One brick at a time

On the way to Kopala, we stopped by a local brick maker's place: At a bend in the river bed, with a foul water pool by the steep bank, he has two resources readily at hand: water and clay. The other ingredients are cow dung and coffee bean shells from the local big roastery (they impart the red color to the finished product). There is a fifth ingredient - I forgot what that was. Maybe some cow urine or something?



He mixes the ingredients by stomping them with his feet over and over again. Just like the wine makers extracting the grape juice...


I found that the complete mixture tastes a bit sour - I expected a small hint of coffee.



This amazing technique has been practices there for ages - and October is when the start their manufacture because they need weather brickmakersdryfor the next step:


Then he shovels it up into an old wheelbarrow and on the flat plucks the mix with his hands in to a small wood frame on the ground where the smear is left to dry. Later the hardened bricks will be fired in a simple kiln. This is hard work, and he gets only a penny or something ridiculously low for each brick.


But this particular guy is lucky: the tour company has made him a stop, and his young and pretty daughter jumps around the place, pulls out a sign that says something like "Donation please" and places it behind a cutoff plastic bottle: She knows about two words in English: money and thankyou. That suffices - the gentleman's income I guess quadruples, and why not! The tour guide explained that he has another two daughters who both can go to college - because of his income boost!