KPRC 2 and the Houston Zoo are in Rwanda to document conservation efforts supported by Houstonians. Follow along with the journey on click2houston.com/conservation.
Today was special. From a trek in Volcanoes National Park to find a specific gorilla family to a visit to a Rwanda school where hundreds of young children came out to greet us, every moment was remarkable.
We were picked up at 6:30 a.m. by Dr. Jean Bosco Noheri of Gorilla Doctors for our gorilla trek. Gorilla Doctors are involved in health checks of the gorilla families in Rwanda, so that’s what we got to do with him on this day. It poured on us, many of us fell in mud, and we’ll all be sore from the hike in tough conditions, but everyone in our group would tell you it was worth it.
In the afternoon, we visited one of the schools where Conservation Heritage-Turambe works to instill a love of animals and conservation. The entire school poured out of classrooms to sing and welcome us with traditional African dances, then we sat in a classroom as they talked about Rwanda’s animals and why it’s important to save them.
At the end of the day, our KPRC team including anchor Andy Cerota, photojournalist Roger Franco, and I sat down to reflect on the day. Our conversation is below.
DAWN: We saw gorillas today, guys!
ANDY: We saw 11 mountain gorillas today, and it was the same family that we saw nine years ago that we featured in our zoo special, our very first zoo special.
DAWN: The Hirowa family -- which means lucky.
ANDY: Which means lucky. As we were walking up the mountain, I spotted the chameleon and the guide said, What? You have great eyes. And he said, ‘You know what that means? It’s luck. It’s good luck.’ I said, So good luck. And we’re going to see the Hirowa family, which means lucky. So it’s twice the amount of luck. And look what happened today.
DAWN: So, Roger, what went through your head when you saw that first group of five gorillas together?
ROGER: Well, first of all, it was raining. And, you know, we had so much fun in the rain. Believe me, I love Africa. This is an unforgettable feeling that I have. It was priceless, you know, to see those animals in their habitat - it’s incredible.
ANDY: And it was calm. It was calming and peaceful right at the same time.
ROGER: Yeah. We saw the silverback, like, trying to clean his wife in the back. There was a baby there too. At one point, we saw another mama with a baby, and we could barely see it, it was hiding so well. And then I told you, the baby’s right there. And then you told me. Oh, my gosh, yes, there it is.
DAWN: Yeah. I didn’t see it right away.
ANDY: They are huddled together, because they really don’t like the rain. And I know I was watching the photojournalists, you and Kevin, trying to get a better shot of the silverback. (See image at top of this article.) So I turned to the guide, and I said his back is turned to us. He said, exactly. He said he trusts us. He knows we’re not predators. He knows we’re not a threat. He said he’ll turn around if and he goes, and that’s when I speak back to him. And then he’s fine.
DAWN: And when he spoke back, he was grunting kind of.
ROGER: What’s the sound that he made?
ANDY: (grunts a couple times)
DAWN: You’ve got to work on that.
ANDY: (grunts again with a deeper tone)
DAWN: That was good.
ANDY: It was so unique, because it was raining so they weren’t active. So really gave us time to just observe. See, you want to know what they’re thinking. Yeah.
ROGER: And they’re playing friendly. They’re used to people, you know. It’s something I’ll never forget. Also, we saw the golden monkey.
DAWN: The golden monkeys! That was an extra treat.
ANDY: The chameleon, the golden monkeys, maybe it was three times the luck. When Dr. Noheri said oh the twins are over there. Everybody’s face, your face lit up, your face lit up, my face lit up. And he said, come on, I’ll go take you. Let’s go take a look.
ROGER: 13 years old and they were enormous. It’s impressive to see the silverback.
ANDY: Keep in mind and they said this so many times, it’s so rare that twins even make it in the wild. So the fact that you have 13-year-old brothers who are the best of friends, who are inseparable and were right there, just there sitting in the rain together, that’s monumental. It’s rare.
ROGER: But at one point, will they go their own way?
ANDY: He doesn’t know. I asked that question to Dr. Noheri, can you predict? He’s like, no, we have no idea what they’re going to do. We have no idea. I said, It’s a mystery then. He said, yeah, day by day, things can abruptly change. We don’t know. He said that they’re the best of friends. They’re inseparable. We don’t know if they will ever go their separate ways.
DAWN: So, the gorillas were amazing. But something else really, really cool happened for us today. Let’s talk about when all of those kids at the school filed out of the classrooms. Did you have any idea what was about to happen? ROGER: No ANDY: No.
ANDY: I thought it was going to be one classroom doing the dancing and singing. I didn’t know it was going to be the entire school.
ROGER: When we got there, you know, I thought that we’re going to be in a classroom, we’re going to see the teachers and the kids, they’re going to be answering questions. When they came out of those classrooms, went outside, I still have goosebumps right now. At one point, you know, I started crying. It was so amazing, those kids, the way they sing and their happiness.
ANDY: The joy, you know the joy is palpable.
ROGER: It’s powerful. Yeah, it’s powerful.
ANDY: It feels your spirit.
ROGER: I was telling you, you know, my story is complete, you know, just like that. I know we have still a lot to do, but today, I feel like --
ANDY: It was a lot to take in in one day.
ROGER: We got gold.
ANDY: We got gold.
Look for updates and more pictures from our trip on click2houston.com/conservation.