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Usually we are talking about the work of the rangers on this blog and for good reason, as they are the ones putting their lives at risk for the vital protection of this precious but vulnerable park. However, today we are going to focus on the women in the rangers’ lives, as behind every great man is a great woman. It is the support that these women give their husbands and children on a daily basis that help them go on to achieve great things in life.

Thursday March 8^th is International Women’s day and we would like to raise $600 to contribute towards the celebrations to recognise all the work that the women of ICCN have done to support our rangers over the years. There are about 160 women living within the 3 main stations of the park who will benefit from this contribution.

To the top-right of this post, you can choose the amount to donate in the drop-down menu below the barometer, and click the red “Donate” button which will take you to Paypal. You can pay there by various methods, including credit cards.

The money raised will be used to purchase supplies for the celebrations including beautiful traditional Congolese material that is used to make matching outfits for the women, who will wear them with pride and as a symbol of unity while singing and dancing together throughout the day.

Women all around the world face many hardships, but the women of Congo have seen more than their fair share in recent years, including events that have unfortunately led to DRCongo being labelled the rape capital of the world.

Despite these hardships I have been amazed by the grace that these women always carry themselves with. Like birds of paradise they fill the land with colour and beauty when wearing the bright fabrics synonymous with this country. They work extremely hard in their daily lives but are quick to laugh and sing with such intensity it can only be described as infectious. International Women’s day is a chance for the women of DRCongo to commemorate all the positive aspects of women, to celebrate what they have achieved and to show that they are unified together.

By donating something towards this event we can let the women of ICCN know that we are forever grateful for their vital support of our rangers of the past, present and no doubt in the future too.

This small creature, the Bush Baby, is one of the smallest primates and is common around Virunga National Park headquarters.

This little night creature, the Bush Baby, is one of the smallest primates, and (in my humble opinion) one of the noisiest. Often at night we hear them chattering loudly around our tents at the park headquarters, as if they are having a convention on which trees produce the juiciest fruits.

Bush Babies vary in size, but our particular species is small, like the size of a squirrel with a long bushy tail. They only come out at night and have huge eyes that look like aliens when you shine a torch in their direction. One tourist compared them to the cute gremlin Gizmo.

The bush baby in the pictures has been identified (by our head of Tourism Cai Tjeenk Willink) as a Spectacled Galago, Galago matschieni (syn. G.inustus). These animals on average weigh between 170 - 250g (about 6 - 8 ounces) with a body size of 14.7 - 20cm (about 5.5 - 7.8 inches) and an average tail length of 19 - 27.9 cm (7.5 - 11 inches). Although bush babies can be found across Africa, this species is only found in eastern parts of Congo and very isolated mountain slopes in Eastern Uganda.

Some random facts:

• Bush babies can jump up to 4 metres between the trees.
• To mark their territory, bush babies will urinate on their hands so when they walk on branches they leave behind their scent.
• Bush babies can follow this scent and jump on exactly the same branches whenever they enter or leave their nest.
• They like to eat fruits, gums and insects, which they can track in the dark.
• Mothers give birth to 1-3 babies at a time, with each new born weighing less than half an ounce.
• Bush Babies can be easily trained to eat from your hand.

Bush babies only come out at night, usually alone in an area, jump from tree to tree, and make a ridiculously loud noise for their tiny 6-8 inch body.

The eyes glow when a light hits it directly, so we only see their eyes if the bush baby is looking right at us and we have a torch shining right in their eyes.

Look at the long fingers on its hands. They pee on the hands and mark the trees with it.

Usually if a human is shining a light on a Bush Baby, it will watch briefly and then jump away. This baby was curious and came within 4 feet of me.

This is what we normally see when we hear the bush babies and go out with our torch to look for them. Hold the flashlight up near your face, and shine it around in the direction of the sound. Suddenly you will spot two glowing eyes in the dark. This view is exaggerated because of the camera flash, but usually we don’t see the body, just eyes.

I’d like to introduce you to the Mikeno Lodge team of cooks, waiters, and housekeepers.  Each has completed two months of training relevant to their specific department. Our staff members have been the lucky recipients of their newly acquired skills, tasting chocolate mousse and other tasty treats, being waited on, and having the beds in our tents beautifully made and decorated each day. This week the newly trained staff received their new uniforms.  To read more about Mikeno Lodge, click HERE.  To visit Virunga click HERE.

Meet the new staff:

Cooks: Dominque, Jean de Dieu, Thomas Okumu (head chef), Pascal, and Jetté.

Waiters:  Hyacinthe, Chubaka, Bercky, Patrick

Femmes des Chambres: Alice, Anjelique, Roda, Clemence

And here are a few interesting facts about some of the staff:

Jean du Dieu - worked for some Italian missionaries.

Berky - worked as a translator for the UN.

Chubaka - speaks English, French, and Spanish, plus Swahili. Doesn’t he have the best smile?

Alice - has a teachers diploma.

Anjelique - is the songbird of the camp and sings in the village choir.

Roda - produces the local honey. She has an infectious laugh. It took about 20 minutes to get this one photo because she kept bursting into laughter and covering her face.