The Innocence of Gorillas

My journey was put together to ensure that I receive as much experience as possible to fill my soul in efforts to raise my consciousness as I move forward in life. The struggle is that some of the experiences really cause my soul to swing from one extreme to another. This causes me to wake up thinking about what happened yesterday and try to process what I am seeing today. Well the last several days have really done a number on me.

Let me first take a moment to talk about sitting with Mountain Gorillas. It really was the experience of a lifetime. It’s impossible to convey what it feels like to sit peacefully with these amazing, enormous, peaceful, gentle giants.

The experience is one you work for. It’s not easy climbing up the side of steep mountains in thick bush. You put your safety in the hands of these amazing guides and trackers. You hike through thick mud, through painful thorny and stingy brush at a quick pace for several hours until finally you are there. You are taught how to behave around gorillas, including how to make calls to them to express you are submissive to the the silverbacks. A kind of guttural groan that’s actually fun to do. You get masked so that you will not transmit any disease to them. You hand over your walking sticks and anything that could be seen as a threat to them.

And then there are there, these marvelous creatures, huge in size, and kind of ambivalent of your presence. Until they are not.

The family I went to see had 16 members. They have one silverback (male of a certain age that is the dominant member of the family) and the family had several young kids and one baby. I ended up meeting 11 of the 16.

When the silverback became aware of our human presence he needed to set the ground rules. Before we were able to raise our cameras he decided to ensure his family’s safety and establish his dominance. He stood, called out in a very loud manner, beat his chest and started approaching us. Of course, I was the lucky person who was positioned in the front of the group based on his movement. He came forward, I did as told and turned my back, made my calls, and waited for the big boy to send me flailing down the mountain with a huge push. I knew he was next to me, although I could not see him with my back turned and I was not going to look at what was next.

But what was next was him just gently touch ing my leg before ha backed up about 5 feet from us, grabbed some bamboo, and sat down for his breakfast. He had done his job. My heart was racing, but I immediately understood what occurred and all the fear washed away as my level of fascination grew by the second. It’s amazing to sit 5 feet away from this marvelous animal and watch him eat and oversee the safety of his family.

Within minutes many other members joined him. Some of the younger members rolling down the mountain, or climbing down the trees. It was like watching a happy family having a picnic. After taking 1000 pictures the first 15 minutes, I put the camera down for the next 30 minutes to just be with them. Their innocence and purity washed over me. I realized we have a duty to ensure this species thrives in their habitat, and I will remain committed to racing awareness and funding to protect them moving forward. There are many other components of what this meant to me, and parts of the thrill of meeting them that IZ will keep to myself for now.

Before I knew it our time with the gorillas was about to finish. And then a peace of magic. As we were leaving and started to slowly back away from this great family the smallest baby came out of the bush. It raised its right hand and literally waved goodbye. Who knows, maybe he had an itch, or was shaking off a bug, but it looked like he was waving goodbye, and that’s what I will take with me. It was a magical day in my life.

Thank you to Dian Fossey, the people of Rwanda, the guides and trackers, Ellen Degeneres, to my employer and friends and family that made this possible in my life.