There's a myth that gorillas are ferocious. It all began with the movie King Kong, where they got all kinds of things wrong. First, they're sailing off to Borneo. Second, gorillas don't live in Borneo. Orangutans do. Dian Fossey and I had a good laugh about this together.

To talk about Dian Fossey, we must talk about Louis Leakey's Trimates, Leakey's Angels, or Leakey's Primates. Louis Leakey chose Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Birute Galdikas to study the great apes in their natural habitats.

As the dancing medicine man chants, the rhythmic drums beat, luring the senses to go deeper. It’s a full-on experience, visiting a Rwanda cultural village in Africa. From handmade animal skin drums to handcrafted Ficus-wood musical instruments, the sounds beckon…dance. Dian Fossey loved to dance hearing Rwandan drumbeats.

Dian’s burial happened so quickly we weren’t able to attend. But we promised ourselves we’d come back and look at the beautiful hagenia trees and this wonderful meadow she loved, and we loved.

One door closed and I thought, well, I'm going to open up a window of opportunity. So, I wrote to Dian Fossey. A month later, I get a letter back from Dian inviting us to Karisoke. I was so happy; I've never been so happy in my entire life.

My husband David and I first visited the mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park in 1985 as volunteers for Dian Fossey. Our experience back then compared to our return visit to see the gorillas again in 2017 was vastly different. Whereas the first go-round, I was terrified I’d break one of Dian’s gorilla etiquette rules (which I did and always with consequences). This time, it was like dinner with old friends.