Archive for July, 2007
Just 4 km away from our camp in Mutsora, a vanilla plantation has been reopened 2 years ago. They are busy working and getting ready for their first harvest this September. It is 200 hectares big, and they are planting chillies, coco, bananas, mangoes, pineapple and papaya (for latex production). They employ 20 women and 11 men.
Vanilla pods - huge! Before the war, it used to be a coffee plantation. It has been closed since the war finished, and has only reopened now under the supervision of Richard, a Kenyan born experienced in agriculture management.
They sell their production under the name of Gomet Gardens, via their head office in Uganda. At the moment they operate under ONC (a local Congolese government body) whilst they await for their registration.
Chillies being dried
They work with several local farmer groups, giving them the option to sign a 5 year term contract, under which they compromise to pay them a premium price. Gomet Gardens is under the process of getting IMO international organic certification, so Richard is running a program with the local villagers to teach them how to cultivate under organic norms, so that all the production goes certified as well. They are considering into going under a Fair Trade labeling system.
Names of cooperatives that have already signed the contract Because Gomet Gardens hasn’t got the resources to get the plantation fully operational, they are giving stripes of land to local villagers to plant their own crops. In return, Gomet Gardens gets the area cleared and the soil fertilised with natural nutrients. In the picture below you can see the lines of vanilla and mango trees, and in between is the space given to the villagers for their personal use.
It is great to see the work of the Rangers here in Eastern Congo receive the attention it deserves. And so you can imagine that we here at WildlifeDirect are very
Many thanks to Stephanie as this is the kind of coverage that is needed to raise the profile of the work being done here and, of course, we hope that many donations will come in through the blogs to directly help the conservation work being done on the ground here in Congo. Thanks again Stephanie, and indeed a warm welcome to all the new visitors who are coming to the site through the article, and many more thanks for the donations that are already coming in.
Yesterday we had two visitors arriving at Mustora, Adrian and Urs Guggisperg.
They are cycling around Africa, and they have started their trip in Switzerland at the end of May 2006. Their route includes France, Spain, then crossing to Morocco, Mauritania towards Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, then Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic and today they have arrived to Virunga National Park. They are climbing the Rwenzori’s summit today. So they have promised to bring us some pictures of their journey through the mountain. They estimate it will take them 5 days to do so. Watch out for the stories.
Mutwanga Hospital is just 3 km away from our camp. As you have read from previous posts, this is where we all get treated whenever there is a problem. A group of local volunteers are running the Nutritional Programme that treats severe cases of malnutrition.
This programme is supported by PAM and UNICEF and started to run in March 2007
They treat 20 children and 5 adults per month approximately, and they do accept men in their programme as well.
In the picture below, Night is a local volunteer who offers education for the mothers. You can see her serving the milk.
In the picture below, Mr. Mate (in black shirt) is another volunteer, with Dr. Daniel (volunteering for this programme who works in the hospital) and Jonathan.
There are 6 local volunteers, 4 doctors and 1 nutritionist working for this programme.
Recently I was sick. I had stomach cramps, nausea… all those lovely things you get from having alien bacteria in your body. So I went to see Dr Jeff at the local hospital in Mutwanga. It was the first time in a long long time a muzungu had been to the hospital, which is just under a mile from where we live in the park in Mutsora.
After examining me with a stethoscope it was decided I had amoebas and worms. Nice. So he wrote me a prescription.
Which as you can see cost $0.52. And then I got my medicine. The pills below are Flagil. I think they were the anti-amoeba ones. Not sure. You always get pills here in these little plastic sachets, and they write when (ie am, pm or night) and how many you should take.
The pills cut your appetite. Make you tired. And leave a chemical taste in your mouth. After nearly 6 days I stopped as I just couldn’t take them anymore. Since my visit to the hospital Virginia and Will have also been with similar ailments. Now that we have a chlorine system for the water here I am hoping we won’t need to go to the hospital again any time soon. Sam
This article came out the other day. Rob put me on to it. It is in Focus, a German publication, and is all about the Rangers and the Gorillas. Check out the picture link below.Paulin’s Gorilla Protection blog has already had a couple of donations as a result which is brilliant.
I travel quite a lot between Beni and Goma. Beni is the access town for Mutsora in the north of Virunga, and Goma the access for the south and the Mikeno gorilla sector. The journey Beni-Goma is probably about 350km by road, but the road is bad… not just for pot holes but for security reasons. You are liable to end up at the side of the road in your birthday suit. So you have to do the trip by air. There are flights provided by ECHO, the European Commission Humanitarian Organisation, between Beni and Goma (via Bunia, a little further north than Beni). These are free, because WildlifeDirect is an EU-funded project. They are not always punctual, but I am not complaining. Better than nothing, and the planes do not fall out of the sky like those from other companies that shall remain nameless. I managed to take these photos the other day. They get a bit funny if you start strolling around with a camera, but I managed to snap a few. So this is Goma airport:
And this is Bunia International Airport (hmm..) Lots of UN traffic here.
Sam
Animal Defenders International has launched a campaign to end the use of primates in research and scientific experiments. They have also proposed replacement alternatives. You can visit their website and see the campaign for yourself if you click on the picture link below. Basically about 250 MEPs have signed the declaration, but many have not, and the campaign page urges you to contact your MEP.
The other day we had a belated celebration of Will’s birthday. Well more of a present-giving occasion. He got the obligatory Congolese shirt, the material of which was chosen by Antoine our cook and his son Kizungu. That’s Antoine in the picture. Will preferred the second hand American T-shirts.
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