Went on a pretty easy 4.5 mile run with Omari and Trent this morning, then got a quick breakfast and hit the factory around 9. We had a lot of work to do today: building the 5thand final shelf, moving around a lot of other stuff to make room for it, building a new work table, getting ready for the new kiln, etc. Right away we got to work relocating a few large brick piles out of the way, so we could push the first four shelves back. We needed to move them fully under the roof, so even rain coming in at an angle wouldn’t reach them.
Brick pile getting started
After a few more...
Kedar moving bricks
Done with the bricks
We got to work on building the three supports for shelf V soon, and split the work between all four of us to maximize our efficiency. By now, we have the shelf making process down to a T, and we got all three supports notched and nailed together before lunchtime. We took a short break after lunch, learned some useless phrases from a book Kunal borrowed from Eliza, and headed back down to finish nailing the shelf together.
Trent getting some water, *straight* from the filter
The house behind the factory, where some of the kids live
Kedar taking a quick break after lunch (through a mosquito net)
It didn’t take too long, and other than one of the supports falling on my back (ouch) and a sore wrist from constant nailing, the process went smoothly. Kunal and I grabbed the saws, and with the help of some local kids, we cut off the extra long wood pieces that stuck out from the shelves.
Cleaning up the edges of the final shelf
All the while, Tom was finishing up his own project: building an extra sturdy table to replace the flimsy work benches the factory was using before. He and Omari had scrapped some older tables and benches, taken the useful plywood, and used it as support for the new table.
The old table: weak, flimsy, and just plain old
Tom finishing up "the tank," his super-strong masterpiece
Almost as soon as he finished and turned it over, a ton of kids came over and started drumming on it and singing Swahili songs. The table didn’t move a bit, and we had a lot of fun learning songs and this special Tanzanian whistling technique. We had a blast, but soon had to go to dinner up at the house. We enjoyed some delicious chapati, prepared by Stella, and goofed around until around midnight, and went to bed. What a fun day. “Ana kichwa kikubwa:” he has a big head. Goodnight!
The village kids drumming on the new table
