Do kids from the city like mountain gorillas?
Have they visited the park where golden monkeys live?
Do they ever see forest elephants in their back yard?

A few months ago, I received an email from Sophia Milosevic Bijleveld - she and her husband live in Kigali, Rwanda’s captial city which is approximately a 2 hour drive from where I live in the Northern Province and Parc National des Volcans where the mountain gorillas live. I was thrilled to learn more about her work at the Kandt House Museum of Natural History in Kigali and pleased that she was interested in learning more about our project.

Click here to see a photo of Richard Kandt’s house that is now the Natural History Museum and more information provided by the Institute of National Museums of Rwanda.

Conversations with Sophia were refreshing and we started planning for art from Art of Conservation students in the north to be brought down to the city for an exhibition. Sophia received final approval from the director of the Institute of National Museums, Professor KANIMBA and a date was set.

Team AoC loaded the trucks with art - art made from students from the classes we just finished - and once we arrived in Kigali we got busy hanging the work at the museum.

Sophia contacted schools in Kigali and arranged for field trips to the museum. Here, Valerie and Sophia with a group of school children discussing the lesson Nzeli and the Flying Dart: Dr. Lucy Tells a Story.

Fahad, at the far right, speaks with students visiting the museum from APACOPE (Association des Parents pour la Contribution a la Promotion de l’Education).

Above, Eric and students look at watercolors - Animals of the Virunga Forest: gorilla, golden monkey, forest elephant, and forest buffalo.

Sophia, Valerie, Eric and Fahad received many interesting questions from the children.
Here are a few:
1. Do gorillas eat bananas?
2. How do gorillas form their families?
3. How do they get to know each other?
4. Do they breast-feed?
5. Does HIV/AIDS come from gorillas?
6. Do gorillas have boundaries? Aren’t there gorillas in Congo and Uganda?
7. People say we come from gorillas? Why do gorillas still exist?
8. Between humans and gorillas, who appeared on the planet before the other?
9. What would happen if these animals no longer existed?

Some of the kids laughed when they learned that some of the drawings were made by adults and insisted they could draw better. Well, with the interactive sheets below, students soon had a chance to try for themselves.

After viewing and discussing the art, students drew gorillas, answered questions in their own words about conservation, and drew a sad and happy expression. Interactive sheet #1 in English and Kinyarwanda.

Here, we draw the body of a forest buffalo. Interactive sheet #2 in French.

Thank you Sophia, for giving us the opportunity to help bridge a gap between city streets and forests where the last remaining mountain gorillas inhabit.

Coming up next, more scenes from the Kigali.
Julie

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More scenes from Art of Conservation’s art show.

Two of Shingiro’s art students pose in front of their art on display.

Above, another student from Shingiro.

Team AoC is pleased to hear lots of talking between students, families, and friends.

Watercolors of animals in the Virunga Forest capture these children’s attention.

Do you remember when everyone received hankys? Quite a fashion statement!

Ester, at l’hotel Muhabura, here with Where Do Gorillas Come From? and 5 Great Apes art.

Art to Kigali, Rwanda’s capital city, next!

Julie

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Art of Conservation’s three-month courses are coming to an end - a time of bittersweetness for Valerie, Eric, Fahad and me. Did we cover all that we intended to in such a short period? Did we move too quickly or at a nice pace in order for lessons to seep in? There are endless things we wish to introduce and encourage with each individual that discerning an appropriate time to stop teaching can be difficult to find. But on the other hand, we know we will soon begin working with another group of students and we’ve done our best to provide stimulus and courage to our current group of students. But we’ll still miss the people we’ve come to know.

T-Shirt painting and preparing invitations for next week’s art show is what we want to achieve today.
First…T-Shirts with a Virunga Forest animal painted on the front.

Simeon wears the T-Shirt he painted which has a forest elephant face!

Six students at a time paint their own design on a shirt using textile paints. They’ll have to wait until the art show to receive their shirt.

This young boy uses his golden monkey picture from a previous lesson for his T-Shirt design.

Eric assists a student with her design of a gorilla and name.

Here, a sneak peek of what’s to come…. the ART SHOW.

Julie

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LESSON IN ART CAPTURING FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, Part 2.
Paint a forest elephant’s face showing a HAPPY expression. Have fun!

Tapping into our imaginations, we conclude our series of facial expression drawings with the FOREST ELEPHANT. Living next to the protected area of Parc National des Volcans, the Virunga Forest, many of the students have witnessed forest elephants disregard the wall surrounding the park and move to fields near their own houses.

Any of you drink Tusker Beer in Kenya? Watching the children paint these great pictures I was reminded of the Tusker T-shirt design.

Perhaps some of you are getting a sense of joy seeing this work of facial expressions. Let me know if you do. Feel free to send me your drawing of an animal’s expression. I can post it here.

