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When it comes to construction, things are usually pretty straightforward here. We dig, we stack, we shape, we hoist, we level, we pass heavy things one to another. We obey the laws of physics, as much by inclination as constraint.

Take the karai, as an example.

[singlepic id=2008 w=320 h=240 float=]Elsewhere it might find work as a holy water fount, a hubcap, headgear. But here it is a hauler, a carry all, an humble portmanteau.

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[singlepic id=2011 w=320 h=240 float=]We use it to bring things from this place to that, and to keep order in the process.

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[singlepic id=2010 w=320 h=240 float=]We shovel sand into it.

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[singlepic id=2009 w=320 h=240 float=]Pile it up.

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[singlepic id=2007 w=320 h=240 float=]Load it with ballast

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[singlepic id=2016 w=320 h=240 float=]until it disappears in its task. But the unbending rule is that you must lift the karai and all you have burdened it with.

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[singlepic id=2013 w=320 h=240 float=]In a magical moment it may seem that two fingertips alone are required to balance the load

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[singlepic id=2014 w=320 h=240 float=]before tossing it like a heap of flower petals into the concrete mixer,

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[singlepic id=2012 w=320 h=240 float=]to tumble with water

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[singlepic id=2019 w=320 h=240 float=]and ballast until three equal one.

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[singlepic id=2018 w=320 h=240 float=]Then any old body can scoop and shovel a wheelbarrow full

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[singlepic id=2017 w=320 h=240 float=]send it on its way to karais standing by

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[singlepic id=2022 w=320 h=240 float=]to get the stuff back again

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[singlepic id=2021 w=320 h=240 float=]where it belongs.

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[singlepic id=2023 w=320 h=240 float=]Then, in compliance with hard gravitational , truth,

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[singlepic id=2020 w=320 h=240 float=]it has to be hefted up and dumped in the ring beam form.

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And that’s how it went until one day a stranger with a quick smile and a hat that many thought looked like an older model UFO showed up to work.

[singlepic id=2024 w=320 h=240 float=]He bent down to pick up his first karai just like anyone else,

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[singlepic id=2026 w=320 h=240 float=]but then lifted it…light as a feather

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[singlepic id=2040 w=320 h=240 float=]and, as if it were a pigeon from his pocket…released it.

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[singlepic id=2041 w=320 h=240 float=]

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[singlepic id=2039 w=320 h=240 float=]

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[singlepic id=2042 w=320 h=240 float=]And it flew straight to Murafu,

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[singlepic id=2036 w=320 h=240 float=]who took it out of the air

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[singlepic id=2035 w=320 h=240 float=]and dumped the concrete into the ring beam form.

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[singlepic id=2034 w=320 h=240 float=]Then it seemed to hit him, and he examined the strange karai very closely.

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This went on for most of the afternoon. Of course, every now and then one would get away.

[singlepic id=2029 w=320 h=240 float=]and we’d all look to see where it went.

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[singlepic id=2032 w=320 h=240 float=]

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[singlepic id=2056 w=320 h=240 float=]”Did it go that way??”

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[singlepic id=2057 w=320 h=240 float=]”No. I saw it over there.”

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[singlepic id=2028 w=320 h=240 float=]”Maybe it came from that way and went the other way.” They were so fast it was hard to tell.

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[singlepic id=2031 w=320 h=240 float=]And sometimes one would come buzzing back just over the mason’s head.

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[singlepic id=2030 w=320 h=240 float=]Then the stranger would have a good laugh.

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The events that afternoon seemed to affect people in different ways. Some seemed confused.

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[singlepic id=2052 w=320 h=240 float=]Did I just see what I thought I saw??

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[singlepic id=2055 w=320 h=240 float=]Maybe I imagined the whole thing.

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[singlepic id=2053 w=320 h=240 float=]I’m confused…I need a nap.

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[singlepic id=2051 w=320 h=240 float=]Some wondered what it all meant.

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[singlepic id=2050 w=320 h=240 float=]Others acted like they’d seen it all before, and probably had.

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But the workers, faces speckled with concrete from the spinning karais,

[singlepic id=2043 w=320 h=240 float=]were mostly quiet.

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[singlepic id=2046 w=320 h=240 float=]They weren’t quite sure what had happened.

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[singlepic id=2044 w=320 h=240 float=]For some it seemed a mystical happening.

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[singlepic id=2045 w=320 h=240 float=]But all bore witness to the deeds of the stranger in the hat.

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[singlepic id=2049 w=320 h=240 float=]Who just smiled and then went on his way.

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So long form Area 51,

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David

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A Post Script:

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[singlepic id=2059 w=320 h=240 float=]I was telling a few of the dogs all about it at lunch,

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[singlepic id=2060 w=320 h=240 float=]and one of them reasoned that if he ate his ugali off the ground, on something that sort of looked like a kirai, maybe he would be able to fly too.

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[singlepic id=2061 w=320 h=240 float=]It didn’t quite work out that way for him.

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A Post, Post Script:   All the really good photos are Debi’s.