Tinka from Bigodi - a homestay

My next destination was Fort Portal. This is relatively high altitude and thereby it feels quite chilly. From Fort Portal, I took a shared car to the small village of Bigodi. On a map, one probably will not find this village, as there are just a few hundred people living there.
However, nearby there is Kibale National Forest and there I absolutely wanted to go.
But first, however, to Bigodi and my lodging there: I lived there with the family of John Tinka. Tinka has done a lot for his village which was as poor as most Ugandan villages till 10 years back. However, things changed, when Tinka had the idea about taking advantage out of a swamp just next to the village.

Tinkas homestay, Bigodi

The villagers converted the swamp into a small park with footbridges for visitors, they qualified guides who know a lot about fauna and flora and it worked. Today, there are quite a few tourists visiting the area and pay entry for it. The calculation rose – since some years income comes regularly by the visitors to the local community. Besides, in the meantime, a women's co-operative has formed which pursue a small store with art craft beside the park entrance, a peanut butter factory was founded, a secondary school was built and various home stays accommodate visitors now. The latter means, that tourist can directly live with families and pay for it.

Tinkas homestay, Bigodi

Swamp, Bigodi

I stayed with Tinka, the co-founder of the project. This was definitive with family connection, because here live beside him and his wife still the granny and 9 children between 8 months and 22 years….
During daytime, usually everybody was occupied with various works like laundry washing and ironing, washing dishes, preparing and cooking food or Tinka working in the office…
When it comes to food, because this is asked quite often: In Uganda people eat mainly banana. These can be the sweet bananas as we know them from home, or, however, cooking bananas. They come to almost every food as an addition; the whole is called Matoke and tastes a little like mashed potatoes with light banana mark. Otherwise there is often Posho, maize mash, and beans or cooked beef or chicken.
However, with Tinka and his family I had a lot of fun. In the evening there was singing, dancing or stories were told.
I was very lucky to get a permit for the national park on the spot. Thus I could visit the chimpanzees in the Kibale National Park. Normally one must walk about 1 or 1.5 hours, until the guide can localize the chimps in the park. Also there we had luck. We have found the first chimpanzee's family after 10 minutes. The chimpanzees sit normally high in the trees and are very difficult to take photos. One can hear them, however, far away, because they communicate a lot with each other. The hour with the Chimps passed too fast. It ware simply fantastic!

Kibale National Forest

Presumably it is even more impressive with the gorillas, but to get a permit in short notice is almost impossible, moreover, the permit costs a whooping 500 dollars. However, this is quite too much money….. At that time I thought it might be cheaper in Rwanda, but I learned later that it is the same price.
The next day, I visited the marsh in which also many monkeys live, indeed, no chimpanzees. In addition there come many birds and rare plants. Here I had once again luck, and have got to know 2 ladies from Netherlands, who took me after the tour in their car 20 kilometers towards my next destination.