Art for Gorillas

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 25 2009 | By: Julie

I think you will once you listen to KaiserCartel’s beautiful, inspirational, and sincere music written for Art of Conservation.

Mu Birunga is In Virunga in Kinyarwanda. Virunga is volcano in Rwanda’s national language.

The Virunga Massif, comprising of a string of volcanoes, is another name for the three contiguous protected areas - located in three Central and Eastern African countries - where the endangered mountain gorillas live and coexist with the endangered golden monkey, forest elephant, forest buffalo, and more…

So please get up and celebrate the efforts going into making the world a more pleasant and healthy place!!!

More songs from KaiserCartel coming up.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 24 2009 | By: Julie

YES, musicians Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel create songs for Art of Conservation!

I met Benjamin many years ago while we were living in the same West 12th Street apartment building in New York City. At some point, I left New York for Africa and Benjamin met Courtney and together they headed to Brooklyn.

A few years passed until recently I received an email from them. I replied by asking if they would be interested in writing songs for Art of Conservation. Much to my delight, they responded immediately and said yes.

The AoC project goals and what drives the singer/songwriters creates a complimentary partnership - before the duo committed themselves to making music full-time, Courtney was an elementary music schoolteacher and Benjamin was an early childhood art teacher.

Below is a press release for March Forth- their debut as a duo from music public relations septembergurl.

Courtney and Benjamin

KaiserCartel
Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel have logged thousands of miles, lost continents, parted ways with rock stars, formed and broken up bands — all for you to hear March Forth, the debut from the duo. They live in Brooklyn, the part of Brooklyn where melody reigns, whistling is compulsory and anything (like a milk frother) could be considered an instrument. Rather than conjure the twee miasma that those ingredients could create, KaiserCartel have constructed a gorgeous album of songs about living and loving, something they know about, as their musical and romantic lives are so entangled, it’s difficult to say where one starts and the other begins.
But March Forth and the romance that nourished it might not have occurred. Placed on the same bill one evening at the Knitting Factory, each missed the other’s show, but chatted briefly. Months later, they would meet again at yet another show, then struck up a correspondence in earnest. “Then, finally, on March 4th, we hung out for the first time. We played music that we recorded but never put out, and traded ideas,” explains Kaiser. The pair decided to hit the road with little more than a car and their instruments, and traveled the country spreading the gospel of Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel, each playing on the other’s songs. When they returned, they began writing songs together. “We go back and forth between writing on our own and writing together. But I feel like we’re so influenced at this point, even if [Ben] wasn’t there, you’d be able to feel the song is – something about the song is very ‘us’ together,” explains Kaiser.
That something is the confluence of the two, apparent on March Forth. Honed in the home they share, Kaiser’s dulcet tones ring out like clarion calls against Cartel’s solid timbre. And while it’s only the two of them throughout their recordings and on stage, they give the impression several more people are involved in each song. “What is ‘us’ is being able to make something very simple sound very big,” Cartel explains. “When you close your eyes, you assume it’s a whole band of people. You look up, and it’s just the two of us.”
Recorded in Los Angeles over eight days with producer Matt Hales (aka aqualung) and mixed by Hales and Ken Thomas (Sigur Ros), March Forth is the marriage of the band’s inventive instrumentation to the subjects closest to their hearts. “Season Song,” is a playful, jangling ode to the four seasons, somewhere between a lullaby and a schoolyard chant, complete with handclaps, xylophones and whistling. The warm warning of album opener “Oh No” builds until it crests into perfect harmony, and elsewhere “Okay” starts starkly, then barrels forth as Kaiser gives permission and the band’s arsenal of instruments (organ, tambourine, drums, guitars) burst in.
Who Benjamin Cartel and Courtney Kaiser were as past selves is very much alive in the music make. Kaiser’s extensive vocal training in the choirs of Indiana (and as a back-up singer for John Mellencamp) and Cartel’s years of playing in DIY bands imbued in KaiserCartel the ability to do a lot with little; they are inveterate professionals on shoestring budgets, musicians so technically proficient they seamlessly switch instruments throughout the course of a show. Both Courtney and Benjamin spend their days ensconced in music and the arts. Courtney is an elementary music school teacher and Benjamin is an early childhood art teacher, their day jobs are centered on inspiring creativity and then, in turn, they take that inspiration and weave it breathlessly and beautifully into their own music.
The strength of KaiserCartel doesn’t lay in the fact that they are a couple; it lays in the fact that they are musicians and friends who work symbiotically. Whereas some couples invite you into their bedroom, KaiserCartel invite you into their living room, where the full scope of their lives can be seen.
“I always liked the idea, when you meet a couple, and there’s something about them—and you wonder what it is they do at night. I feel like because we’re comfortable just being real and how we are, and there’s no artifice, you get to know what it’s like in our house,” says Kaiser. “Seeing looks that we give, or music that we write – it’s seeing us in our living room.”

