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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It’s show time in the Northern Province of Rwanda for the children of Nyabigoma Primary School and the adults at Shingiro.

Arriving at the school early to hang the art, Valerie, Eric, Fahad and I are happy it isn’t raining - this traveling art show can easily get damaged from the rains common here in Kinigi.

Eraster and Eliab, two brothers from the Sunday class, quickly search for their art to show their mother.

Fahad describes the Protection / Destruction lesson with three mothers as he points to the resulting artwork.

Eric and a student’s father share comments about the FACIAL EXPRESSION exercise.

Valerie communicates with teachers and parents about the art.

While we were outside with students and families, Gabby from Clinics Rising, has been busy inside the classroom rigging up the laptop and projector to car batteries for the slideshow! Here, Gabby and Valerie are ready to push play.

Laughing and reflecting as we view all of the photographs taken from our three months together.

More scenes from the art show in the next post.
Julie

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Team AoC sends their condolences to the families and friends of the individuals killed and a speedy recovery to the people injured in Virunga National Park on 9 July 2008.

LESSON IN ART CAPTURING FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, Part 2

A previous lesson exposed our students to drawing an anatomically correct GOLDEN MONKEY, one of the endangered animals living in the nearby Virunga Forest.

Today, Valerie, Eric, Fahad, and I encourage free play as students draw a golden monkey’s face with what they imagine to be its happy expression.

Three golden monkeys by three artists.

Students have fun with color.

Forest Elephants next…

Julie

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Thank you for the $200.00 donation, VIRGINIA!!! We can hardly wait for you and your students to come to Rwanda and work with AoC next spring! Thanks for everything you do!

Paula sent this comment to me after she saw the illustrations generated from our Where Do Gorillas Come From? exercise:
This is so beautiful. I wish you’d make a calendar with a selection of the best pictures - I’d buy one!

Theresa, Sherri S. and many more of you share similar interest in purchasing art made by our Art of Conservation students. I’m struggling with the logistics and perhaps you all can help me. The money raised would help generate funds for the project and thus allow Art of Conservation to continue reaching out to as many different communities located next to PNV. It is approximately $100.00 for one student to participate in our free three-month course. The blogs I am posting now represent the work of 150 students, equalling to approximate project costs of $15,000.00 per each three-month course. In a one-year period, AoC works directly and intimately with nearly 450 individuals.

If I design a set of notecards, a T-Shirt and calender with student’s art and also made available student’s original art that is in the dried banana leaf frame made by Alphonsinee, are you all interested in purchasing these things? Pricing, marketing, shipping, etc… needs to be sorted out. I look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions.
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Johnny Cash comes to class - well, at least through speakers connecting to my iPod. Joining him is Diana Ross, The Beatles, Burning Spear, Yo Yo Ma, Ladysmith Black Mombazo, Jimmy Cliff, Elton John, Beethoven and Yo La Tengo. I switch the music off and ask, “How do you feel?” Fine, good, happy are the responses from our class of 50 children.

Not that I want to ruin anyone’s day, but with our exercise today, LESSON IN ART CAPTURING FACIAL EXPRESSIONS, I want to explore a few more of our emotional states.

Mama Is Sad, a song by Justin Roberts, a native of Des Moines, Iowa where I grew up, conjures sadness. Luciano Pavarotti’s belting evokes curiosity. Giraffe from David S. Polansky’s Animal Alphabet Songs brings us back to happy. Ok, we’re acknowledging more human emotions. Good.

Now, I’m thinking, this song will really bring the house down with deep emotional expression - John Denver’s Calypso - his tribute to Jacques-Yves Cousteau and his oceanographic ship. Music is switched off…silence….then quietly someone says, “That’s terrible!” and with this the student’s laughter brings down the house. I laugh too, but come on, I love that song.

Clearly we are loosening up as kids rush to the front of the class and dance as Bob Marley wails on.

Settling back down in our seats, Eric, AoC’s lead art instructor, explains to the children the exercise:

Part 1. With a pencil, quickly draw a classmate’s face showing their HAPPY expression.
Continue with watercolors.

Part 2. With a pencil, draw a golden monkey or forest elephant’s face showing a HAPPY expression.
Continue with watercolors.

Below, photographs of kids getting started on Part 1 by looking at a classmate’s happy expression.

Classmates drawing each other’s HAPPY expression.

You lookin’ at me?

