Bag'n Straw
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.
Since I have gotten to Afghanistan I have been interested (somewhat) in rural construction materials, namely mud and straw. I noticed early on that many places (even in Kabul) use a mud stucco with some sort of plant fiber mixed in but I had initially thought they just throw in a bunch of dried grass, but I was wrong.
Making stucco seems to be somewhat of an art (debatable I know). I have also discovered that Afghans are flatbread fanatics (not necessarily connoisseurs but Nans [afghan flatbread] are apparently an essential part of every afghan meal so wheat is grown all over the country but I never thought about what they were doing with all the remaining straw (plowing it back in would be nice but probably a pipedream). Well turns out they have machines here that are built specifically for grinding straw. Once the straw is ground they stuff it into bags like these and either use it or sell it. More on the machines they use later.
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