It’s been a rather busy week but with good reason. Some of the people have finished planting their yams in their gardens and so they started working on the outside walls for our house this week. Monday morning we went up the nearby mountain to a patch of bamboo and cut a couple hundred down. 17 bundles of about 10-15 bamboo poles in each bundle were carried down the mountain to our house and then the cutting, pounding, weaving, and hammering began. First they would take their bush knife, stick it in one end, and then run it down the length of the pole effectively cutting it in two length-wise. They’d hand the bamboo halves off to another person who would take a hammer to it and pound it flat (or as flat as it would go). After cutting it to the desired length they would then start weaving the flattened halves of bamboo together. They’d get a section done and then hammer it to the outside of our house. In case you were wondering, the outside wall of our house up to this point was a tarp. So this has taken up my Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week and we’re close to halfway done. Enjoy the pics!