How do the children in Rwanda respond to the music Courtney and Benjamin wrote about gorillas and sowing a little kindness? Coming up next…the music and the dancing!

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 23 2009 | By: Julie

Two AoC students clap their hands and seem pretty happy to me. Why?

Where am I going? Why am I having so much fun?

Eric is celebrating something. What?

Wow, these girls are cute!

To find out what is happening with everyone at Art of Conservation please tune in next time.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 22 2009 | By: Julie

By Fahad
I am now going back to university after working with Art of Conservation during my holidays. It was my pleasure to work with the team of AoC again in our mission of teaching kids to understand our natural world through the arts.

I am going to study two dimensions in second semester at the Faculty of Art and Industrial Design at Kyambogo University based in Uganda. I am doing a 3-year program and I will finish 1 year now.

I will miss the kids I was teaching and the staff of AoC but wherever I will be, my heart will be with them and when I get holiday I will be coming and continue working with my great team educating kids around Volcanoes National Park about conservation and the need to create a healthful connection between people and mountain gorillas.

Eric and Fahad monitor our hand-washing program to ensure a more healthy population living next to Volcanoes National Park. Students are returning to the classroom from their 15 minute recess.

Back at the AoC House, everyone - including my dog Ibyiza - join together to celebrate Fahad’s birthday and his last day with the project before returning to univeristy in Uganda.

Fahad, a dedicated artist and conservationist, cuts the cake.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 17 2009 | By: Julie

More of The Basics in Hygiene. Hand-Washing.

What are the 3 Hand-Washing Rules we are enforcing our students to follow?
1. Wash your hands after using the toilet. (The schools have drop toilets which are fearsome on a good day.)
2. Wash your hands after playing. (Our 3 hour session includes a 15 minute recess.)
3. Wash your hands before preparing and eating food.

Instructing the kids how to properly wash their hands in our particular situation and environment is not a simple matter of turning on the faucet and receiving hot water….as I am sure you imagined.

A taskmaster, I am! I direct, “Keep your hands underneath the running water for 30 seconds. Your classmates are counting aloud 1 - 30 in Kinyarwanda and English!”

The two schools where we are working - Rushubi and Nyabitsinde, located next to the protected area of the mountain gorilla park - have one water catchment each, but which are inaccessible to the children except when opened by a teacher with his/her key. One tank can’t supply water year round because the water is depleted during the dry seasons.

How many children do you know will go in search of their teacher once the whistle blows sounding off the ‘get back to class’ command?

I’ve asked the teachers of each school to write a proposal to AoC for an additional water tank for rain catchment. The tanks would be designated solely and physically positioned appropriately as the kids hand-washing facilities!

It’s going to be difficult for the kids to thoroughly wash their hands at home, but until better ways are implemented, buckets and soap will be at the school every day to continue with the habit forming.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 16 2009 | By: Julie

The Basics in Staying Healthy. Stop Spreading Germs!

A-CHOOOOO. And there go my germs as I demonstrate with powder how germs, realistically too tiny to see, can spread with a cough or a sneeze.

A roomful of ‘germs’ as kids use the powder while pretending to sneeze and cough.

With a handful of germs, we touch each other, shake hands, pick up every day objects…

like pencils….

and touch door handles.

