Finally the grass is complete!

Months seem to have passed since we received our first bundles of uncleaned grass for the thatching. It did not take long for the word to get around that we were paying for bundles of uncleaned grass delivered to the workshop in Kipili. Fishing boats arrived from far and wide loaded with bundles and bundles of grass that were counted and then piled up next to the lake on the mainland. It became so overwhelming that Chris had to tell the villagers that he would only accept grass on Mondays and Tuesdays so that he could have the rest of the week to take the grass over to Lupita Island.

We soon realized that this was not ideal either. It took hours to load the grass onto the Tumbo, then transport it over to Lupita Island and then hours and hours for the guys to carry it up the hill. Chris employed an extra 40 workers just to move this grass but it was still coming in faster than we could move it. And this was just the start of the process. The grass still needed to be cleaned and bundled, ready for use by the thatchers.

Chris set up a team of guys on Lupita to clean the grass that had been brought to the island and one on the mainland. Every day for weeks and weeks 40 guys took bundles of the uncleaned grass and pulled them through a rough comb of nails to pull out the unsuitable sheaths. By the time a bundle had been cleaned it was half its original size. The cleaned grass was then neatly bundled and stacked.

On Saturday the last bundles of cleaned grass were loaded onto the Tumbo and brought to the Island. It took all day for the 140 workers to unload the grass and a day and a half to bring every last bundle up the hill. The grass is now neatly stacked and ready for use. I will never be able to look at another thatch roof again without thinking of the hard work that has gone into getting it to look like that.