Serving Rwanda to tourists

Like the mountain gorillas in the Volcanoes National Park, to which she accompanies tourists frequently as a tour guide, Florence Kabanyana is something of an “endangered species”. Endangered in that she is one among only two private female tour guides in the country. Her only compatriot, Lynne ,works with Southern Hills Expeditions, another private tour company. Currently, Florence is a tour guide and consultant with Safari Legacy, a local tour and travel company. Her brief is well cut out for her: Booking gorilla permits and hotel rooms for clients, confirming flight schedules, guiding, administrative work, and coming up with an itinerary for tours. “I look at new things that can be included in the clients’ itinerary and forward it to headquarters in Arusha for approval,” she says, stroking her dreaded hair; “I also carry out surveys before a tour excursion.” And guiding seems to come naturally to her. Not only is she well spoken and confident, she is a natural talker. And she speaks a host of languages; French, English, Kinyarwanda, Luganda, Swahili – all fluently. Then she is well endowed in the department of looks. She is on the ball and can hold her own in a conversation on practically any subject. Her comparative knowledge of the sector is impressive, having travelled extensively across the region exploring its tourism gems. “It is not enough to tell tourists about your country,” she says of the demands of the job; “You have to be in position to furnish a client with information about other neighbouring countries, but know that it is your country you are marketing first.” The guiding bit takes up most of her work time, and more often than not, she is out in the field with tourists, frequently going for weeks on end on a particular trail. She contends that tour guiding is all about the power of information. As she puts it, “you have to make a client see what they didn’t come expecting to see. You have to give them a brief biography of the country, of the city, the dos and don’ts, to prepare the client for the new experience. You’ve got to know practically everything about a particular client. Clients differ in age, physical ability, health and eating habits, and you have to handle each of them differently. There are difficult clients who won’t appreciate anything you do. All this is the work of the guide.” By far, her most popular destination remains the Virunga National Park in the Northern Province, popular with gorilla tracking bands of tourists. Because of this, she has grown as fond of the primates as the tourists she accompanies to their natural habitats. She calls them “our cousins”, stressing that they (gorillas) are that close to humans. “Most of them (tourists) that visit the gorillas have already seen them in zoos in their home countries, but they come down here to see them in the wild, when they are untamed; they study their behavior and daily routine, and how organised they are.” Other tourists simply come to get as much information as they can about the gorillas. Here Florence comes in handy, furnishing them with tidbits and interesting facts as her experience can permit. For instance, did you know that the Silverback is the alpha male and leader of a particular group of gorillas? “There can be two or three Silverbacks in a group, but one is dominant. He actually owns all women in the group, and has powers to punish or expel from the group whoever it finds with one of his women. He is the group’s decision maker.” Another popular destination of hers is the Nyungwe National Park, famed for its chimpanzees, nature and canopy walks, and birding. This leaves Florence with little time on her hands, and she has had to make a few tough choices in her life. She is an eligible spinster, and plans to remain that way until she finds the kind of man who will understand the nature of her work without judging her. She would have loved to be a mother like some of her friends, but then “I wouldn’t want to be away for weeks from my child if I had one,” and “there has to be a right man for that first”. She gets irritated by the fuss people make about her “manly” job. “I think there is no difference between a man and woman on the same job. It’s the same as the women working at construction sites. People always ask me if I’m not afraid to work among men, but I think it’s a matter of how you connect with co workers. In that regard, the men I work with are gentlemen.” But what about the clients? Don’t some of them ever get tempted to throw hints and make a pass, just like they do with hotel waitresses? Of course some do. And when they do, “I make it clear from the start that it just can’t work.” Otherwise, it all boils down to one’s “availability”. “If you look like you are available, then men will look for you. I try to make it clear from the start that we are like sisters and brothers.” Florence considers her self “lucky” to be in a salaried job, and one that comes with the occasional tip, about which she says: “A tip is something you get in appreciation of good service rendered. It’s not a must.” “Is it true that Africans in general are averse to tipping?” I ask her. She gives me knowing looks and begs that we leave it at that. Has she received a huge tip herself? Yes. All of 1000 dollars. I ask what she spent the money on and she says; “There are many uses for money.”