Art for Gorillas

Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Mar 31 2009 | By: Julie

I remind the children of Art of Conservation’s Code of Conduct for IN the classroom and OUTDOORS.

DISCOVER and OBSERVE - being two of them - are given special importance in today’s lesson.

A yellow square on the chalkboard. How does yellow make you feel? A student writes what emotions are conjured up.

The two color theory books I used years ago while taking a class at Parsons School of Design in NYC were Interaction of Color by Josef Albers and The Elements of Color by Itten.

Recently, going through boxes of my books in Des Moines, Iowa, I found these two books and threw them in my bags ready for Rwanda.

Back at home in Rwanda, I scoured through the Josef Albers book, finding it deeply resonating for me this time round, and developed our feeling color lesson through discovery and observation.

AoC art teacher, Eric Mutabazi, collects a bunch of flowers for today’s class on feeling color.

Eric asks students to pick one of the many brightly colored flowers and then asks them to explain why he or she chose that particular flower.

“First, is should be learned that one and the same color evokes innumerable readings.” Interaction of Color, Josef Albers.

“What counts here - first and last - is not so-called knowledge of so-called facts, but vision - seeing.” Interaction of Color, Josef Albers.

Students write their emotional responses to colors on the worksheet.

In the end, teaching is a matter not of method but of heart. Therefore, the most decisive factor is the teacher’s personality. His enthusiastic concern with the student’s growth counts more than how much he knows. It is well known that ‘the teacher is always right,’ but rarely does this fact elicit respect or sympathy, even less often does it prove competence and authority.

But the teacher actually is right and always will gain confidence when he admits that he does not know, that he cannot decide, and, as it often is with color, that he is unable to make a choice or to give advice.

Besides, good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers. Interaction of Color, Josef Albers.

How do you feel? Join us!

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Ministry of Agriculture-Rwanda | Date: Mar 28 2009 | By: Julie

In a country where more than 90% of the population depends on agricultural pursuits, the Art of Conservation project moves from Unit 1: Staying Healthy to Unit 2: Introduction to Agronomy in order to educate the kids about land use and the pressures this densely populated country has on protected areas.

AoC’s Vincent RUKUNDO, a final year student at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry (ISAE - Busogo), jumps to it with the basics of agronomy.

Vincent asks our young and bright-eyed students:
What is agronomy?
What is the relationship between agronomy and conservation?
What is subsistence farming?
What is soil and how is it formed?
And so on.

Vincent gives a moisture content reading demonstration. I brought back a few of these not so scientific instruments from the US. Kids are excited to check it out.

It may be a bit difficult for our students living in the Northern Province of Rwanda to grasp the population density - one of the highest in Africa. Vincent explains better by suggesting that an average of 850 people in Rwanda live in one square mile. The average density in the US is 80 people per square mile.

Since the population density is so great, the land near Volcanoes National Park has in the past already been taken for agricultural uses - especially during the mayhem of the genocide and civil wars. Now, there is talk of actually reclaiming some of that lost land and returning it to the protected area of the park.

Kids use soil testing instruments for reading the moisture content and soil pH.

Rwanda is moving to increase agricultural production and hopefully on the foundations of environmental, economic and social sustainability.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Mar 27 2009 | By: Julie

Art of Conservation students proceed to Week 6 - Art Lesson on Complex Shapes and Three-Dimensionality.

Our students concentrate while practicing drawing complex shapes. (Rushubi Primary School, Group A)

AoC volunteer, Nick Sokoloff, at the chalkboard showing our students a three-dimensional shape and how shadows are formed when light hits a side of the 3D object.

AoC art teacher, Eric Mutabazi, encourages volunteers to practice shading a 3D object on the chalkboard.

Worksheet for practicing shading. (Rushubi Primary School, Group B)

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

Above, AoC’s invitation to the 30 plus teachers and directors of Rushubi and Nyabitsinde Primary Schools in the Northern Province of Rwanda.

AoC hosts its first teachers and special guests Ubusabane / Conviviality. Our aim is to get everyone together for an informal conversation forum to hear what they like and don’t like about our project and if the program is having positive effects on the children, teachers, local communities, and conservation. We receive testimonials that indeed our work is paying off.

