Ata Bricks

Ata Bricks is out in Village Madraha Kaktahi. It is a bit of a drive to get out to the Itahia area, but that is where the land is right for making good bricks. We go by the name M/S Itahia The Bricks Maker on our official papers, but most people around here just call us Ata Bricks. The work we do is almost entirely outdoors. We dig the mud, shape it into blocks, and then let the sun do its job before they go into the kiln for firing. It is a lot of physical labor. You always have dirt under your fingernails and your back gets pretty sore after a long shift in the sun. We live and work right here in the village. It is quiet most of the time, except for when the fire is going or when a tractor is being loaded up with a fresh batch. We don’t use computers or anything like that out here in the yard. Everything is done by hand and we write things down in a paper ledger. The weather is our biggest boss; if it starts to rain, everything has to stop immediately. We just cover the raw bricks with big sheets of plastic and wait for it to clear up. It is the kind of life where you just follow the seasons. People from nearby villages come to us when they are building a wall.