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| Really bad traffic in Douala! |
Recently we were away from the village for a couple weeks. First we headed to Douala to pick up our tutor (yay!) - we were grateful her plane was late, because the backed-up traffic made us late picking her up! Then we headed to Bamenda for the home-school group sessions - arriving a day early meant we had a "picnic" for Sunday lunch - sandwiches and snacks; our tutor was a good sport, enjoying the experience with us.
Two weeks of home-school group sessions included a special unit on governments, a guest music teacher, field hockey,
fitness (including the mile run),
and basic quilting for art.
One afternoon, a group of us went to observe a local brass artisan at work. It's incredible what can be done with very few resources!
This is the kiln that he uses. He used to use hand-bellows to fan the fire, but now has an electric one that works well... when the power is on :). He was ready to bring two of his creations out of the fire when we arrived. The first step was to disassemble the front of the kiln! The mud bricks get built up every time he fires a project - lots of work....
Finally we could see a bigger "lump" right in the coals, and this was one of his creations... well-covered in clay, of course. He removed the lump and carefully flipped it upside down, then left it alone while he explained the process.
He uses old brass taps (faucets) for a lot of his brass, putting as much as he thinks he will need into one end of this lump of clay. On the other end, he has formed his creation out of WAX, covered it tightly in a mixture of clay, crushed rock (certain type), and dung, and then put it at the other end of the lump of clay with a small tunnel leading from the wax creation to the brass. 
When the lump has been in the fire long enough, the wax has melted and the special mixture has hardened around the empty form where the wax used to be. The brass has also melted. So when the artisan careful turns the lump over, the brass runs into the empty place (I didn't catch where the wax ends up going) and the brass hardens as it cools, turning into a brass object, a replica of the wax creation. Neat! And when it has cooled enough, the artisan breaks open the clay lump to reveal his art. Unfortunately, there are a lot of creations that don't end up coming out well, so he has to redo (reusing the brass); all of this needs to be paid for in his wares that DO come out well. Sorry I don't have any picture of his actual products - they ARE nice though :).
