This is a house of one of the Samburu people, built from acacia branches, cow hide, dung, string, cardboard and other found materials. They are incorporating modern materials that would otherwise be considered waste into their traditional building methods, which I find quite interesting considering the huge amounts of rubbish that are either burnt of accumulate in the streets in Kenya. I love the resourcefulness of these structures, and its something that I've seen lots of since I've been here. Re-using packaging, ingenious structures built out of unexpected materials as well as the guys who ride around on bikes with twenty plastic crates strapped onto rack with bungee, delivering groceries door to door.
Since being in Kenya I've been struck how much people here really do rely on their environment. In Meru, where we are staying, there are farms and homesteads everywhere. Allmost every person grows some kind kind of produce, whether its bananas, cabbage or tea and much of the fresh produce they eat is grown and sold locally. Water is the key for all of this, and is connected with what we are doing here, replanting areas of the Imenti forest in the hope of providing water security for the area as well as conserving indigenous species of plants and animals. Both water and resourceful, unusual and haphazard assemblies of materials will probably come to form a big part my new project.
