Ever since march I have not needed to sit down in the office for long. It feels that every other week, just a few days before the weekend starts, I’m told to pack up and take off for another field trip – But no complaints! They have really been the most interesting part of the work.

When the Batwa had learnt all about participatory mapping from Kenyan communities, they wanted to have a 3D model for themselves, too. So on 26th of April me, Julius and Peter from Ermis travelled to Kisoro with 5 mapping experts from different universities in Kenya and Uganda. The trip itself wasn’t very long but the journey to the destination made it quite exhausting.

We traveled to Kampala through the night and thanks to extremely bumpy road and long-lasting bureucracy on the border I hardly got an hour of sleep. Right next morning we caught a very slow, fully packed and hot bus which drove to Kisoro for 12 hours. At least we reached the final leg just before the dark and were able to admire wonderful sights of mountains and valleys through the windows. I tried to concentrate on the horizon also because underneath the window there was nothing to see – just a rather scary emptiness above the bottom of steep valleys, whose slopes we were slowly climbing upwards. Well, the bus really was so packed that the pressure of other people around me worked cefrtainly just as fine as a safety belt. So I didn’t mind about steep turnings and other cars almost scratching our bus when passing by, just enjoyed the landscape.

At our destination we spent three days planning the future map of the Batwa. I was pleased to see that the whole meeting proceeded much more efficiently than the one in Mau, mainly because the facilitators were academics this time. But it certainly didn’t mean that the six Batwa representatives would have only sat listening with their mouths opened, having no idea about spatial jargon. Frankly speaking the english conversation between the academics accelerated once in a while, especially when discussing about the area to be mapped and stakeholders to involve in the process. Mapping specialists had designed some draft schemes to suggest different combinations of possible areas. But when the process was not explained to others, it looked like someone had already desided the area without asking from the Batwa at all. Discussion heated, in english, until Anges of the Batwa stood up and interrupted: I’m not sure what you were talking about but we do know where our communities live and what areas we want to include, so will you listen?

And this was not the only time. The Batwa really took care that from the beginning to the end the plan came out to be what they themselves wanted to. Thus during the meeting the specialists really had to explain even technical details for them, and to start thinking about the regions the way that the Batwa understand it. I’m quite sure that after this meeting and especially when the whole process will be through, the Batwa will be even more empowered.

One of the days of the meeting we made a field trip to a Batwa village, too. The destination was aggreed on a spot where all the three remaining forest reservs on the area: Bwindi, Mgahinga and Echuya, could be seen. The nearest to us, Echuya, is nowadays gazetted as a mountain gorilla reserve. Gorilla trip costs $500 per person at least for foreigners. I wouldn’t have believed how much money the reserve is making based on the looks of the village and Batwa’s situation. The richest hotels must be somewhere out of the sight of normal people. After the three remaining forests were finally gazetted, the Batwa have had no land of their own until just recently when some individuals and NGOs have started to buy land for them. So Batwa have basically had to work as slaves and squatters on other people’s grounds. And as they come from the forest, they have been regarded as some sort of sub-humen by other majority communities around. No wonder why the Batwa even asked the Ogieks in Mau, what excatly is your problem here, at least you have a land of your own. But, like said, I wouldn’t have been able to tell their oppressed situation based on the ways of the Batwa I met.

The community which we saw was quite much like any other rural village around here, apart from the surroundings and much smaller huts than usual. But even the Batwa themselves were rather small people. And the surroundings, well, like I mentioned it was just magnificient! All the people in the small community gathered together to meet us visitors, and we were introduced properly to each other through the chairman. They were sorry not to have even tee to offer to us, but I bet nobody didn’t mind because they danced and sang as welcome instead!

I saw local kenyan dances at the end of the meeting in Mau, mostly by Ogieks and Yaakus. Francis said the dancing was close to Maasai style and the singing, in turn, reminded me of joikus buy the sámi people back home. But the Batwas, they were special. Some women had high, some low voices, singing together in such a harmony as if they had been trained for a choir. Yaakus and Ogieks danced in a queue or circle going around the room, whereas the Batwa circle didn’t move anywhere but stood facing the centre where a few probably most talented dancers made such moves I had never seen before.

After the wondwerful welcoming ceremony we chatted with the elders and started encouraging them to remember the old times. Chris said he found a man who had actually been born in the forest. Even a bit younger elders convinced that they knew for example the sources of main rivers coming out of the forests, different types of trees growing in different parts of the forest, and many other features. The only problem was, they said, that they would need to access the forest again to remember completely. Nowadays the forests are more or less closed from anything else than wildlife, but hopefully the batwa will be allowed to visit their anchestral lands again for this purpose.

Otherwise it was very nice to meet other advaced people of the same field opf studies and relax in a nice company after the days meeting. On the last day, when the most of the people traveled back to Kisoro by car, me and Peter stayed waiting for the night bus in Kisoro, spending the day in a local market. The market was indeed a big event with all kinds of vegetable, hand-made and second hand clothes, mattresses, whatever you can imagine. And once again I was happy to notice how relaxed I was able to feel even when walking all alone aside kiosks and salespots wihtout any harrasment or bothering! If all the Uganda is as beautiful and people so kind, I really want to return there some day.

The next night passed once again without an hour of sleep in just as packed and loud bus as the one with which we arrived. We really tried to continue to Nakuru straight away but ended up spending the day in rainy Kampala, and finally arriving to Nakuru late the following night, tired but satisfied after the exciting journey.