A new home for the Kandes...

We live in a pretty comfortable, solidly built home here. Louvre glass windows with screens all around, lockable metal door and corrugated cement panel roofing. Our four mission houses and dispensaire are easily four of the best constructed buildings in Niaguis. But as you can imagine, they were relatively expensive to build and definitely out of reach for locals’ home construction. Most of the homes around us are made from mud or mud-bricks, with thatched or corrugated tin roofs (mud with thatched roofing being of course the most affordable).

Fanta’s family recently added a second home to their small plot of land - not because they had the money to spare, but because her dad’s two wives weren’t getting along so well and each wanted their own home. One of the many perils of polygamy! Their choice was a mud home with a tin roof and we watched with fascination as their builder dug clay/dirt out of a hole next to the house, mixed it with water, and then slapped it into place with his hands to form ever-growing walls of the house. It took a little over a month and the walls (which were straight as an arrow) were up to their final height of about 3 metres (~9 feet), and about 30cm thick.

A look inside the Kande family's new home. The door to Fanta's room (which is also where her son and 'daughter' will be sleeping) is to the right of the ladder.

Nice thing about this type of construction is that there is essentially no finishing work. No plumbing (a woven bamboo enclosure outside serves for toiletries; cooking is open air), no electrical, no drywall, no painting, no flooring, etc. Besides simple doors and windows (boards or branches for a frame, covered with corrugated tin) all that remained now was the tin roof – the most costly part of the project. For a house the size of the Kandes (maybe 40ft long by 30 ft wide), it took about 115 pieces of tin (3ft x 6ft). At about $5Cdn each, this added up to almost $600Cdn – a monumental sum given that the family survives off of Fanta’s cleaning salary and picking and selling cashew nuts to Indian entrepreneurs for 20 cents Cdn per kilo! And that doesn’t include the cost of the roof frame (whose origin is an interesting story in and of itself and will be blogged about another time) or the cost of labour.

In Africa, the principal reason for having a large family is so that you will have more people to care for you as you grow older. Unfortunately, the Kande family is still fairly young with only Fanta and 2 brothers in the workforce -one who recently got in a car accident that took him out of the workforce, and the other still waiting to be paid for 3 months work (also very common here in Africa). So the problem now was a lack of funds to complete the project and the family watched anxiously as their newly constructed home began to slowly wash away with the rain!

Many hands make light work. Younger men were busy cutting palm branches in the bush while the middle aged men assembled the roof. The older men of course sat and supervised while the women worked to prepare lunch for at least 40 people.

But, not all was lost. The Imam (teacher at the mosque) rallied some men to gather palm leaves and erect a temporary roof until the family can save the necessary money to cover the cost of the tin! JP and I went over to ‘help’ too – as much as they would allow a ‘toubab’ to do anyway. As much as mud homes may sound unappealing to we North Americans (especially given that we endure winters), there are some advantages. For instance, dirt floors, dirt walls and no windows, make for minimal housekeeping! Of course, any time saved here is likely lost pounding millet/rice and gathering wood for the cooking fire!

Passing up the 'all natural' shingles...palm leaves. You have to be careful when handling them because they cut like a knife. The best palm roofs are made with dry palm leaves (to absorb the rain)
piled at least a foot deep.