Again, looking at a classmate’s happy expression and quickly drawing to capture emotion on paper.

Their pictures from the day in the upcoming post.

Julie

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THANK YOU, Theresa, for your March 6, 24, 31, April 17, and May 1 donations. Team AoC truly appreciates your kind generosity!

Recently I read Origins Reconsidered - In Search of What Makes Us Human by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin. I learned a great deal as well as thoroughly enjoyed the entire book. However, Part Six: In Search of the Future, contains one particular sentence which continues to resonate within me, “The night sky is full of unanswered questions.”

One Saturday and Sunday not too long ago after students put away their art materials and were returning to their seats for our few remaining moments of closing remarks, I found myself asking the children if they gazed into the dark night sky and if they did what did they think about. I assigned the students a little homework which entailed looking at the sky before going to bed and asking themselves three questions - questions about anything.

Here are just a few questions that students shared the following week:
When the moon is not full, does this mean the moon is broken?
Can stars fall down?
If a star falls down, can I find money at the place where the star landed?
Are there people on the moon?
And probably the most asked question was about rain.
Where does rain come from?

Valerie, Eric, Fahad and I answered some of the questions as best we could, but the primary purpose for the exercise was to provoke curiosity as well as accepting that not all questions have one finite answer and many questions may never arrive with conclusive answers. Isn’t life about asking questions? In turn, do we not spend a lifetime sifting through and exploring only to be spurred on by more questions?

We are into our second year of Art of Conservation classes and almost every group of students will ask, “Where do gorillas come from?” So continuing with life’s questions, we presented our current students with three questions:

1. When was Planet Earth formed?
2. When did life begin on Earth?
3. Where do gorillas come from?

Please join us as we explore together in the upcoming blog.

And thanks, Dr. Leakey, for your inspiring and insightful words.

Julie

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Thanks, Paula, Sheryl, Wanda, and Antonio, for your recent comments! It’s great to hear from you all.

Does a country at PEACE help MOUNTAIN GORILLAS? I would say so. The children at Nyabigoma Primary School who are participating in Art of Conservation classes illustrate people caring for people in their drawings as a way of depicting people’s positive impact on the environment.

Recently, at Nyabigoma Primary School, Team AoC had the pleasure of speaking with the governor of the Northern Province of Rwanda, Boniface RUCAGU, as well as the mayor of Musanze District, Celestin KARABAYINGA and Director General of ORTPN, Rosette Chantal RUGAMBA. The governor points to a drawing on display made by one of the children and asks me what it means. I happily share with him that the drawing is a result from our discussions on conservation. And with this particular drawing, the student is expressing his view of a POSITIVE impact people may have on the environment - living in peace and caring for our family and friends. Needless to say, all agreed!

We are standing in front of art made by Art of Conservation students at Nyabigoma Primary School, a school built by means of Rwanda’s tourism revenue sharing scheme. Pictured from left to right: Mayor Celestin KARABAYINGA, ORTPN’s Director General Rosette Chantal RUGAMBA, Governor Boniface RUCAGU, and School Master Cyprien NTABARESHYA.

Bebe NAHAYO’s picture of peace.

Elvis Costello asks, “(What’s so funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?”

AoC student BIZIMANA’s picture.

Special guests and speakers at ORTPN’s function in Kinigi continue on to more locations in which community based programs are operating. School children dance and sing.

Julie

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Lesson Where Art Shows the NEGATIVE and POSITIVE Impact of People on the Environment.

Below is the final installment, for now, in our series of illustrations from our students showing what they believe to be destructive to our ecosystem. Here the students focus on hunting and setting snares to trap gorillas and other animals in the forest.

Warning! Life if not always a pretty picture.

Killing gorillas. Illustrations #1

Killing gorillas and other animals in the forest. Illustrations #2.

Setting snares and using guns in the forest. Illustrations #3.

Bow and arrows and machetes used to kill gorillas. Illustrations #4.

More illegal activity in the forest. Illustrations #5.

It is visually apparent our students are familiar with what may occur inside the forest, a place bordering on their homes and farms. It is our hope, Team AoC, that during classes we can foster a greater appreciation and awareness of the gorillas and environment not because we told our students they must, but because they choose to for reasons which resonate within. I’m feeling optimistic, especially with the children we work with, that a broader understanding is being recognized of why protecting our ecosystem is so important to us all.

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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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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