Baraza

The First Ever Kids Gorilla Summit event attracted huge publicity and started on time despite the driving rain, and over 200 children participated in the First Gorilla Summit.

On stage were Lucy Spelman, Peter Greste, Craig, Isabella and Juliana Hatkoff, Richard Leakey and I. We took questions and showed slides and films to a captivated audience.  Billy Di Michelle from Scholastic was an amazing coordinator and Trevor Nielson was the very able Master of Ceremonies.

I think it was  a huge success because these kids were very focused and submitted hundreds of ideas to help solve the crisis facing mountain gorillas.  At 1 pm the event ended and every child went home with a bag of goodies that included the signed books as well as a T-shirt.

The event ended with huge applause. Each of the six schools also got a massive baby gorilla toy that they will name and film the naming ceremony, and an Act Pact – a massive commitment that they will sign.

This is what I felt like  doing just after the Launch of Miza

Course that isn’t me, but I do feel quite ‘high’. These were school kids in Central Park – they were having such enormous fun it was contagious that we couldn’t help taking photos. I hope they join us in this cause to save Mountain gorillas and make a commitment.

If you couldn’t watch the event, you can still enjoy it and submit your commitment on the Scholastic website here.

We are so proud of the success of the event which would not have been possible with out the support of Scholastic, Turtle Pond, the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, the Rwanda Film Center, President Clinton, Jack Hannah, Anderson Cooper, ACF (UK) and all the rangers who are out there every day saving gorillas in Uganda, Congo and Rwanda.

Now we need to ensure that these commitments are upheld and the event leads to real actions that make a real difference for mountain gorillas throughout their range. Join us, download the commitment here, sign a commitment, send in your ideas and questions, become part of the solution.

More photos of the event are coming soon!

Though it was announced back in June  the launch of our newest childrens book is actually taking place next weekend in New York. The book is part of a campaign that was born out of a commitment to action made at the 2007 Clinton Global Initiative shortly after last summer’s tragic massacre of ten mountain gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park. The campaing includes the publication of Looking for Miza: The True Story of the Mountain Gorilla Family Who Rescued One of Their Own (Scholastic Press), and the creation of a multi-platform and standards-based educational initiative that will teach children, teachers and parents about the gorilla crisis.

All of the authors and photographer Peter Greste will be in New York for the launch. We will give you details about the events that will be taking place in case you’d like to attend.

I was very pleased to read the first book review on Amazon.com

“Moving, inspiring, informative, beautifully illustrated, and very, very important. This is a true story about one family of mountain gorillas, living in the Virunga National Forest (currently occupied by rebel army forces) and their attempts to return a lost orphan to their fold. “Miza” will engage your mind and steal your heart. You cannot ignore the plight of these magnificent creatures whose lives hang in such delicate balance, threatened by deforestation, poaching, and infection and war. Their innocence, so similar to our own, is poignantly and simply stated: “When gorillas feel safe, they play.”

Another review is on Eco Childs play here.

Craig Hatkoff, my friend and co-author of the book  wrote a moving piece about how this project came about on the scholastic website

“When we first started the Looking of Miza project, the only photograph we had of Miza was the picture that now appears on the back cover of the book. It was a photo of just an eye peering through a bush, snapped by Peter Greste last summer. It was the only photo Peter could get of Miza, who was still traumatized from her ordeal of being lost in the jungle. Park rangers Diddy and Innocent confirmed it was Miza by her distinct and now-famous nose print. With only that one photo in our possession, we agreed with Scholastic to do the book even if we couldn’t get any other pictures of Miza because of the importance of telling Miza’s story and raising global awareness of the mountain gorilla crisis”.

This article goes on to show how a book cover is so important, and how much effort it took to get the “right” book cover.

If you have the book  and have read it, please tell us if you like it – or if you don’t.

Hello everyone, Paula here and this is the moment of truth !!! Here’s my promised podcast. Listen with headphones gorillas are very quiet creatures so listen carefully, I hope you feel immersed in the jungle. Look a the photos as you listen – I’ve put them in chronological order.

The day started at 4.30am after a very long night of very loud Oliver N’goma concert!

The experience begins with a talk from our guide Francis, who was absolutely brilliant. ….he takes us on an extraordinary hike through the jungle introducing us to much more than gorillas,….

Here’s the volcano, Mt Bisoke, we had to climb it!