Julie

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“Where do gorillas come from?” a student asks our guest speaker, a guide from the park service, (ORTPN). We hear a bit of nervous laughter and no further discussions. I ask myself, “Why?” It isn’t an easy question to tackle, to be sure. Should Team AoC avoid addressing this wonderful question which we receive from nearly every group we work with?

Valerie, Eric, Fahad, and I agree to design a basic interactive lesson about Earth, life, and the great apes, but first we need an evolution timeline crash course of our own! We read and receive help from Dr. Magdalena,
MGVP’s Regional Field Veterinarian. We also agree we need to keep it simple - filling in the spaces of evolutionary development over time. Preparing the students for the following week’s class, we ask them to consider three questions:
1. When was Planet Earth formed?
2. When did life first appear on Earth?
3. Where do gorillas come from?

The approximate time of Planet Earth’s formation seems to be a good place to start. In a previous post, I introduced you to Alphonsine, a Rwandan artist living near Parc National des Volcans, who makes all kinds of things from dried banana leaves. Alphonsine giggled as she walked away with our command of a big round ball, and yet she produced just what we were looking for, Planet Earth.

In the field near the classroom, we take a walk through time, beginning approximately 4.6 billion years ago. Kids meander about Planet Earth.

Stepping forward just a few steps, we stop at the Prokaryote approximately 4 billion years ago, suggesting the simple cell represents first signs of life on Earth.

Now a really big leap on our timeline and we jump to find the ORANGUTAN evolving in Asia approximately 8 million years ago. Volunteers help by wearing papier mache masks made by Eric and Fahad.

Weeks of planning and preparation for the exercise were quickly coming to an end. Valerie and I got somewhat nervous and wanted to see how the masks looked and if they would be ready. We were thrilled when we saw the 5 great ape faces drying in the sun at Fahad’s house. Valerie inspected further by testing the chimpanzee mask. The chimp is my favorite.

Six million years ago GORILLAS were evolving.

HUMINOID, what will become modern human, and CHIMPANZEES split on our evolutionary timeline.

BONOBO’S, Valerie’s favorite of the great apes, branched from CHIMPANZEES approximately 2 million years ago. Above is a photograph of Eric and an adult student from Shingiro.

And here we are, MODERN HUMANS - not a final stopping point, but where we are presently.

After our walk on the timeline, we head into the classroom.
Coming up next, our student’s oil pastel drawings illustrating WHERE DO GORILLAS COME FROM?

My dog Ibyiza helps Eric paint signs.

Julie

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Three times a week, we load my truck with art supplies along with the prepared lesson of the day and drive up the hills to where we hold art classes - all of which are next to the gorilla park, Parc National des Volcans.

Our ‘art studio on wheels’ presently works with two classes of children and one class of adults. We are more than halfway through our three-month course now.

Guest visitors, Dr. Lucy, Dr. Magdalena, Jean de Dieu NGIRIRA, Odile NYIRAGUHIRWA, all of whom work in or around the park in various capacities, have helped Team AoC instill even greater awareness to our 150 students of the importance of preserving our natural resources, taking care of our own health, and protecting flora and fauna.

Below, watercolor illustrations following the theme of the day, “Lesson where art shows the NEGATIVE and POSITIVE impact of people on the environment.” We continue concentrating on the negative or destructive impacts. If you’re feeling a bit low or discourage by the art shown here, please be patient, soon we’ll present our student’s positive perspectives!

Illegally cutting trees. Illustration #1.

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Illegal activity in a Protected Area, such as hunting, poaching bamboo, and setting the forest on fire. Illustrations #2.

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More illegal activity inside Parc National des Volcans. Illustration #3.

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Hunting with bow, arrow and machete in the forest. Illustration #4.

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More fire in the forest. Illustrations #5.

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Rwanda has strict regulations for cutting any tree whether it is inside the forest or outside of the forest. Illustration #6.

Julie

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What are people’s negative and positive impact on the environment?

How do our art students express their thoughts on the environment?

Will a healthy environment immediately benefit these students and their families?

What human behaviors are acceptable or not acceptable when caring for our natural surroundings?

Let’s take a look at illustrations from our Art of Conservation students when presented with these questions. To begin with, we look at the NEGATIVE / DESTRUCTIVE impacts.

Polluting our Rivers and Lakes

A number of students believe people have a negative impact on the environment when human excrement enters into the lakes and rivers. Below, four illustrations.

Illustration #1

Illustration #2

Illustration #3

Illustration #4

Collette is drawing her ideas on the negative impact of people on the environment.

Students concentrating and drawing.

Much more to come!
Julie

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And we’re off!

Team AoC, Eric, Valerie, Fahad, and I, occasionally go for a run after AoC’s children’s classes which are held on the weekends. After leaving Nyabigoma Primary School, we usually park the truck nearby at a point where many of the tour operators drop off their clients for the commencement of their mountain gorilla or golden monkey visit. The visitors will walk along cultivated fields and pass by family compounds and perhaps a goat or two before reaching the buffalo wall - a dry stone wall which is about one meter high and one meter thick. Once one climbs over the wall, one has entered the protected forest of Parc National des Volcans. The setting is beautiful here in Kinigi District, the Northern Province of Rwanda, but certainly not void of problems facing the local human and animal population.

