Let’s Dance!: Part 2, Rwambibi Does the Mountain Gorilla
Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Rwanda's Park & Tourism, art | Date: Nov 27 2008 | By: Julie
Mountain Gorilla Tracker Leonard RWAMBIBI is our guest visitor for the day and believe me he puts on a great show!
His three children, Angelique MUKESHIMANA (featured in the previous post), Gakobwa UWAMARIYA and Claude HITIMANA (all participants in AoC’s conservation learning class) laugh along with the other students as Leonard acts out gorilla and trackers behavior during the habituation process of wild mountain gorillas.
I remember my dad always doing fun things while my siblings and I were growing up and for that matter he was putting on great fun during his entire life. I think you can clearly see how Angelique, Gakobwa, Claude and the entire classroom of kids experienced a huge amount of pleasure when RWAMBIBI came to class and DANCED THE GORILLA. Who said learning can’t be amazingly FUN?
RWAMBIBI - the kids love you and we all learn so much from you!
Let’s Dance!: Part 1, the Turuwa
Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), MGVP, Rwanda's Park & Tourism, art | Date: Nov 27 2008 | By: Julie
Angelique MUKESHIMANA and Vestine MUKANDUTIYE dance the Turuwa, a traditional children’s game, as we incorporate Rwandan culture into today’s drawing lesson.
Students use watercolors, crayons and oil pastels.
Click here to learn more about the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project.
For more information on ORTPN, please click here.
Coming up Let’s Dance!: Part 2. Meet Angelique’s father as he stops by to chat with the children. He could be one of the coolest guys in town.
Alice, a daughter of an anti-poaching task force member
Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Rwanda's Park & Tourism, art | Date: Nov 24 2008 | By: Julie
Carole S, Sosthene, Amy, and Jen at Handkerchief Project, we appreciate your comments and interest! Thanks for getting in touch.
Douglas B., wow, thank you for your generous donation of $250.00 to the project and $25.00 to Wildlife Direct! This really helps us as we prepare for an exciting and busy 2009!
In 2007, we asked a primary school headmaster named Laurent if we may hold one of our conservation learning classes at his school - a school located right next to the border of National Volcanos Park, (PNV), which was, by the way, not too long ago protected park land before recent human encroachment. We made a request to Laurent: please enroll 50 children who have parents or relatives presently working in conservation. We knew this would not be a difficult request for Laurent to fulfill because the school is situated nearly next door to the Park Headquarters and park staff and conservationists flock here to work with visiting gorilla trekkers or to sign in for field research in the PNV.
With classes in full swing we arrived at our technical drawing lesson and Eric, AoC’s art instructor, encouraged the kids to really look at the models and draw the figure and head in proportion. Once the pencil drawings were completed, Eric directed the students to try different mediums and have fun with the drawings. The kids came up with fantastic pictures.
Alice TUYISHIME’s father is a member of the National Volcanos Park Anti-Poaching Task Force. You will find below Alice’s wonderful drawings.
And this is Alice!
I mentioned earlier in the post that the primary school Alice attends is located on what used to be protected forest of National Volcanos Park. Last night I read an article in the October - December 2008 issue of Conservation Magazine titled
‘Living on the Edge, Human population soars near protected areas’
by Scott Norris presenting a study which suggests that in both Latin America and Africa people have increasingly moved out of rural areas to protected area buffer zones. The article continues with possible reasons such as buffer zones may provide new economic opportunities as well as offer access to forests with firewood, bushmeat, and clean water. Does this mean that reserve establishment with the goals of habitat and biodiversity protection will be even more challenging?
My Life: a gorilla porter’s story
Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), MGVP, art | Date: Nov 18 2008 | By: Julie
Meet Innocent HAKIZIMANA, a former AoC student and a porter for park staff and tourists visiting the mountain gorillas, as he tells his story during our Lesson Where Art Tells A Story.
My Life by Innocent HAKIZIMANA.
Without fail, the resiliency of people who have been through the most oppressive of situations and nature which continually receives relentless plundering, never ceases to amaze me. But why do we push things to such extremes in the first place?
Fellow AoC classmates illustrate Innocent HAKIZIMANA’s story - a story all too familiar to each of these adults who’ve survived years of war.