The germs we pick up then enter through our mouth, nose, eyes, ears, and voila we are sick.

So how do we stop spreading germs?

We teach the kids to cough and sneeze into their elbows - thereby keeping ones germs to oneself.

It’s going to take practice, but we have many months together to make a habit of it.

Practicing sneezing and coughing into our elbows instead of spreading germs to others.

Please click Germy Wormy for more helpful tips on teaching children about staying healthy.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 11 2009 | By: Julie

The AoC teachers, Eric, Valerie, Fahad, Vince and I, are getting to know our students during these first few weeks of classes. Each week we go over the AoC Code of Conduct for INSIDE the classroom and OUTDOORS. They’re a nice bunch of children. I am happy to be back in the classroom after many months of formalizing the project in Rwanda.

Communication and cultural differences are to be embraced although I constantly remind myself to slow down when I feel myself getting going with excitement about the topics and the amount of knowledge to be shared. Valerie translates my English to Kinyarwandan. Children are receiving English language skills which they crave for as we go along.

Eric asks the students, “What is art?” and “What is conservation?”

I have requested that the teachers who would normally be teaching this group of students at this time of day to be present, take notes and participate during each class meeting. Here, Michel, sitting at the desk, is going over our attendance list with Valerie. Once per week, Michel meets with the other schoolteachers at his school for discussions on what was covered during our class session, what worked, what didn’t work, how it can be applied next year when AoC moves to another school.

Fahad moves about the classroom. Soon he will return to Kampala to continue his university studies. We are happy to have him back when his time allows!
(Please click here for Fahad’s art school in Uganda announcement.)

Two teachers who are participating in our class sessions are pictured above. They make due with lack of desks by sitting on wood panels at the back of the room.

The newest member of the AoC team, Vince, observes and helps during the 3 hour sessions. He is eager to move beyond the basics which we are covering now and proceed to the agronomist side of life. (Please click here for Vince’s introduction at Art for Gorillas)

We’re off to a promising start in nurturing our students and their teachers to be more knowledgeable about the importance or caring and protecting our shared natural world.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 10 2009 | By: Julie

Here we are…and here we go.

We are embarking on an entire school year of classes with 150 students plus their teachers. The boys and girls are in 5th form primary school - ages ranging from 11 to 17 years of age. Approximately 85 hours of personal and hands-on conservation learning will be given per student.

Please continue to join my team and me, plus visiting guest speakers, as we give it our all to promote Discovery, Creativity, Learning, Observing, Respecting, Sharing and finally Celebrating.

We are in one of twenty classrooms at a primary school called Rushubi. The school is located just near the border of the Volcanoes National Park. Mountain gorillas, forest buffalo, forest elephant, and golden monkeys are these kids neighbors.

Rushubi Primary School has one water tank for rain catchment but which is inaccessible for the students and 32 drop toilets. In other words, no running water or electricity.

Nyabitsinde has seven classrooms, one water tank, and seven drop toilets. One wouldn’t think finding water terribly difficult in a subtropical rainforest zone such as where we are in the northern province of Rwanda, but during the dry seasons the rain does not fall and the water tanks are empty.

One step, one day, one child at a time…this is what I keep reminding myself.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 05 2009 | By: Julie

A big thank you to L. Ludovic for your January 18th donation of $55.00!

Your financial support is going toward the purchase of scholastic material I found while I was home in Iowa last month and which I brought back with me to Rwanda. The materials - maps, posters, curriculum-based hands-on activities, books, and more - are already a big help to the project team and me!

So, thank you again for your greatly appreciated support.

The receipt below shows the purchase of school materials used everyday for the Art of Conservation project.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Feb 03 2009 | By: Julie

We love the art materials and books! Thank you very much Paula! All of the gifts will be put to great use in our classrooms.

Eric, Vince, Fahad (on vacation from university and back to work with AoC) and Valerie with the modeling clay, paint brushes, acrylic paints and books.

Eric and Vince are happy to have copies of ‘Looking for Miza’ and ‘Owen & Mzee’.

Again, thank you Paula!

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