Tshiaberimu

Category: Uncategorized | Date: Jul 04 2008 | By: tshiaberimu

Hello this is Jean Claude. After the gorilla naming ceremony in Rwanda I crossed back in to DRC at the Goma boarder. Here I met with my colleagues from the Gorilla Organization before leaving the following day with the Director Virunga National Park for ICCN, Norbert Mushenzi, to travel back to Tshiaberimu by road. It is a long journey of many miles, and unfortunately this time our vehicle could not make it - at Rwindi the vehicle broke down. Thankfully Henry Cirhuza, the Gorilla Organization’s Congolese programme manager was able to help us out, and drove to meet us so that we were able to complete our journey.

We were on our way to meet Madame Felicite Kalume, the provincial minister for the environment and tourism in North Kivu province. Madame Kalume, accompanied by the governor and deputies, was on a mission to Kyondo, a small town about 5km from Mount Tshiaberimu to assess the state of security in the area and to make sure that the gorillas were safe.

Once we all arrived we had three meetings with Madame Kalume and the Mwamis (chiefs) of the local area. The meetings went well and the Minister convinced the chiefs of the positive implication of the conservation activities taking place along the west coast of Lake Edward, which borders on to the slopes of Tshiaberimu. The meetings closed as we were invited to celebrate the 46th birthday of Mwami Stuka.