The ‘Volcanoes family’ -  are drawn from different countries and ethinc communities. Many are from families which have survived conflict. All of them have a story to tell and we thought we would share some.

Kirenga Kamugisha's Story.

A long walk from cattle keeping to bird guiding.

I was born in 1970 in a remote town in the South Western District of Mbarara. Cattle keeping was the principle source of living in our area, so a large family was of great benefit. I was born into a family of 22. My father had attended a technical school during the colonial era, and so made sure all the boys in the family went to school. Education for the girls in the family was not given a priority.

And so in 1977 I started school at a remote church school. I did 7 years of primary school before going to Mbarara town for my secondary education. It was when I started attending school that I wore a pair of shoes for the first time. I had no experience of wearing shoes and continually stood on people's feet!

During "Obote 2" my family became refugees and had to leave our home in Uganda, we fled to Rwanda where we remained for 4 years. I missed 4 years of my education during this time but I resumed my studies when we returned to Uganda in 1986. As I was completing high school, the horrific genocide in Rwanda happened. When things stabilized there, our family returned to Rwanda.

As someone who was brought up in a cattle keeping family, I can't deny that I was a poacher. Since our job as young boys was to look after cattle, and we grazed them on a former game reserve, impalas, waterbucks, bushbucks, rabbits and so many others died at our hands while looking after the cows. As a bird guide today, I especially regret killing numerous birds with my catapult. Poor guinea fouls and francolins were always eaten as breakfast while weavers, kites, falcons and all those that were considered not edible we used for sport shooting.

As young boys we were not always well behaved! When our neighbours chickens, goats or bulls went missing, we always volunteered to help look for them whilst secretly trying to cover the tracks of which way they went! At night, we would we would sit around the fireplace telling stories, and one of us would be sent to our neighbours' fields to steal corn, sweet potatoes or yams for roasting on the fire.

In 1999, a friend of mine gave me a job driving some tourists on a two-week safari. The only advantage I had was a good command of English, Swahili and Kinyarwanda (spoken in Rwanda) but to my surprise, the guests told him that I was good. This awakened my dreams of working in the tourism industry.

After a few years hitting around the bush and gaining experience as a guide, I joined Volcanoes Safaris in 2003. At Volcanoes we work not just as a team but also as a family, and the years that I have worked here have completely changed my life. I will always thank the entire Volcanoes family for the years I have spent working with them. With the help of Volcanoes I have taken courses in guiding services and customer care, defensive driving and advanced motoring, wildlife interpretation, bird identification and guiding. I am now the founding member and President of the Rwanda Safari Guides Association, a member and on the advisory board of the Uganda Safari Guides Association, and a member of the Uganda Bird Guides Club.

Guiding has become much more than a job to me, it has also become a hobby and a passion. I enjoy my time meeting different people of different nationalities and cultures, sharing with them what I know and displaying the culture and beauty of my country.

 

Thank you Kirenga!