MUDDING A HOUSE

Finally the day arrived to have the mudding for Fred and Caroline's new house. It had been delayed a week because of Silas Opiyo's funeral. We loaded up 2 vans of Kajulu people and headed out early for the Bondo area which is a lovely 1 1/2 hour drive. Martina had gone the night before with Sarah Esh, Melody Helmuth, Caroline and her sister Josephine. After sleeping in a mud hut with a thatched roof in pitch darkness they helped get an early start the next morning with food preparation. Martina was found cutting mandazis below and frying them in hot oil. For you Lancaster folks, the mandazis are the same as fasnachts. They are delicious freshly done.



Upon arrival we all decided to sit....and rest awhile...so unlike we hard-working Germans.......and no one seemed to really be in charge. After awhile, someone decided to go after geri cans so the ladies can start carrying water from the river. The men started chopping up the reddish clay dirt with huge hoes around the house. The water was dumped into the ground up dirt and 'grown men' jumped around in this stuff until it was just the right consistency needed to pack into the house. They declared this was beautiful mud......and it really did handle nicely...it can't be too wet, it will run out; it can't be too dry, it will crumble. We barely got started till someone called the group together for a noyo, mandazis and porriage breakfast. It was 11:00 o'clock. Hmmm.... when you are in Kenya, you do like the Kenyans do.....may as well go for breakfast to...

Church brethren preparing the mud. It looked too funny and they got such a kick out of us 'picturing them'. The work may be primitive but everyone knew his place and how to do his work. The women carried the water, certian men knew how to do the mud just right and others were good at plastering. It was an art in itself and quite facsinating. It was also a great social time.

The church sisters carrying the water from the river. For those of you interested, the ladies are right (front) to left, Conselata, Pamela, Elida, Rose and Helen. Pastor Glen looked a bit out of place in line regarding race, gender and mode of transportation.The ladies were very tired until the end of day. These buckets were full and they hardly rocked the water.

Monica, Daniel , Martina and I helped pack the mud in between double layers of sticks tied together with bark strips. (no nails in sight, even the tin roof was tied on.) They like when Americans help mud. They thought we acted experienced even though we didn't handle the stuff since childhood mudpie days. "You don't build houses like this in America...with wood...? How does a person explain a large house, garden and yard.......? you don't even go into much detail. They just can't comprehend such riches with them being so poor, especially these country folks.

This was the initial mudding. After it dries well, they do another one and smear it smooth forming a concrete look. It's surprisingly cool in these huts. They may do it several times inside and out until it pleases the wife of the new 'dala'. There's even a partition/wall dividing the house. It's amazing what finery they can come up with in these remote places. White embroidered linens and some exquisite doilies decorate their couches. They often plaster the inner walls with obsolete calenders and photos. It does take annual maintenance to keep the houses in shape. I couldn't quite decide if this house was built on the rock or the sand.