Category: Our People
Our Stories:
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Four Tiny Troublemakers, Gone
Remember Sammy, our resident rat-chaser? She’s been having quite the adventure lately. It all started with the former official cat of Edirisa on Lake Bunyonyi. He’d swapped his cushy lakeside life for the bush, but curiosity got the better of him when he clocked lovely Sammy. So back he came, and before long the two…
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24 Hours to 25 Years — Join Us Online
This frame from our Treasures exhibition looks back a quarter of a century, to the moment when Edirisa — the mother of the Gorilla Highlands idea — was unveiled to an equatorial community on 20 February 2001. * * * That’s why we travelled to Lake Bunyonyi this morning — Diana and Sasha from Rwanda, Elie from…
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Let’s Create Provia’s Homestay 2.0
When Provia’s son approached us with a request to upgrade some of their homestay facilities, he had no idea how far our proposal would go. After all, why stop at repairing toilets if we could in fact improve the houses themselves? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if guests arriving on Lake Bunyonyi’s Habukomi Island could opt…
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Mama Nelly Is Cooking at Nkora Again
We have some big news to share: Hadidja Nyirababikira, better known as Mama Nelly, is back in Nkora on the Congo Nile Trail! Six months ago we shared her life story and her decision to relocate to a more urban area. What has changed? “I found a new business opportunity,” Hadidja explains. “I now buy…
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Your Trailblazer Takes You to Congo (And Kampala!)
Quarterly newsletter for Gorilla Highlands lovers I only like Kampala on Sundays. This awesomely crazy city is much more relaxed, quieter and enjoyable on weekends. So being stuck alone in Uganda’s capital during the holiday season does come with a benefit: it feels like some kind of Sunday again and again and again! But why?…
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That’s Provia’s Homestay Now
“Munonga, munonga, munonga!” said Provia Ndyahisahe when we inquired about her interest in hosting people on Lake Bunyonyi’s Habukomi Island. “Much, much, much,” in translation. After the passing of her fabled husband, Tom Karemire, we weren’t exactly sure what the future would hold. Tom was special in many ways, and one of them was that…
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What Tom Meant to Us (And Why You Should Care)
Quarterly newsletter for Gorilla Highlands lovers It is notoriously difficult to find a decent nightwatchman in the Gorilla Highlands region. The local mentality is that “you can kill two birds with one stone, do two jobs at once — one during the night, one during the day,” Edirisa staff Moses Oshaba explains. That puts the…
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Tom Karemire (1945-2025)
UPDATE, 17/10/2025: Tom’s family has met and defined tomorrow’s program. We are expecting our Zoom funeral coverage to begin at noon, but we can’t guarantee that yet. The best way to assure you stay updated is to send your email to experts@gorillahighlands.com. The bellowing voice and infectious smile of Tom Karemire will now beam only…
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Jenna’s Traveling Roots: Why We Made Our Home in the Virungas
Some very special people are choosing to live in Musanze, Rwanda … This is the second instalment in the Why We Made Our Home in the Virungas series, a story about Jenna’s Traveling Roots. (Click here for the first video, Lan’s cute take on his school called Virunga Valley Academy.) You may also like: How…
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