Illustration 1.
Illustration 2.
Illustration 3.
Illustration 4.
Illustration 5.
For stories from children living in gorilla country, please click here.
AoC wishes O.F. Happy Orangutan Awareness Week!
Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), MGVP | Date: Nov 12 2008 | By: Julie
From the land of mountain gorillas, Art of Conservation sends all the best wishes and successes to Orangutan Foundation during ORANGUTAN AWARENESS WEEK 2008.
Below…words from Vince, Valerie, Eric and pictures from our students who live next to mountain gorillas.
Student pastel drawings from our 5 Great Apes lesson.
A student wearing a papier mache mask poses as an orangutan during our evolutionary walk.
Cheers to the beautiful old man in the forest and to the people caring for the orangutans and the forests they live in.
AND, a BIG thank you to MARY B. for your October 23rd donation! It’s so kind of you, Mary, and we truly appreciate your support.
Thanks John & the United States Tennis Association
Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Sports for Gorillas, USTA | Date: Nov 10 2008 | By: Julie
I walked to the nearby post office and found a box waiting for me sent by John Terpkosh - a member of the United States Tennis Association / Missouri Valley. Inside the box I discovered cool USTA pens, balloons, and little soaps John picks up along the way. “Yep, these gifts will go over just fine with the kids!” I thought to myself.
Please click here and here for previous Sports for Gorillas blogs and learn how this little tennis club of 13 kids came to be - with the generous support from John and Coach Bunny Bruning.
Sure enough, the young tennis players and Coach Tony are very pleased with the pens!
Coach Tony models the team t-shirt and gives the thumbs up to the USTA gifts.
Gentille and Clementine, such darling girls, are happy!
Sports for Gorillas Tennis Team - Musanze - Rwanda.
Coach Tony and I will be speaking with Rwanda’s Ministry of Youth. We must find support to improve the tennis club and make the sport more accessible for all Rwandans. I constantly hear children calling out to me, “Julie, tennisi.” I wish I could give every child a racket, tennis shoes, balls, and Coach Tony!
Thank you again John!
Fetching Water and Thank You for the Donations!
Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), MGVP, art | Date: Nov 08 2008 | By: Julie
Thank you Mell F. and Mary G. for your recent donations to Art for Gorillas! Our project is riding a wave of optimism lately due to generous friends like you and positive energy the team and I are receiving from the people here in the Northern Province of Rwanda. I hope it doesn’t end! Again, thank you very much.
Madame Gaudencia, in the previous blog, shows us artisanal gifts she has available in her boutique - one of these gifts being a woven-circular support which when placed on top of your head it helps while carrying pitchers of water, pots, or sacks full of potatoes or charcoal or grasses for the goats.
I was reminded of an introduction to life drawing lesson we gave a while ago and the beautiful pictures that the students made using oil pastels on black pastel paper.
I had suggested to Eric to choose a model and pose depicting everyday activities. Eric looked out of the window of our classroom and asked a woman passing by to be our model. The woman had a walking stick and a pitcher on top of her head on her way to fetch water. Here are a few drawings for you to see.
Artists Helping Gorillas
Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Community Based Tourism, art | Date: Nov 05 2008 | By: Julie
We are at a small boutique in the northern province of Rwanda - not far from the protected area where the endangered mountain gorillas live.
Madame Gaudencia RUSINGIZANDEKWE describes how an artisan may improve his or her own life through handicrafts and other forms of art. Perhaps, one artist at a time, one empowered individual at a time may prove peoples ability to symbiotically cohabit with nonhuman species.
In her own words…Gaudencia RUSINGIZANDEKWE.
Gaudence has a nice collection of handicrafts - beautiful baskets are available for sale at her boutique in the northern province of Rwanda at l’hotel Muhabura.
Gaudencia and Valerie…interview is over!
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Donations Received
- Sep 28th Peter B. USD110.00
- Sep 23rd Stockshot S. USD210.00
- Sep 8th Mary G. USD165.00
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- Jan 18th Ludovic L. USD55.00
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- Nov 5th Mary G. USD165.00
- Nov 4th Mell F. USD120.00
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