Eastern Rwanda: Poo-tastic! Cow dung art and brown waterfalls

Together with another American expat, I took a day drip to the Eastern part of Rwanda and learned that poo has many extensive properties.

Having recently purchased several pieces of “Imigongo” to decorate the house, I was curious to see the factory where this unusual artwork is produced. Textured art work featuring geometric prints, Imigongo is created from cow dung applied to wood pieces, baked, and painted in either black and white schemes or earth-colored hues. Supposedly the dung of youthful cows is the best.

The ‘factory’ consisted of a room with 8 women sitting on mats on the floor. The women to the left were taking clumps of dark green cow dung and molding it to wood planks with their hands like clay. The women to the right were painting. An interesting micro-conveyor belt system that produces around 20 pieces a day. They worked rather morosely, not talking much or really even smiling. Perhaps that was because they didn’t like two funny looking tourists watching them while they work. Or perhaps it was because they stick their hands in cow dung day after day. I imagine it gets old.

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Don’t Eat on the Run

We had packed a lunch for this day trip, but come noontime, we were left with a small quandary: where do we eat our lunch? In Rwanda, it is considered poor taste to eat or drink anything while you walk on the street, drive in your car, or are anywhere in public that is not a dining establishment. We resorted to discreetly munching on our sandwiches in the car, taking a bite when there wasn’t someone staring at us on the road!

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After the imigongo detour, we continued to Rusumo Falls at the border of Tanzania. On foot, we crossed onto the bright yellow bridge between the two countries that hovers over the falls. On one side of the bridge, the falls angrily rush and burst, perpetually churning a small pool of trash and green leaves at the bottom. All the rains of late have muddied the water, turning the falls from a shock of white water (as it says in the guide book) to a rusty brown. It looks almost like someone is pouring out a big batch of butterscotch cake batter. Or – to continue the theme – it could be described as that giant’s very bad bout of diarrhea.

On a more sober note, during the genocide, this bridge became the funnel for large exoduses. As many as 250,000 fled in one day. Sadly as well, the river became swollen with bodies. According to the guide book, journalists on the scene reported seeing 1-2 bodies tumble over the falls per minute...