned randomly in the middle of the countryside. No one seemed to know the geological reason for them being there, but have attached a pic so you can see!
 

On my last evening  in the village, the priests gave me a lovely last dinner by candlelight due to a power cut!  We had barbequed pork (fine as long as you avoid the large chunks of fat) followed by lots of different things which included chicken (for the first time since I had been in the village!).  I have attached a picture to show my plate of food – a lot of different carbs! Then had a few drinks and some of the people I had been working with came as well.  It was very nice and I was given a few gifts so I’ll now be writing some thank you letters!