9
The completion of the royal bath does not bring an end to our partnership, Ibiaw and I. All through the time of building the baths, he draws other plans—with a stick in the dirt at his feet, and on rolls of dried papyrus reeds.
“Look,” he explains as our families share a meal at our home, “if I fasten angled paddles like this around a shaft, they will draw the water faster through the canals.”
“And,” he continues as we walk the canals to monitor the progress of the water, “if we add these shards of ground stones to the mud mixture of the bricks, they will not crumble so easily.”
These and other ideas Ibiaw brings to fruition as our children make their way to adulthood and we grow old.
Construction is not his only interest. People come to his door with cuts on their hands, weeping an
