One visit that we made in Tozeur was to Mohammed the brick-maker. He is 79 years old and he works by himself. When he was younger, he made 1,200 bricks a day. Now, he only makes 400 bricks a day. His bricks are façade bricks, not construction bricks. He demonstrated his entire brick-making process for us. He bakes them to 1,000 degrees and then they turn green.

Mohammed has a wife and eight grown children. He said that one of his children stopped by today to get some money from him. He said that he doesn’t have to work every day, but he does. He said it’s better than staying home all day.

Some people in our travel group felt terribly sorry for Mohammed because they said he had such a terrible life. I disagreed. I saw a man that loved what he did. I saw a proud man that had raised his whole family and was still funding them to some degree. I mostly saw a man with a huge smile on his face much of the time that we were there.

The first photo is Mohammed holding the mold that he uses for his bricks.

Our local guide is interpreting as Mohammed tells us about each step of the brick-making process, starting with the kind and amounts of dirt, etc.

He has mixed the ingredients, added water, and is now putting the mix into his brick molds.

Before firing up his kiln, he had some points to make to us about the process and results.

Mohammed mostly uses dried up palm fronds for his fire. That makes sense since they are readily available to him and probably free as well.