Gorilla Protection

I am proud to show you photos of my newborn son, who came into the world on 23 January at 15h10.

Aline had many hours of labor at the local hospital, but my son and she are doing well. He is my 6th child - and I think we are going to stop there!

He is a good boy so far, most of the time.

We have yet to name him, but we will do in coming days.

I think he looks like me!

Germaine & Kevine are happy about our new family member.

Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect

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Last month I blogged about why I became a Ranger and I talked about the influence of my father, Sylvestre Mburanumwe. At that time I didn’t have a picture of my father. But now I do!

Sylvestre Mburanumwe, born 1947

He has been a Ranger since 1968, mainly in the southern sector of Virunga National Park in the Gorilla Sector and other places like Kibati. He has been head of the Bikenge patrol post in the Gorilla Sector for a year, and before that he was head of the Jomba patrol post in the Gorilla Sector for 14 years. There are 5 patrol posts in total in the Gorilla Sector.

Me & my father at Rumangabo 10 days ago

He was one of the first Rangers here to work on the habituation of Mountain Gorillas in 1985 with Conrad Aveling. First he was part of the team habituating the Rugendo family, and that took about 2 1/2 years. He also worked with the Rugabo family, who took only 6 months to be habituated.

My father is currently evacuated from his patrol post because of the fighting. Today the situation has calmed, but for the last few days it has not been good and security has worsened because of fighting between the army and rebels.

Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, wildlifedirect

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Hello. This is Innocent and this is my family. I have 5 children.

Toussain 9, Jislain 7, Germaine 5, Kevine 3 and Pirette 1 and 1/2

And here again. Kevine’s nickname is Dada

The photos were taken in Goma - you can see the lava left over from the 2002 eruption

The boys couldn’t stop laughing!

And here they are with Aline, my wife.

Aline and I have been married since 1998. She is from Kabaya near Rumangabo, and I am from Rutshuru, just north of there. I was in the same class when I was studying as her older brother and she lived near me. This is how we met and eventually came to marry!

Thank you for the donations for our house in Goma during this bad security situation. We all appreciate it very much. We were staying with my brother-in-law but it was very crowded. I have a big family!

Innocent

Technorati : congo, drc, iccn, ranger, wildlifedirect

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Here is a picture of my son Timothee that I wanted to share with you. He was born last September and is my youngest child! Paulin

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This is my mother, Marie Louise Shauliyabo Kitambala. She was born in 1945 in Kasika, with is in the South Kivu province in the east of Congo near where I live now.

She has 11 children - 6 boys and 5 girls, all still alive (many people lose their children here to illness and disease). I am the oldest.

She has 47 grandchildren, and now lives in Bukavu, a large town just south of Goma.

She taught herself how to read and write so that she could better communicate with her children and her younger brother. All her children, including myself, were educated up to and including university level.

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