CARVER'S VILLAGE 5th of 27 Emails

Hi Everyone from Africa!

A very interesting experience today at “Carvers” Village here in Mombasa. It’s the African version of a factory and mass production. Of course, here in this 2^nd largest city in Kenya, there are real industries like cement-making companies. But, even production like brick making are not like in our country, Instead, the “bricks” are large chunks of earth (or, cow dung in the outlying villages) that are cooked in a kiln. Additionally, the building materials factories use there are trunks of small trees, palm branches, sticks, etc.

Anyway, back to “Carvers’ Village: The village is acres of small huts where men and women are carving various sculptures, mostly from wood, for sale to tourists. They do their work all day long in small huts and walking through them is like walking through pathways of a little dirty city. Many have nothing to sit on, but do their work kneeling or sitting in the dirt. If they are lucky they have a roof made from flattened cardboard boxes they’ve scavenged from somewhere to provide some shade from the blazing sun or keep out the rain that hasn’t come for over two years. Yet, it’s kind of organized like a production line, with one section of their “factory” doing the initial carving, another the sanding, another the polishing, another the painting, etc. I guess it’s not much different than the production line worker putting a bolt on over and over all day long, except that the working conditions are strikingly different and the pay is a very, very, very small fraction. In fact, they work here for less than a dollar a day, if that.

But, the amazing…and, very wonderful thing is that practically all of them are very happy! They greeted us with smiling faces and hearty “Jumbo!” It’s very evident they take great pride in their work and the fact that they have a job! What a noble people they are!!!! The sad thing is that their work is sold in front at the retail outlet, probably owned by some rich Arab or Indian, like so many businesses here are. We got around that, though, by Corwin & Peggy knowing some of them who were members of the local branch. So, we talked to them privately and bought from them privately after meeting with them secretly at the local branch. This picture is of the Primary President with Lawana and Peggy. By doing that, the actual worker got more for his hard work. You have to greatly admire and respect them…especially when we remember how we sometimes complained about our work at home and were not grateful for having a good job and working conditions.

Their work is beautifully done, especially the wood sculptures made from all kinds of exotic woods, like expensive ebony, rosewood, and teak. Unfortunately, the African forests are being rapidly depleted as more and more trees are being cut down for farmland, fuel, and wood export. Wood is also greatly used to burn in kilns to make charcoal. All along the highway you see men and women selling bags of charcoal to the passing trucks to pick up on dead head transport.

And, all along the bush and village dusty little roads you see people carrying the heavy bags of charcoal on their backs for miles to finally get to the highway. Then, they sit there all day and night, hoping for a truck to stop and buy it. We wonder if they get much for their hard work or if the truckers cheat them.

Anyway, whenever you see a beautiful, skilled carving or sculpture of an elephant or lion or giraffe, now you may have a little better understanding and appreciation of where it came from and what it took to produce it. We love those people working in their little huts with such great dedication and pride in their work.

We miss and love you all,

Dick and Lawana
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