We first walked through farms to this wall, the “buffalo wall” demarcates the edge of the park protecting it from incursions as well as protecting the people from buffaloes.

The houses in this area are made of sticks and the walls of leaves, the soil here is not sticky enough to plaster the walls!

The trek we were told would take anything from 10 minutes to 3 hours. Every time someone asked “are we nearly there?” we were told the same thing, “just ten more minutes”. It took us nearly like 3 hours! From Left to Right these are Joe Summerhays (animator), John (assisting guide), Bill Gorth (master story teller), Craig Hatkoff (co founder of Tribeca Film Festival), and Brian Newman (Tribeca Film Foundation).

Our first sighting, he just sat there and stared right back.

The emotion you feel when you spot Gorillas for the first time are never forgotten. From Left to Right, these are Dino (dudu diaries), Craig and Rabai Irwin.

It’s hard to keep the 10 meter rule, gorillas walk right up to you and will even grab and push you aside you if you are in the way as happened to Craig!

The experience gets better and better as the group begins to ignore you – two individuals played right in front of us then climbed a tree.

I could have watched these guys playing for hours! So entertaining.

I know why Dian Fossey fell in love with the place, the staff like Francis are super dedicated, amusing, and just a pleasure to spend time with.

The trackers wake up at about 6 am to find the group and stay with them and guide the tourists to them.

Can you see the 3 week old baby? Did you hear it coughing on the podcast?

Life as a gorilla can’t be that bad?

Apart from the mind blowing gorillas, other odd things creatures also caught our attention like this giant earthworm. They grow to about 1 foot and are about 1 inch thick!

After that full day in gorilla country and one hour with the Amohoro family  I looked at my certificate and I can’t help feeling like it was a life time experience well wort the $500 price tag. I want to stay in touch with them, monitor the progress of the new baby, hear their daily shenanigans.

What do you think? Would you pay $500 to experience this?

How was the podcast?

This is part of a series of posts about our trip in Rwanda. It has been so exciting and there is so much to tell you that I don’t know where to start….Ok, I’ll start with Saturday’s naming ceremony

When we arrived the venue for the ceremony was already packed with thousands of local people. The setting is amazing – that’s mount Karasoke behind.

We were witnessing the naming – which Craig Hatkoff one of our Dierctors of WildlifeDirect and my co-author in Owen and Mzee, and his daughter Juliana were lucky enough to actually participate and name a gorilla. The baby they named was called “Mushye” which means ‘new’. I’m going to get her to do a guest post about the experience – so watch out for that post coming soon… for now just imagine yourself emersed amongst about 4000 people and the sounds of an African celebration….

The music and fanfare was absolutely mindblowing… here are some photos to get you into the mood -you will just have to imagine the loud African beat, the energy, the celebration. It was absolutely incredible.

The dancers had so much energy it was hard to sit still while they performed

One of the key stars of the ceremony was Oliver Ngoma from Gabon after naming his gorilla he was asked to give us a taste of his music described as Afro-zouk reggae… he sang a couple of song to the entire audience, a teaser for a major concert in the evening. Everyone was dancing in their seats!

I couldn’t resist it… so I took advantage of the opportunity to get a shot with the star himself! WOW! He is seriously famous in Africa, ….

On Sunday we went on a gorilla trek …apart from it being the out-of-this-world experience that everyone who has ever met a gorilla has, something particularly unusual and special happened to Craig. I have to download photos and podcast … it’l be in my next post. Hope you can wait!

Yesterday I signed copies of Owen and Mzee donated to Mukuru where I met children who were honored to meet a real “author”. When I told them that Isabella was 6 when we did this project their eyes grew big with the realization that children can be authors.

Mukuru is a school for over 4,000 children from a slum in Nairobi. 2000 of these kids benefit from one hot meal – probably the only meal they get each day. The school is supported by the world food program and my friend Rita Field-Marsham who donated 1,000 childrens books to their library, invited me along when she realised that I was an author of Owen and Mzee. What a privilege. These kids were amazingly disciplined, adorable, they were playing with a home made paper football. My dream is that Miza has just as much impact, if not more, than Owen and Mzee which is now in 17 languages. I’m hoping Scholastic will do a Kiswahili translation and donations to local schools in Congo, Rwanda and Uganda to inspire the youth to care about gorillas.