I’m wishing you Happy 2019 from Kisoro, Uganda, East Africa. This is the place where people come to roam coffee plantations, spend one very special hour with mountain gorillas, and meet the Batwa tribe ~ also known as pygmies.

They don’t have jobs, they live off the land, occasionally selling firewood to pay for vegetables. They’re an endangered tribe who used to be hunter-gatherers.

I didn’t want the tourist experience so I jumped on the back of Martin’s motorcycle and we drove 75 minutes out of town to visit with them.

They live on the steep sides of hillsides. Small round makeshift huts that last until heavy rains fall. This is where we found them ~ just down from the tarmac road. A 4ft elderly woman wrapped in a mud-stained sarong, with tiny bare feet, black dirt toenails, and a face decorated with deep life wrinkles led us swiftly down the hillside.

Two woman sat on the floor popping peas from pods, and peeling leaves from skinny branches to make a fire. A small child in a man’s suit jacket appeared with a long knife in hand, which he gave to his mother before rolling head-first in the mud.

Martin asked for permission to ask questions and take photographs.

They agreed.

So I asked ~ where were the men? (church) how long had they lived here? (2 years) and before? (other side of the mountain) how did they make money to live? (firewood, growing food) did their children go to school? (yes)…

Our small group awkwardly hung out together for a few minutes. There were so many more questions I wanted to ask. I wanted to see inside the small hut and pop peas, and ask where their goats were, and what was it like being so separated from society.

But I didn’t.

Because the grace and generosity they showed just by allowing me to inject myself into their world for those few minutes was palpable to me.

Normally I don’t give money. It’s a complex decision and one I’m at peace with. But today was different. Some kind of exchange needed to happen and that was the currency I had.

I asked Martin to let them know I was aware they had invited me into their world and I was thankful. Then I handed over 20,000 Ugandan schilling (approximately $5) and we started making our way back up the side of the muddy hill.

All of a sudden singing filled the valley. I looked back and five women were following us up the side of the hill ~ clapping and singing a song of gratitude.

“You have made them very happy,” smiled Martin.

We kept walking.

They followed us to the top of the hill and along the road back to the motorcycle. Laughing, singing, clapping in rhythm. I clapped along. Eventually I sang along. They’re known for their singing, dancing and music. The video on my phone ran out, so I made sure that every cell in my body was taking in the sounds, the smiles, the joy of these tiny hillside people who’s day I had just unexpectedly made.

I knew about the Batwa in town and deliberately did not go there. They are visited by tourists daily, they perform and are paid. There is perhaps some value in this. However a kinder way to sustain this dying tribe would be to give them land and space to live life in the way they want to live. Development is a complex issue and since the beginning of time we have lost peoples, animals, flora and fauna as homo sapiens have increasingly dominated the planet.

To witness a tribe that may not be here in a number of years, and animals (the rhino, the mountain gorillas) who also may not be. It’s a privilege. A connection to how precious this world we live in is. How everything eventually changes and is gone.

It would have been so much easier to just stay home over the holidays in my comfortable Dar Es Salaam apartment. Go to  a couple of holiday parties and do pretty much what I do when I’m in that routine. I’m so glad I didn’t. That I allowed myself an adventure that touched my heart deeply and gifted me with many things. Not least… a renewed awareness of how temporary life is, and the joyful experience of having done something that felt ‘right’, and unexpectedly receiving back something way more precious than I could ever have dreamed.

Wishing you a very happy new year. May you open your ears, eyes and heart to new adventures and find the motivation to say Yes to whatever they are.