One Thousand Bricks of Mud
2/5/99
In these the last few months of the second millenium since Christ, it's
hard to imagine that much of the world's population still builds its own
homes with little more than earth and their bare hands. However amazing
that may be, it's at least true for the majority of people in this country.
Earth homes are probably about as old as the notion of a home, and are
just about the only way most people in Ouake can afford to build a home
they can call their own. It occurred to me that since this is a stark
contrast from the American notion of a home that it was an important aspect
to investigate. As will happen sometimes just as I was considering who
would be a good person to ask about the specifics of construction my soon-to-be
neighbor came looking for water so that he can start building his house
about 150 yards from mine. So not only can I get the specifics about the
task, I can follow the actual process step by step without a whole lot
of running around. My plan is to describe each of the steps as they take
place in the days, weeks or months to come.
2/7/99
The first step in building a house made of earth is to make the bricks.
Made only with earth and water, the bricks themselves are really nothing
more than mud poured into a wooden mold and left to dry in the sun. It
may seem hard to believe that nothing is added to strengthen the bricks.
The natural soil here in Ouake is actually quite rocky and solid when
dry. To build the house my neighbor has in mind, he estimates that he
will need more than a thousand bricks. Fortunately for him, he is from
a typically large family and is able to tap into a free and infinite supply
of child labor for the not so glamorous task of forming the bricks. Coincidentally,
several of his cousins are my students and they answered my questions
about the construction process as I watched them work. They told me it
would take about one week for the bricks to dry once they are formed.
Due to school, however, they only will be able to work on the weekends,
so to amass the total it will probably take as least four weeks. Once
the bricks are made, the next step will be to bring in a mason for the
construction, but realistically that will be a very distant day.
3/19/99
After more than a month, my neighbor and his cousins have finally amassed
enough bricks to begin the second stage of building his house. The first
step of the actual construction is, of course, the foundation. In the
case of a home made from Earth, the majority of the foundation is like
the rest of the structure: all natural. Built mainly out of rocks, which
are painstakingly pried out of the surrounding land, the foundation for
the entire house is held together by mud and only three sacks of cement.
The mason who is doing the work needs only a trowel, a bucket and a level
to do the job. Building the foundation is a 2-day job that is carried
out under a remorseless sun by the mason, his assistant, my neighbor and
a few children. Once the foundation is complete and dry, the work will
continue and the house will begin to be.
3/30/99
Once the foundation has been laid and set, the next step is the construction
of the walls. Unlike houses we are used to in the States that have both
exterior and interior walls, in the case of an earth house both walls
are the same. The mason carefully stacks the earth bricks one by one on
top of the foundation, adding cement and more earth to hold each brick
in place. Using the level as a guide, the construction of the walls of
the house is as simplistic as one could imagine. Since most houses here
in Ouake follow a very simple rectangle pattern, the earth bricks only
need to be stacked on top of one another and cemented into place. Wooden
supports are installed in open spaces to be completed by windows and doors
later. The entire job of building the main frame of the house only took
three days, again the labor done mostly by one mason with help from his
assistant, my future neighbor and a few children. Once the walls of the
house are up and firm, the roof is next.
5/1/99
After the walls are dry and firm, the next step in the construction of
the house is the roof. It must be noted that in the traditional construction
of earth homes the roof, like the rest, is all natural, and the process
differs from the one described here. My neighbor chose to cover his house
in tin as opposed to straw, which has its obvious disadvantages. However,
I should point out that a great many of the houses here in Ouake are covered
in straw, including some built this year. Certainly cost is the main motivation
behind the decision between straw and tin, and those who can afford to
make the investment almost certainly will. The tin roofing costs 46,000
CFA for a stack of 20 sheets and my neighbor used 32 sheets, more than
a bundle and a half, to cover his rather modest 2-room house. Ninety thousand
CFA or approximately $200 may not sound like a lot of money by western
standards, but with subsistence at the base of their agricultural economy,
most people generate very little in the way of fiscal income. Ninety thousand
CFA can support a family for a year. Beyond the cost of the tin sheets,
there is also the cost of the wood to form the interior frame of the roof.
In my neighbor's case, most of the interior structure was made from four
planks of wood, five meters long, at a cost of 5,500 per plank plus transportation
from Ketao, five kilometers across the Togo border. Like the other stages
of construction, aside from the cost of the materials, the fabrication
of the roof is not an excessively complex issue. The four boards are cut
lengthwise into 2-inch strips and are combined with beams cut from the
long straight trunks of a local tree that resembles birch. The cut trees
form the bottom layer. Spaced at about 2-foot intervals, they are cemented
to the walls at the bottom and nailed to a beam at the top. The cut strips
are laid across the length of the roof to form a grid to which the sheets
of tin will be attached. The sheets are nailed in from the bottom of the
roof up with the top sheets layering over the bottom. Much the same as
basically any shingle system, this really is the most logical way to seal
the interior from rain as it hits the roof and runs downward. The task
of roofing my neighbor's house took two days, one for the interior frame
and one for the exterior covering. The first day's work was done by my
neighbor alone, and the second day's work was done mainly alone but with
the help of a brother who arrived in the later afternoon. The next phase
is to put a coat of cement on the inside and outside walls to protect
the earth bricks against the elements. This, however, required a great
deal more cement, which in turn requires more money, which seems to be
the biggest hurdle in the construction process.
5/15/99 Although my neighbor says he doesn't have the money to continue construction of his house right now, today he spent a day taking preventative measures. He brought in the mason to cover one side of the outside wall in cement to protect against the coming rains. Soon he also is going to install one of the two doors and a window to keep the heavy winds out of the open rooms. He fears that if the winds are strong enough they may rip the roof off from the inside. He said that it will probably be about two or three months before he will have the money to continue. The plan is to earn some money working and hopefully continue construction in August.
11/3/99
It is now approaching six months since my neighbor last did any work on
his house and it sits exposed and unusable. He said he be back to work
on it in two months. That was in May. People always have the best intentions
and the brightest ideas when they are getting started. It actually brings
up a good point, a rather common occurrence in fact. All over Benin in
every village and along every road are countless unfinished houses. Whole
buildings, maybe someone's life savings with no roof and stalks of corn
growing up inside. There is a covered one just up the street with no doors,
windows, or occupants that has been that way since I got to Ouake. It's
a nice house in a great location, but it's not finished, almost but not
quite. It serves as a mid-afternoon hangout for local children. I've asked
people about why and they always say the person started but ran out of
money. So I ask why the person started before they had all the money.
They always say that if they waited that long they'd never start. The
logic is that if they don't actively invest the money they will be forced
to spend it on some life necessity. So by making bricks and paying a mason
to erect them, my neighbor has put his money in the bank in a way. The
only problem is his bank is made of mud and isn't even mostly covered
in cement. Until recently, despite having discovered the unfinished house
phenomenon and having long ago asked the whys, I couldn't see the investment
side of it. Money is not part of the older culture but houses are. In
fact, besides, family, and fields, a house was about the most important
investment a man could make. Money isn't trusted the way it's trusted
in America, the idea of credit is virtually non-existent. If a man has
some money he should buy some land and if he has some left he should buy
some cement. Otherwise his motorcycle is going to break and waste his
savings. What happens if the motorcycle breaks and there is no money to
pay for repairs? Worry about that later.
END