Photographed above is AoC’s special guest, the former governor of the Northern Province, Mr. Boniface RACUGU, and my assistant Valerie.

Guess who came to the party? None other than the adored and respected Governor of the Northern Province, Mr. Boniface RACUGU. He actually just received a promotion as Chairman of Itorero Ry’Igihugu - loosely translated as Head of the National Task Force - and has relinquished his governor position to Aime BOSENIBAMWE.

Vince, AoC’s agronomy teacher, is seen here standing to discuss the project’s first 7 weeks of classes. Governor RACUGU, Valerie, and I are seated near Vince.

We brought ’snapshots’ of our first 7 weeks of classes which included many of the teachers involved in the lessons. Here, directors and teachers are looking at the pictures.

Nearly 6 hours of conversation, discussions, and listening to Mr. RACUGU’s words of wisdom had passed and it was time to start heading home. Teachers and our special guest pose for a group photo.

The musician is playing a traditional Rwandan instrument called the umudori. He sings a beautiful song.

Mu Birunga, AoC’s project song, playing from the iPod as yours truly dances with the governor.

It was a wonderful event.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Mar 19 2009 | By: Julie

Teacher Eric Mutabazi leads our students out of the classroom for a lesson in perspective.

“Look at the horizon line,” Eric instructs the kids.

Beautiful children following Eric’s discussion peer into the distance.

As the class makes its way back to the schoolyard, Eric stops them for another view of perspective. Do you see the three girls standing in a line and waving?

Complex Shapes and 3D next.

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

Shingiro Health Center, located in the Northern Province of Rwanda next to Volcanoes National Park, welcomes a much needed face-lift.

AoC receives a commission for a mural from CCHIPS Director Heidi Reukauf. The mural, not yet finished in the photo above, gives a much improved ambience for patients waiting to be seen by the doctor or nurse.

Art of Conservation’s art teacher, Eric Mutabazi, creates a design by incorporating former AoC adult student’s work.

Expressions of our Student’s Achievements...
The Art of Conservation project held an adult class at Shingiro’s Sector Office during the months of February through May 2008. (please click here to view earlier blog) Fifty students voluntarily attended this free course.

I must admit it is tough working with the Rwandan adult population. People are poor and are living a challenging life.

We call upon former students who may want to help with the mural. Talented and dedicated artists are excited to be involved. Eric, at the far left of the photo, directs three students.

From the first class meeting back in 2008 to the very last, participants were still asking, “But what are we getting at the end of the course?” And, “She (being me) is going to give us money, right?” And, “We’re going to get a job after this, right?” Eric even received a phone call at 3 in the morning from one of the students demanding him to tell him what he was going to get after completing FREE conservation learning classes! Needless to say, the team and I felt liberated on our last day with this group. As we were pulling away from their village, Valerie quietly said she thought our car may be hit with rocks.

Lesson learned…conservation is grueling work!

But as it always happens when we hit a low, new challenges are met and positive energy floods in again.

Marie Louise Imanizabayo is an integral member of the mural team. All of the volunteers receive a payment for their time.

Heidi Reukauf of Comprehensive Community Health Initiatives and Programs, (CCHIPS), directs her team, the clinic’s staff, community members and together they have immeasurably improved the standards at Shingiro Health Center. Good work Heidi! The photo above shows Heidi assessing Eric’s work.

I remember Pierre Damien Sendugu very well from our 2008 class. He was always extremely kind and worked hard. Here Pierre paints a forest elephant.

Despite the rough time we experienced with this group of adults during our 2008 classes, the opportunity to work with them again - in the area of art and conservation - was a reminder to us and to them that our time together was well spent.

Embracing the natural world doesn’t always provide immediate and tangible rewards, but those who pay close attention, eventually feel a gratifying culmination to their sensitivities.

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

Art of Conservation is finishing Unit 1: Staying Healthy by presenting our young students with basic, affordable, commonsensical, habit-forming measures.

Washing our Hands, Brushing our Teeth, Washing our Bodies, Nutrition News.
Please click on the subjects above to view our classroom activities for Staying Healthy.

