Q. Caro can you give us a brief outline on this event and Ruko.
A. Ross and I run Samatian island lodge in Baringo and became very involved with the setup of Ruko Conservancy after clashes between the Pokot and Njemps brought the people of the area looking for an urgent solution to their problems. The Ruko area is a 19,000 acre conservancy which is made up of Pokot and Njemps tribal land.
They have always fought - mainly over grazing areas as in times of drought there is much competition for grazing in Ruko and Pokot come from far in the north to graze and steal cattle. As years go by the stress on the land and the people gets worse and worse.
With the successful development of the Ruko conservancy we hope to bring peace and solutions to the long standing problems faced by both the tribes. The board and committees were established in the last six months.
They have equal members of both tribes so no decisions are made without both tribes’ consent. One of the major problems is lack of education facilities - they are very poor in terms of facilities and resources. Suzie Fehsenfeld, after a visit to the conservancy, came up with a very clever and fun idea for a group of her relatives due to visit our lodge in February 2007. Her idea was to do a small art class at the Njemps primary school on the edge of Lake Baringo and teach them a few new art skills.
Suzie has a sister Becky, a well known artist in Indiana, who was going to be on the trip and off ered to bring a lot of art materials with her for the use of the children in the class. Drawings were collected at the end of the session and taken back to America, with the best ones to be professionally scanned and the images printed on note cards and sold as stationary from Becky’s gallery. 100% of the proceeds will come back to the school, bursaries, and improving the quality of education for the children of both tribes. Nothing like this has ever happened in this area. It’s really exciting!
Q. How many children attended the event?
A. We organised for Pokot children to come from the other schools in the area so once again both tribes got to
participate. There were well over 60 children who came to the class. This was many more than expected and was very positive as its important that from a young age these two tribes get used to working together.
Q. Is art a common practice amongst the children of the schools?
A. They do take art as a subject although their stationary is normally limited to pencils and thin notebook paper. These materials are not very inspirational and they have to be careful not to use up too much of their stationary allowance by drawing. So this was a really amazing experience for them.
Q. What sort of mediums were used with the kids and which were the most popular?
A. Becky kindly brought many new mediums for them to try - some of which the kids had never seen or used before such as powder paints, pastels, felt tips, fine ink pens, and crayons that could be wet and used as watercolors. I think the most popular were the “wettable” crayons. I kept a lot of these for use in future art classes for the tribes.
Q. What was the main subject matter in the pictures drawn by the children?
A. There was no subject matter stipulated for the session but a considerable amount chose to draw wildlife such as fish, ostriches, livestock and even Giraffe. This was special because there are no giraffe in the area, they’ve become locally extinct, but there has been lots of talk about them since we got a pledge early this year to reintroduce 10 into the conservancy area which we hope to do by the end of 2007. Its inspiring that they showed a keen interest in animals because that is a major goal of this conservancy, to help them learn to love and protect ls. Huts and churches were also drawn– things from all around them.
Q. Do you think an art class is an activity that you may be able to off er to your future guests at the lodge?
A. I really do as a lot of people want to get involved in helping less fortunate communities in someway and an art class is a perfect way in which to bring the guests and children together.
Q. How else was the morning documented?
A. Sara Fehsenfeld also took over 200 photographs documenting the class.
