Purty Pile of Poop

Purty Pile of Poop
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Honestly this is about the most creative use of poop I have seen outside of Chris Ofili's redrawing of Mary, the major difference is this was happenstance and will be used for fuel to keep people warm. This is in Wardak, a province in central Afghanistan that is pretty high up, pretty (damn) cold and pretty much devoid of wood. As a result of the wood shortage (when wood is available it is usually used for ceiling beams in houses) people in these parts resort to using weeds/brush and manure. It hardly ever rains here (I would say that about 90% of Afghanistan’s water comes from winter snows) so they can leave piles of dried poop outside that would be potentially soluble disasters in wetter climates (ok, maybe not disaster but it would make quite a pool of manure given a good rain). I have other, less artistic, pictures of poop piles on walls, on top of houses (wouldn’t want anyone to start steal’n from you poop pile now would ya?), and beside door ways.

While this may seem disgusting to all but the crunchiest of individuals I have to say it honestly isn’t a big deal. After working on multiple bovine farms, and doing a masters paper that dealt with infections in poop I can say that #1 I really wish that all poop was dry coming out of the cow’s a*s, it’d be a bit more manageable and I could make pretty piles with it and #2 Once the poop is dried the most of harmful microbes are dead (not that I’d start munching on one of those patties but you get the idea).