Our students want to be clean and healthy.

Today I make an earnest request for your financial support during Art of Conservation’s appeal for two RAINWATER TANKS to be used solely by the school children and their teachers.

Make staying healthy an attainable goal for the children who now have the knowledge, encouragement, and excitement to form habits which will help them and their families.

Donat and Cyprien, the two school directors we are working closely with, wrote the letters below. Please read.

Proposal No. 1 from Headmaster Cyprien NTABARESHYA, Nyabitsinde Primary School. Approximate cost 3000 USD.

Page 1. Letter in English.

Page 2. List of materials, costs, and labor.

Donate today! Please write Rainwater Tank when submitting your contribution here at Art for Gorillas at Wildlife Direct!

Proposal No. 2 from Headmaster Donat SEBASHYITSI, Rushubi Primary School. Approximate cost 3000 USD.

Page 1. Letter in French.

Page 2. List of materials, costs, and labor.

Thank you for taking the time to read our appeal. We will keep you up to date on our progress.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Mar 09 2009 | By: Julie

How many times a day do these kids eat? Do they start their day with a bite to eat before walking to school? Lunch? After fetching water and doing chores, do they sit down for a well-balanced dinner? The response from the children filling the classroom is embarrassed laughter and NO!

Corn, potatoes, and porridge are the staples for the families in this area of Kinigi - settled in the foothills of Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Pictured above, avocado, banana, green pepper, onion and an african fruit, are too expensive, or not easily available in their communities, or parents are not informed about the importance of providing a variety of foods.

Bottom line - parents are providing an extremely limited diet to their children.

I asked Director Heidi Reukauk and Medical Coordinator Jeanne D’Arc Nyirajyambere of CCHIPS, (Comprehensive Community Health Initiatives and Programs), to help us share important news on nutrition to our students. They kindly made time out of their schedule to meet with our three groups of kids.

Valerie, at the far right, introduces the students to Jeanne D’Arc and Heidi.

CCHIPS Nurse and Medical Coordinator Jeanne D’Arc Nyirajyambere learns what children know about food and nutrition. She then presents the importance of quality and quantity of food that should be taken each day.

Universally, kids frown upon vegetables, but Jeanne D’Arc stresses to our students the importance of their nutritional value and of eating a variety of foods.

More again soon.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC), Rwanda's Park & Tourism | Date: Mar 03 2009 | By: Julie

Our students and their families live meters away from the boundary wall of Volcanoes National Park.

Endangered mountain gorillas, forest elephants, forest buffaloes, and golden monkeys are their neighbors and the relationship is not always amicable.

My project has the opportunity to shed light on the interrelation of all living things during our classes with primary school-aged students - some of whom only feel disdain toward their fellow primate, the mountain gorilla.

Staying Healthy, our current unit, offers why we want to stay healthy - both mentally and physically - and the hows and whys to Stop Spreading Germs and Hand-Washing Rules.

Today we continue with Keeping Our Teeth Healthy.

My dentist friends in Des Moines, Iowa donated brushes and paste. Thank you again Drs. Joey, Dan, and Jeff.

Four students at a time sit in front of mirrors and brush their teeth and tongue for 3 minutes.

Students remain serious during their efforts in staying healthy and clean.

Class includes discussions on the traditional dental care methods, or more appropriately the only means available at present for most of these kids. A twig is a fine option when buying a modern toothbrush is beyond the family’s financial capacity. One end of the twig is at a point for picking the teeth. The other end is chewed in order to produce fibers for brushing.

Using a twig as a toothbrush isn’t the funny thing…not brushing your teeth is.

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Category: Art of Conservation (AoC) | Date: Mar 02 2009 | By: Julie

Written by Nick Sokoloff.

Hello, my name is Nick Sokoloff and I am an artist going back to the states in 3 months. So while I’m here, I have the pleasure of working with the AoC team and teach conservation through the arts. If I had anything to say, it would be how excited I am to start working. When I leave I am going back to my art college and begin my graphics design and maybe one day I can come here again and teach some new tricks.

Passing out supplies for the art class that we are teaching today.

Thinking of what to teach tomorrow.

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