By Roy L Hales
“The Kingdom of Uganda is a fairy tale. The scenery is different, the climate is different and most of all, the people are different from anything elsewhere to be seen in the whole range of Africa … what message I bring back … concentrate on Uganda.” – Winston Churchill, My Africa Journey,
A group of 23 Cortes residents just returned from Uganda and neighbouring Kenya. They decided to travel this year because the tour company owned by Chris Hartwick’s parents, is going out of business. Nobody anticipated there would be any complications coming home from Africa.
KLM by Thomas van de Weerd via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)
Where they went - Courtesy Google Maps
Kenya’s Borders Closed
They were in Africa when the first cases of COVID 19 were reported. Chris and Jenny Hartwick came two weeks early, so they could do some exploring on their own, but the entire group was in Kenya by March 10. On March 13th, a 27-year-old Kenyan woman returning home from the United States tested positive. The virus reached neighbouring Uganda by March 22. Some of the Cortes Island contingent visited both countries. When Jenny Hartwick finally flew out of Kenya, there were 25 confirmed cases in that nation.
She described the difficulties leaving, “It was several days of waking up to emails from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines saying that our flights had been cancelled. This was still while we were in Kenya. It was multiple re-booking days. Part of our group left on Tuesday, March 24, and the morning of the 24th my mother-in-law (Heather Hartwick), sister-in-law (Ali) and niece (Maesy) woke up to find out that their flight that left on the 25th had been cancelled … They went off to the airport Tuesday evening and managed to get stand-bye out of the country … At midnight of the 25th Kenya announced that its borders were closed, permanently, like done – even to its’ own citizens. So International flights out, no international flights in.”
Jenny, Chris and their children were on the last flight out of Kenya, at 11:30 PM on March 25, 2020.
The top of the Hartwick’s vehicle in the lower right hand corner of this picture – courtesy Jenny Hartwick
How Jenny Ended Up In Kenya
Her father-in-law, Brian Hartwick, started travelling to Kenya thirty years ago, when he was a professor at Simon Fraser University. They used to offer students a three month semester abroad program, in partnership with McGill.
“They did that for a number of years. They would study field biology, ecology and then go down to the coast to do marine biology. When he retired it became a tourist program,” explained Jenny.
“So Chris and I have been there before. I spent three months in Kenya during 2008. That was the last time I’d been out of Canada and i’ve kind of decided I’m never going to do it again. When I went to Kenya in 2008, it was the election violence. Canada put out a travel advisory and it was pretty intense being there. We seem to have timed it quite well”
Her mother-in-law, Heather Hartwick, had been visiting Kenya every year, to run the tourist business. She was usually there four or five months. Now she is now approaching 80 and is retiring.
“This was our last chance to take our children over to see Nana’s other life. It also became an opportunity to take our friends and family, who we have been talking the trip up to for the past ten years. So my brother came, my niece, my husband’s middle brother and his whole family came, Tryg and Laura Ellingsen brought their extended family. So from just the Cortes connection there were 23 of us and then from my brother-in-law’s side, and their friends, there ended up being an additional 20.”
Chis and Jenny were the first of the Cortes contingent to arrive.
“We went to the local market. My kids made friends with all neighbourhood children. We had these epic playdates in the afternoons. It was fantastic. We were in the country for close to a month, which gave us time to relax and experience some of the things we wouldn’t have if we had just been part of the program.”
Jenny’s daughter Savy Hatwick with one of her new friend in Kenya – courtesy Jenny Hartwick
How Bruce Ended Up In Africa
Bruce Ellingsen arrived later. In the podcast he describes his wife Jenny’s recent passing and how her positive attitude made it much easier for the rest of the family to accept her death.
“She basically said, ‘I’m 78 years old, I’ve had a wonderful life and if this is the end of it I can accept that.’ It made it much easier for herself and the rest of us to go through that process at the end of her life. It certainly enabled me to move through the grief of losing her, and focusing on remembering, and relishing, all the good years we had together,” he said.
When Tryg and Laura asked him to join them on a trip to Africa, Bruce embraced the opportunity to explore a new part of the world with his family.
Mountain gorilla by Mariej via Flickr (CC BY SA, 2.0 License)
Excursion to Uganda
After a short time in Kenya, the Ellingsens left for what was supposed to be a short side-trip to Uganda.
“One of the main things that I wanted to do, which was part of the itinerary and did come to pass, was taking part in a habituation of the mountain gorilla to human beings … I and two others were able to get special permits to spend about four hours with the park rangers,” explained Bruce.
The gorillas had a new leader, who had not previously encountered humans. Consequently he charged, repeatedly, to show his dominance.
“The first two times it happened, it caused me to react by backing away from his charge. Both times I tripped over roots and ended up on my butt. After that, with the reassurance of the rangers, I found the best thing was just to stand up and face the charge. I was able to do that and got a good impression of what was going on. I didn’t the first two times, I was looking at the sky!”
After his display was over, the gorilla went off to sleep under a large shrub.
In the podcast above, Bruce also describes encounters with a leopard, two lionesses and his impressions of the African landscape.
When they returned to the airport, intending to fly back to Kenya, the Ellingsens were told the border was closed. They had to change their plans and fly back home.
A market in Kenya – courtesy Jenny Hartwick
Back on Cortes
There is a great deal more to the story, but Bruce and Jenny are back on Cortes Island. They were both in self quarantine, and working in their respective gardens, the day I interviewed them by skype.