It was mid-2008. Mwezi “Badru” Mugerwa was almost done with his bachelor’s degree in forestry, an academic field that had trained him to view forests as a resource for extraction. However, as he inched closer to graduation, the idea of cutting down trees didn’t sit well with him, and he was looking for ways to put his academic training to better use. In June, an internship opportunity in the remote forests of Bwindi came calling, and Mugerwa jumped at it. He didn’t know it then: but he had a date with Africa’s least-known feline. For someone born and raised in Kampala, Uganda’s bustling capital city, life deep in the rainforest without electricity or piped water wasn’t on the cards. But the chance to protect forests instead of cutting them down was too good to be turned down. Two days after finishing his exams, Mugerwa packed his bags and set off on the day-long journey to Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) away from home, on Uganda’s southwestern border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mugerwa reached the Institute of Tropical Forest Conservation’s field station in the dead of the night. “The only sound you could hear were insects, and the only light we had was from the stars,” he says. It was a total contrast to the noise- and light-drenched Kampala. The tranquility of Bwindi mesmerized him. “I was like, this is beautiful!” Bwindi Impenetrable National Park got its name for a reason: it has no roads…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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