Sweeping the dirt: Week 19

Every morning around 7 am, the ladies of Aweil begin to carefully sweep all the trash thrown on the ground into piles to burn later. This mostly makes sense, but it's what happens next that really baffles me. Using homemade brooms of dried sticks tied with string, they then sweep intricate patterns into the dirt while stooped painfully at the waist. They sweep yards, paths, roads all the same. The patterns, of course, are soon destroyed especially on the main roads in town, but they'll be there again tomorrow morning sweeping patterns into the street long before anyone else starts to walk on it.