Look who’s coming….Eric and Valerie!

It may not appear to be a very steep incline, but once Eric, Valerie and I turn around and head ‘up hill’ the breathing gets a lot more difficult! Ah, but it feels so good!

Counting to ten in Kinyrwanda while doing pushups is…FUN?

During the weekends while we are running around up in Kinigi, tennis is going on down in Ruhengeri/Musanze Town.
(Please see Sports for Gorillas)
We have a new tennis coach, Tony. I will introduce you to him in an upcoming post.

Cooling down, balancing, breathing and stretching.

Team AoC’s work is done for the day so we travel down the ‘hill’ to Ruhengeri/Musanze Town and collapse!

More again soon,
Julie

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In the previous post, we make the hankies and now Team AoC is ready to distribute them to our Art of Conservation students along with a discussion on how and why we want to stop the spread of germs and a lesson on more daily healthy habits as part of our ongoing One-Health education.

Also, I wish to send my appreciation to Mary, Sara, Lucia Cristiana, Theresa, Nancy, Sherri, and Lisa for your recent comments of support and encouragement. Thanks, gals.

Valerie, Eric, and I watch the children’s reactions as they receive the hankies.

I begin by asking the kids what we do when we sneeze or cough or have a cold. They suggest turning away or grabbing leaves. They also give a suggestion equivalent to what I know as the ‘farmer’s sneeze’ which receives lots of laughs. Being from Iowa and spending time in the country, I know this method and only hope not to be down wind from the guy sneezing or blowing his nose.

A volunteer hands out hankies.

So out with the hankies and we offer more guidance on how to stop the direct transmission of ‘germs’ such as coughing into one’s elbow and/or their new hanky, washing hands after the toilet and before taking meals.

Valerie laughs as the children wave their hankies and toothbrushes and paste in the air.

In addition to addressing the health risks of transmission of germs, we promote dental care with toothbrushes and paste for everyone. Our hope is that this sets in motion daily habit forming, but it’s definitely questionable. Can parents afford to replace tooth paste when this runs out? Will someone opt to sell these new things at the market to get a little bit of money? Will a mother use the hanky as a diaper for a baby? Will someone steal the new things? All the aforementioned are highly probable. I know the project’s work is hardly finished. It will takes lots of time and energy to bring about changes.

This boy gives a demonstration on brushing teeth.

More demonstrations.

And now down to the business of drawing.

You’ll see the drawings of today’s art lesson on an upcoming post.

I receive many comments from you, readers, about how cute the kids are and I totally and completely agree.

Please help WildlifeDirect plan the next five years. Please take the user survey. The link is on the home page and it is short. Thanks.

Until next time,
Julie

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I just received notice of two donations from anonymous contributors, one on 1 May and the other on 9 May. Thank you very much! I truly appreciate your generosity.

sniffle, SNEEZE, cough, sniffle, sneeze, COUGH, sniffle, sniffle, cough, cough, SNIFFLE….

Our project, Art of Conservation, works directly with the people who are living next to a protected area, in this case, Parc National des Volcans. Our students practically live side by side with the endangered mountain gorilla.

Recently, Team AoC incorporated lessons emphasizing the importance of personal hygiene by encouraging students to form healthy daily habits. We know research shows there is strong evidence suggesting that many primate species are susceptible to many of the infections that people are afflicted with and that the transmission of infection can occur in both directions. We encourage a one-health approach to life and try our best to set examples for the students to follow.

Can we motivate our art students to better care for themselves which inevitably spirals to better health for their families, better health for their communities, their land, water, forest, gorillas and other animals and then back again?

A hanky may seem an insignificant item toward the efforts of one-health, but small steps can help.

STEP 1
Go to the local market to purchase panels of fabric.

Miscalculating the amount of fabric needed to make 150 rectangular-shaped hankies, Jacqueline, a member of AoC house staff, and I returned numerous times to the market asking the friendly woman pictured above if she could find more of that same fish design. She always tracked down more for us.

STEP 2
Call Jean de Dieu NGIRIRA, a previous Art of Conservation guest speaker and ORTPN staff member, and ask him how to get in touch with his wife, Jacqueline, who is a seamstress in Kinigi Town.

The connection is coordinated and I meet Jean de Dieu and Jacqueline at Jacqueline’s shop in Kinigi Town to discuss the order.

STEP 3
Jacqueline gets busy straight away at her foot pedal sewing machine.

Team AoC will give each student enrolled in our present program, 150 individuals, a hanky.

STEP 4 (Optional)
Give everyone else you know a hanky.

AoC house staff, Muzehe, Phocas, and Jacqueline, decide it best to carry their hankies on their head. Additionally, they prepare my two dogs for their morning walk.