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| Grass roof being prepared, it must lie flat and straight |
A big project and attempt to build using traditional methods and with only local materials...termite soil, grass, sand...mixed, moulded and applied with many hands and cooked with fire or finished with lime.
Buidling began 2009 and completed just in time for Christmas 2010, NY 2011.
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Floor tiles made by a women's group -
lots of experimenting with firing and mix: termite soil, sand and some grass |
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| New furnace under construction - chimneys to be added |
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| A lot of grass needed... |
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| View from the back - windows finished with 'matopa' and lime. |
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| Plumbing is a huge challenge - materials are imported and paper thin plastic. Dominik nearly went mad from pipes bursting before being fitted |
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| Interior wall showing brick work and arch to loo |
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Tarpaulin curtains on to the large veranda,
made from confiscated illegal timber |
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| Walls before they dried and view of tiled bathroom floor |
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Finally curtains from local matket -
tied back with repurposed rope from confiscated snares |
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| A bit of decoration - encouraged by Dominik I used pigment and burnt out battery charcoal. This is the Lesser Striped Swallow that nests around the house |
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The tiles have been decorated too - some have numbers to signify
the women who made it or prints. Here is the delicate print of the mighty Kudu |
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| Lime finished walls - and here thumb prints of all who applied the mud render |
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| A muddy and exhausting process! |
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| The view on a particularly beautiful day - although sunshine is guaranteed |
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Here is the 'Vallejo' or Old Carpenter, that is his
official title as elders command respect.
Here he is with his assistant preparing the verandas |
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The new furnace being burnt...to try to bake the soil used and make it water-proof...seems to be semi successful.
But we will see when we return after rainy season how much is left standing |
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Finished! Many many people worked to make the new houses, everyone here played a part
(apart from the chicken who just wanted its photo taken) |
Hi Sophie,
ReplyDeleteLove the blog - get in touch! We may be able to think on about collecting in Moz; perhaps in collaboration with Oxford /Darren. There are huge gaps in our Africa collections; though we are working on collecting in Tanzania as you will see here:
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/natureplus/blogs/beetles
Ciao for now,
Beulah
Arh! Lovely to hear from you and thank you for reading the blog. It would be fantastic to work with you as part of the Oxford project. We currently have material being sorted there and hope to put together a DI bid this year. Will check out your Tanzanian work now.
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