1.24.2009

menilek makes fire

Our class has been working on constructing our own bow drill kits. Mine still needs some work, but my knife is broken, so I haven't really been able to finish it yet.


Our farm neighbors are a large Cruzan family with 10 kids. Fourteen-year-old Menilek came over the other night to show me his bow drill kit. I asked him to make a fire with it, and within 45 seconds, he had a beautiful glowing coal laying in a coconut husk. With a couple of patient blows, he had a flame.


I also had fun playing with his younger sister and brother, Zola and Ekundayo.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

:) cute!
your knife broke?? The one we got together? :(

way said...

hey ben, have you caught any mongoose-dem yet with your trap?

those kids look pretty tough. i'd like to meet them someday.

benjamin said...

no we haven't caught anything yet! two days later, the bait was gone but the door was still open.

we need to make the trigger mechanism more sensitive so it will go off easier.

and yes, my knife broke yesterday cause i was billeting with it to make sign posts. also, my belt broke yesterday.