Dream Job Alert! Dhow Builder

Okay, the Kenyan coast is an archaeologist's dream. And anyone interested in the art of woodworking should move here and learn to carve doors, to keep the tradition alive instead of allowing it to die out with the aged artisans. Another dream job is to build dhows. They contruct them manually in Lamu and in a nearby village called Mantidoni. Dhow building, too, is a skill that's fading. Dhow's take on water, a perfectly natural occurrence considering their design. The water must be bailed daily. Otherwise, the craft fills and sinks. Old dhows are found resting in peace all along the coast. New ones are constantly needed. It takes about two years to build a dhow. We look keenly at a boat making shack on our walk to Shela, curious to see the boat that's being built. But we walk on until the owner's son follows us and brings us back, taking us into the building and allowing us to crawl up into the belly of the boat. It's ribs make me think of Jonah in the whale's belly. Most interesting to me is the device the young man uses to drill a hole. They do not use nails, only wooden dowels to fasten the boat together. The young man presses the bit tip to the wood and wraps a piece of rope around a molded track built into the bit. The bit is about a foot long. The rope has a wooden handle that is pulled perpendicular to the bit, left to right and then back again, creating tension, which turns the bit, then releasing tension. Quite amazing to watch. Manual, intricate labor. I'm including a photo of the young man working the manual drill and the inside of the dhow. I apologize for the blurry pics but hope the essence of their skills come through.