The battered old twin-engine plane touched down on the
dirt landing strip. The wheels kicked up billowing clouds
of dust as the plane bounced toward the shack that served
as the International Airport on the outskirts of Kigali.
I had arrived in Rwanda.
I checked through customs and told the official I was in
his country to study Gorillas in the Virunga Mountains.
He gave me an angry look and I thought I was going to
have trouble, but he stamped my passport and let me go.
I found a taxi outside and tried to get comfortable on
the sticky plastic upholstery. I thought of my great
adventure. I had just finished my undergraduate work in
Zoology at Oxford and had traveled to Rwanda to follow my
dream of fieldwork before I started my graduate studies.
My name is Jane Grover. I had just turned twenty-three
and had no attachments to anyone except an aging and
sickly Aunt back home in Wessex. My parents had died in
an accident two years past, and with my inheritance I was
a woman of means free to do what I pleased. I had just
finished the finest education an upper class English
woman could receive and I was sure I would find my life's
work and passion in the jungle mountains that lay before
me.
I purchased a battered old Rover the next day for a
scandalously high price and purchased the remaining few
items I needed to add to my kit as well. The next day I
left hot and dirty Kigali behind me and headed West.
I was stopped by Army roadblocks repeatedly. At several I
was told to turn back to the city where I would be safe.
I was told that the mountains were dangerous, especially
for a woman alone.
I was polite and smiled and lied about being expected at
Karisoke Centre. They always let me go and no one really
bothered me. I drove through several Hutu villages filled
with squalid huts and surprisingly clean and attractive
natives.
As I drove I started to get glimpses of two mountains
which I believed were Mt. Karisimbi and Mt. Visoke. I
knew that Karisoke Centre would be found on a high saddle
between the two mountains. There was only one trail and
it led me straight to Karisoke.
Several native men dressed only in baggy shorts
surrounded my Rover as I got out and asked for the
director. They told me the lady was not there in passable
English. The lady was on the mountain. I sat in the shade
of a tree and waited.
As evening approached a woman brought me some food and I
thanked her. I was surprised that her only garment was a
long wrap around skirt. Her upper body was bare, and her
beautiful breasts glistened as though they had been
oiled.
She smiled shyly and squatted down as I ate. She was very
beautiful with high cheekbones and graceful nose. I tried
to talk to her but she would only smile at me. It was
growing dark and I thought of getting my sleeping roll
from the Rover when a woman emerged from the trees and
walked toward me.
dirt landing strip. The wheels kicked up billowing clouds
of dust as the plane bounced toward the shack that served
as the International Airport on the outskirts of Kigali.
I had arrived in Rwanda.
I checked through customs and told the official I was in
his country to study Gorillas in the Virunga Mountains.
He gave me an angry look and I thought I was going to
have trouble, but he stamped my passport and let me go.
I found a taxi outside and tried to get comfortable on
the sticky plastic upholstery. I thought of my great
adventure. I had just finished my undergraduate work in
Zoology at Oxford and had traveled to Rwanda to follow my
dream of fieldwork before I started my graduate studies.
My name is Jane Grover. I had just turned twenty-three
and had no attachments to anyone except an aging and
sickly Aunt back home in Wessex. My parents had died in
an accident two years past, and with my inheritance I was
a woman of means free to do what I pleased. I had just
finished the finest education an upper class English
woman could receive and I was sure I would find my life's
work and passion in the jungle mountains that lay before
me.
I purchased a battered old Rover the next day for a
scandalously high price and purchased the remaining few
items I needed to add to my kit as well. The next day I
left hot and dirty Kigali behind me and headed West.
I was stopped by Army roadblocks repeatedly. At several I
was told to turn back to the city where I would be safe.
I was told that the mountains were dangerous, especially
for a woman alone.
I was polite and smiled and lied about being expected at
Karisoke Centre. They always let me go and no one really
bothered me. I drove through several Hutu villages filled
with squalid huts and surprisingly clean and attractive
natives.
As I drove I started to get glimpses of two mountains
which I believed were Mt. Karisimbi and Mt. Visoke. I
knew that Karisoke Centre would be found on a high saddle
between the two mountains. There was only one trail and
it led me straight to Karisoke.
Several native men dressed only in baggy shorts
surrounded my Rover as I got out and asked for the
director. They told me the lady was not there in passable
English. The lady was on the mountain. I sat in the shade
of a tree and waited.
As evening approached a woman brought me some food and I
thanked her. I was surprised that her only garment was a
long wrap around skirt. Her upper body was bare, and her
beautiful breasts glistened as though they had been
oiled.
She smiled shyly and squatted down as I ate. She was very
beautiful with high cheekbones and graceful nose. I tried
to talk to her but she would only smile at me. It was
growing dark and I thought of getting my sleeping roll
from the Rover when a woman emerged from the trees and
walked toward me.