Dry stone walling
Dry stone wall workshop
In September a small group from the Friends of Namuncha charity and three young men from Namuncha started THE GREAT WALL OF NAM’CHA.
Just across from the Primary School there is a quarry, from which are cut large building blocks. This process generates a large amount of stone waste which is not of sufficient quality to be used as heavy road ballast. So, there are large waste heaps lying around the area.
This stone is suitable for making dry stone walls. Whilst such walls delineate the landscape in many areas of the UK they are generally unknown in Kenya. Apart, that is, for a 14th century site in Thimlich Ohinga, 180km southwest of Kisumu City. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1450 . Today building without cement is considered impossible or at least a site to be examined by the elders. Suffice it to say that the skill has not been maintained although the materials are abundant.
Four young men started with a team to gather stone from the quarry, and to build a demonstration dry stone wall at the entrance to the Primary school. The workshop, under the equatorial sun, took three days to do. One of the participants, Elijah, saw it through to the very end and expressed the desire to learn how to do this properly and to master the skill.
We think that with the building of many large villa type houses in the immediate localities that this type of walling will be attractive to many architects and builders. Elijah would not only be in demand for his skills but also for his training programme that he hopes to establish in time. By raising £1500 we guaranteed an income for him and materials so that he could train by building a demonstration wall within the grounds of the primary school. That is now done and he has to date two commissions to build walls in the grounds of private accommodation. He is also getting training by a local tutor in how to run a small business and he hopes to take on his own trainee very soon.
This project is now self-sufficient but others are just starting. To read more, go to our Projects page
January 2020