Four days before the fighting in DR Congo escalated, Magda (Dr. Braum) made a routine visit to check on the orphan gorillas in Goma. I knew Magda's visit had gone well. Thanks to Linda Nunn at G4G and Jodi Carrigan at Zoo Atlanta, Mapendo, Ndeze and Ndakasi each got five new toys! But until this past weekend, I hadn't looked at these photos.
It's been busy here as usual. I try to carve out quiet time to review, crop, label and shrink our project photos down to a Web-friendly or Word-doc-friendly size. They're part of our medical records, as well as a great way to share. There's also the time involved in trying to get them to upload to the Internet. No matter how small I make the files, it doesn't work until now, 4:30 a.m.
Infant mountain gorillas Ndakasi and Ndeze in Goma, Oct 24, 2008
Infant mountain gorilla Ndeze plays with a new toy.
Infant mountain gorilla Ndakasi plays with a new toy.
Juvenile Grauer's gorilla Mapendo plays with a new toy.
Andre Bauma with Ndeze and Ndakasi
Mapendo with Babo, one of her caretakers
Ndakasi playing on her climbing structure.
The chaos in Goma also causes countless delays. With our slow Internet and unreliable cell phone connections, it can take all day to get an update from Jacques and Eddy. To add to the tension and worry about orphan gorillas, as if we needed more, lightning struck our electric fence at the facility in Kinigi, Rwanda, 10 days ago. We've been scrambling to gather the right parts and finish the repairs ever since. Ntabwoba, Itebero and Maisha know when the electricity to their fence is off, and if their caretakers aren't watching, they'll get out — not all the way out, but into the rear area or the kitchen, far enough to cause havoc.
Several of the orphan gorillas at the Kinigi facility in Rwanda watch their fence being repaired.
The box that supplies electricity for the Kinigi fence had not only burned up, but part of the wire and insulators had disintegrated. There was a hole in the cement wall big enough for a gorilla hand. We needed to get new parts quickly. Thank goodness for our friends, Ged Caddick, who runs Terra Incognita Tours, and Doug Braum, Magda's husband. Both happened to be here when we needed them.
Doug and Glenn set up the new electric fence box with no problems.
Ged stopped by our office to say hello just as our local electrician was telling me he could fix the box, which consisted of a few bits of plastic and burned-up electrical parts. I couldn't imagine that anyone could put it back together, especially someone with no tools. No way, I said, there's nothing to fix. We needed a new system, which I knew we couldn't buy in Rwanda.
Ged came to the rescue. He made a few phone calls to his friend Carol at Volcanoes Safaris in Uganda, got someone on the phone at a store in Kampala, talked back and forth with me about what we needed, made a decision, put all the expenses on his credit card, and arranged for two new electrical boxes to arrive by Sunday morning — one for now — and one for the next time lightning strikes. A week later, back in his Tampa office, Ged wired our project even more money as a donation. We cannot thank him enough!
Doug then spent the better part of a week putting the electric fence system at Kinigi back together while either Magda or Jean Felix did their best to distract the gorillas with attention, toys and peanuts. Glenn Bush, another helpful husband, also lent a hand. Glen is married to Katie Fawcett, director of the Karisoke Research Center; he'd dealt with the fence once before and I think he was happy to have Doug's help! I'm sure neither planned to become experts at gorilla containment. They are now.
Ndakasi and Ndeze play in Goma.
But these weren't the real reasons I'd delayed viewing the orphans' photos. The truth was that given all the subsequent chaos in Goma, I couldn't bear to see happy gorillas and relaxed caretakers. Finally, I realized that looking at the photos might cheer us all up a bit.
Andre Bauma with Ndeze
Mapendo
Jacques and Eddy assure us that nothing has changed for the orphans so far. They're the same playful, well-fed creatures they were two weeks ago. As for the caretakers, Andre and the rest of the team are determined to stay put, though I doubt they're sharing as many smiles or looking as relaxed as they were during Magda's visit. For now, we're taking things one day at a time.
[Rwanda, 2008. Pictures: Dr. Lucy Spelman/MGVP]
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