Saw the gallery and met the ladies who form
the co-operative. They are widows of the genocide.
Then they gave us a
board and some cow dung and said get creating!!
Literally. So we did. We all put far too much dung on the boards
and our ridges looked more like mountains than the subtle ones they managed to
create.
Anyway we all did our designs in
cow pooh and then set off back to the town for lunch. Then back to the Sun Hotel (sounds posh but
its not) it’s the only hotel in Nyakarambo.
The bedrooms were very nice but the mozzie nets were like scourers and
made from stiff plastic – Yuk. Also we
discovered that the people with the en suite bathroom were not really at an advantage
as it turned out that was the only bathroom for the other guests too!! The owners were really nice though and bent over backwards to make us all feel very welcome. There was no water and no flushing
toilets. Back for the afternoon to
create number 2 work of art. Then left
them there to dry out until the next day.
We got a bus back to the hotel before going over to his house for a party. One of John's friends had cooked us a
lovely curry – and then proceeded to entertain us with his singing and dancing for most
of the night – propositioning most of the ladies in the room at some point!!
And asking for phone numbers and contact details. The curries he had made however were very
very nice so we overdosed on them a bit!
Next day we were up for breakfast at 7am in
time for the workshop at 9,30. We walked
(25 minutes) to the workshop where we found the art works were not yet
dry. So four of us
decided to go for a walk around the local area.
That was fascinating. We found
two small girls outside one house weaving a mat.
Eventually the works of art had
dried out. Then we had to sand them down
and apply two coats of base colour letting each one dry before applying the
next. Then we had to decide what
colours to use to paint the rest of the artwork. We all worked hard and were still needing
more time when the heavens opened and we finally lost the light at around 6pm.
Then we spent about half an hour
wrapping everyone’s art work up to take home with us before proceeding back to
the hotel and then onto the only bar in town for supper. A good time was had by all. Conclusion - a little smelly but great medium to work with! just take a nail brush and wet wipes!
