Tamping the gravel fill of a porch floor

Georgia Mensah bends at the waist as he uses a length of wood to pound a loose gravel-soil mix that has been placed inside a berm in front of a wattle-and-daub structure built on the grounds of the Banda Cultural Centre. He beats the mixture to consolidate the porch floor. Community researcher Enoch Mensah stands holding a T-shaped tamper used to consolidate floor fill. Above, a thatch roof covers a lattice of wood poles and raffia stick slats. To the right, the daubed front wall has been coated with plaster. In the background stands a coursed earth atakpame structure with a thatched roof. Banda-Ahenkro, Banda District, Ghana.