Kazinga Tours - Meeting the local people

A helping hand in developing (eco-tourism) Uganda.

There we stood in the office of Kazinga tours, in the middle of Kabale. It was our first step to, what was called in our program, "volunteership". Kazinga Tours, together with Akatagyenda organized a volunteering program for us. Below is a description of what we experienced in 1-5 days of volunteering during our stay of 4 weeks in Uganda.

At first we spent some 2-3 weeks crossing Uganda, getting to know the people, their culture, their habits, their tourism. We travelled from the most beautiful Murchison falls, through a booming experience encountering the chimps in Kibale National Park, to a wildlife of most amazing species in Queen Elisabeth National park. An experience of a close look at the Congo border in Ishasha, crossing borders to Rwanda for visiting the mountain gorilla in "Parc National des Volcans" and coming to Kigali to visit the Hutu/Tutsi memorial.

Most astonishing was in this period, I think, our guide "Nasser Kazosi, was amazing……! He was always on time, never delayed, spoke lots of Uganda languages, has humor and enthusiastic in everything. Besides what we enjoyed is the pure wildlife, the kindness of the people and their open hearts.

In the 1-5 days following up, "tourism" changed in "volunteering". A small step into the office of Kazinga tours had a huge impact on their portfolio. There was a welcome meeting organized with people of all the projects we should visit. Our program was set! A small outline of what each program consists is below:

Taking part in community awareness program. (3 days)

Near Kabale we met our first "host" family. Head of family "Mr. President" was a very vital men for his age(78). Together with him, his daughters(Sharon and Sheila) and a project developer (Evelyne) we visited some established projects. We climbed steep hills and made a very nice surrounding walk with learning by doing talk. It was as if we were at home, relaxation of the first kind. During this stay we made a small contribution to fight malnutrition in combination with orphans HIV/AIDS awareness program in the Kabale area. In cooperation with another "peace-core" volunteer we made "tipi, taps" for some people and discussed about nutritious food and different food programs for the orphans. We visited a school and a family who take care for 12 orphans. It's quite shocking to see how young some of these orphans are.

Visiting Afforestration project. (1,5 days)

The project developer (Evelyne) who was guiding us also on the first program was leading and caretaker in this project. She took us to her hometown on top of one of the hills in Uganda. Due to the huge deforestation in Uganda, land is decreasing its value. Large amounts of trees are brought down for making a poor living in Uganda. Not sustainable that's for sure! Evelyne is taking care in a sustainable way of living by replanting pine-trees on a large scale as part of an income for the community. Beautiful views is part of our memories. As is also the strenuous walk were we heard quite often "we are almost there". Be sure when Evelyn invites you for a "walk" put on your hiking boots and expect at least to walk for almost two hours up en down steep hills. Last but not least the tour through the village. The image of what is left is looking at poverty, joy and kindness so close together in such a small area.

Developing an ECO Tourism project (5 days)

In the last program we visited, we were "tourist models". A community called "Nyundo Hills" is situated at 4 km to the entrance of the Bwindi National Park. The community gave us shelter in a small "tourist" Banda in the village Keyshero. There was a warm welcome by some 50 orphans who spend their afternoon with dancing, playing and singing in this area. The purpose of our visit was evaluating the so called "eco-trails" which were part of an eco-tourism project. 7 trails were developed in the past 1-5 years but until now there were hardly any tourist to visit these trails. In 4 days time we visited most of the trails. Two we did on foot and the rest by car or by looking at it for some very tough trails could not give us any chance to be there physically. Lots of shaking hands, visiting dance groups and looking at how things came to us as the first tourist ever to set foot in Nyundo Hills. At the end, being one of the guests of honor for a farewell party, we were given certificates of being the first tourist clearing all the trails.

Seeing Uganda from a different perspective, being among the people, feeling their culture as it is, seeing and hearing stories how things went in the past gives you a time you and the local people never forget. It gave us such more of Uganda than being tourists alone. An experience we wouldn't have missed and will do again when we return to this beautiful country. Brings up that if you are planning to do some volunteer work in Uganda, Kazinga tours can arrange it for you.