Imigongo Workshop (Cow dung art!)

Got the bus from Musanze to Kigali on Thursday evening (2 hours) Then up at 6am to get the bus from Remera at 7am to Rusumo which stopped at Nyakarambo in the East past Kibungo (where Alice lives).  The bus cost 2,700Rwf for a 3 hour ride!  Not bad (£2.70)  and we finally arrived at our destination at 11.15.  Spent the first part of the morning at Kikira imigongo workshop

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. 

We also saw this small group of children who were keen to chat to us.  A lot of the houses had these amazing cows with large horns that are common to the area.  We saw lots of typically Rwandan houses and coffee beans growing on the trees. 

We then popped into the local church that has some of Angelique's imigongo that she did when she was 17 years old on the walls.  (She is now around 43) 

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!