Dispatches
Arrival in Africa
March 5, 2008
Heathrow to Nairobi….as our second nighttime flight came to a close, I repeated the word “Africa” quietly. Does one ever believe they are REALLY going to Africa until they actually set foot on the soil? I certainly hadn’t… it had always seemed an impossibly distant exotic place, legendarily filled with the beautiful and dangerous where many of recent history’s most catastrophic episodes played out in crises of poverty, disease and human conflict.
But I considered again our plan for this visit – to document innovative sustainable and green projects in developing countries, elevating agents of change + sharing their stories of success + challenges, with the end of providing both inspiration from and support to their causes. What an amazing opportunity…to see these programs in action and to meet the people who are making them work, in many cases despite prevailing environmental and cultural conditions.
Out the window, a lightning storm unleashed like a firefight in the clouds skirting the flanks of Mt Kilimanjaro, followed by an African sunrise that filled the dim cabin with golden hued spotlights, gently shifting as the pilot adjusted our tack for the approach to Nairobi airport.
After a final puddle jump from Kenya to Uganda, our airport relay was complete. We were met at Entebbe Airport outside Kampala, Uganda by the effusive, well-spoken Greg Cummings, executive director of The Gorilla Organization, a wild-haired African-raised Canadian, keenly focused on African environmental and wildlife conservation partnered with community development. He was accompanied by good-humored Rwandan-born Patrice Basha, Gorilla Safari guide who nimbly motored us past packed minibuses, bikes and motor scooters into Kampala.
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