Category: Personal Blogs
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Our Stories:
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Unapologetically Miha
This is the first Gorilla Highlands quarterly newsletter delivered to subscribers by email. If you wish to get future issues please contact us. * * * There were tiny gorillas all over the place: dangling from the tall bamboo trees, playing across the gently sloping volcanic landscape, and peering at a small group of visiting…
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ChatGPT Gets Africa (Somehow)
As Tour Business Coaching Program participants, we were encouraged to subscribe to ChatGPT 4. Visual art generation is one of its advances, and it has proved hilarious to explore what it knows about Africa. When asked to draw a map of the Gorilla Highlands region, it emphasised Lake Bunyonyi, and that was intriguing. Requested to…
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Where Differences Can Still Be Made
We were visited by Laura and Hannah from Austria last week … as they came to Uganda attempting to better understand their late friend Carla Weinzierl. “Cala” was our remarkable veteran volunteer and frequent returnee. She took her own life in Vienna in 2020. Before we get into anything else, there is one important message…
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Does a Responsible Traveller Take Photos of Locals?
100mm, f/5, 1/800s, ISO125 Photographing people is, understandably, a somewhat contentious activity. When we travel — and this we means absolutely anyone — we tend to do so because we are intrigued by exotic places, animals and cultures. “Exotic” simply means different, by the way, so Swedish culture can be just as exotic to a…
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Is Tracking Gorillas Ethical?
105mm, f/3.2, 1/400s, ISO1600 Questions like this are tricky, mainly because only one of the parties involved — that would be us, the humans — can truly understand what’s happening and why. Let us explain … Mountain gorillas were almost extinct by the early 1980s, and only a concerted conservation effort brought them back from…
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SABA Episode #14 — Rwanda Beyond Mountain Gorillas
Hello everyone! This is your favourite mini-blogger, Enyanja! My dad asked me to write something to support Episode #14 of the SEE AFRICA BREATHE AFRICA podcast that talks about Rwanda beyond gorillas. (Now, this has really turned into a family business! Haha! My 14-year-old brother, Maani, is usually the person who approves the final edit…
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Is This Where You Come In? (Gorilla Highlands 2018-2021 and Beyond)
This is the fourteenth and final instalment of a series that marks 20 years of Edirisa and 10 years of the Gorilla Highlands Initiative. Click here for Part I. A man at peace because his mission had been accomplished, I stretched my legs and listened to the faint voices in the night. A new year…
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Will Cultural Experiences Feel Commercialised?
11mm, f/5.6, 1/500s, ISO400 Quite some years ago I guided a group of tourists to Rwanda and Uganda for a Swedish tour company. They had a couple of “cultural experiences” as part of the program. They weren’t my cup of tea, to say the least, and most of my guests felt the same way. A…
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Idealistic Without Being Naïve (Gorilla Highlands 2012-2015)
This is the twelfth instalment of a weekly series that marks 20 years of Edirisa and 10 years of the Gorilla Highlands Initiative. Click here for Part I.
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