So far on this trip, I have not had an opportunity to visit any of the amazing National Parks that East Africa has to offer; I have been so busy visiting mission sites, meeting members of the Apostles of Jesus and Evangelizing Sisters of Mary, assessing the most pressing financial needs of the AJs, speaking with groups of community members, and making all of the preparations to bring the first official group of volunteers to Africa this summer with the Come & See Mission, not to mention all the time on the road- well, there’s hasn’t been a lot of free time.
But this girl wanted to see some big animals!
Luckily, on Monday Fr. Manana, Fr. John, and I went to the Entebbe Zoo. It is not actually a Zoo in the truest sense of the word; its real name is the Uganda Wildlife Education Center. All of the animals in residence there were either rescued from poachers and illegal animal traffickers or were injured and brought to the center for rehabilitation. UWEC doesn’t try to acquire animals to display for public enjoyment, but they allow the public to come and see the animals that they take care of. Theirs is a mission of education and conservation.
It was wicked cool to see the animals up close. Yes, I know I can see most of these animals at any zoo back home, but it’s really cool to see them in country where they actually lived in the wild. On the day we went, we were practically alone at the Center (as we were leaving, several buses full of school children pulled up- bullet dodged), and it was bright and blisteringly hot. The Center has carefully created spacious habitats for the animals, endeavoring to make them as close as possible to the animals’ homes in the wild. Of course, the trouble with having very large enclosures is that there is plenty of space for the animals to go and hide. When we got to the enclosure for the White Rhinoceroses, we couldn’t find them anywhere. So we did what anyone would do in this situation- we left the path and walked all the way around the perimeter of the enclosure, through the trees and brambles, until we found them standing sedately under the shade, a pleasant refuge from the ruthless sun. Well worth going off the beaten path.
We had a similar experience when we got to the chimpanzee enclosure. From what I could glean from the informational placards on the viewing platform, there were at least 7 chimps living in the habitat, but we couldn’t see a single one. Determined to see some monkeys apes (they don’t have tails), we struck out once more for a different view of the enclosure. We found a maintenance road that went roughly the direction we wanted to go, so we started following it.
When we were completely out of sight of the marked trail, the trees around us began to rustle threateningly. I put on a good show of being cool with this new development, but I was feeling increasingly uneasy. Shrieks started to come from the foliage, and suddenly we were surrounded on all sides by monkeys (tails in tact). Words like “monkeybite” and “rabies” started bouncing around in my head. My stoicism started to waver, but my companions had no other thought than to pose for pictures with the little terrors. Gradually, the monkeys receded once again into the trees, and we continued on our quest to locate the chimps.
We came across a gap in the dense trees and a long-neglected path, so we left the road. Just a few meters ahead, we emerged at the far end of the chimpanzee habitat, exactly opposite of where we had started. And wouldn’t you know it? There they were! We saw four or five chimps, sleeping in the shade or playing in the water, all of them just out of the line of sight for someone trying to view them from the Center-sanctioned areas. Little scamps.
All in all, it was a lovely day. We saw serval cats, lions, hyenas, wart hogs, giraffes, cobs, gazelles, buffalo, ostriches, zebras, and and many more. Most of the animals were snoozing away the hot afternoon, a noble endeavor for any creature. I am glad that places like the Uganda Wildlife Education Center exist, for both the animals that are recued, and the people who get to behold them.
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