My Hut

PVCs here have to constantly fight the misconception of our friends and family back home that everyone in Africa lives in huts. The reality is that not everyone lives in huts, but some do and the huts are much more photogenic than a concrete house, so they are probably disproportionately represented in photos. Anyway, I do live in a hut, and so does nearly everyone in my village. In actuality I might have lived in a hut in Mauritania too if enough grass grew there for thatching, but it doesn't.


This is my hut right after the rainy season. Most of the greenery is gone now. It still needs to be rethatched, that should be happening in the next couple of weeks.

Robert Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, once said "I think that if we are going to reform the world, and make it a better place to live in, the way to do it is not with talk about relationships of a political nature... or with programmes full of things for other people to do... The social values are right only if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there..." I am a firm believer in this philosophy and extend it not just to making mental and political changes, but also to making physical changes. In that spirit, I have been "developing" my hut. (Although this idealism might just be a cover for my love of building and tinkering.) Anyway, I have been having fun and here are the results of some of my improvements.


When I got there, this door was just a beat up old piece of tin with a bunch of holes in it. I decked it out with the bamboo facade.


This shelving has been my biggest project. It was tricky to figure out how to get it to hold the curved shape while still support it horizontally, but after a few midday naps I came up with a solution. I made the shelving part out of a kind of wood that is almost exclusively used for making stools. So all the days I was out there cutting it up, everyone who walked by said, "Oh, you are making a stool." (Cultural side note: not knowing something makes one look bad so when they see someone doing an activity but they are not sure exactly what they are doing, they will guess and make a statement out of it rather than simply ask what they are doing. This gets a little old.) So I would correct them and tell them to go inside my hut and look. One particular time the village chief, who's compound I am in, happened to be there when someone came by and said, "Making a stool huh?" for the umpteenth time. I sighed and told him to go inside my hut and look. When he came back out he said, "Wow, that's impressive, I thought you were just making a stool." To which the village chief incredulously responded, "You thought he was just making a stool? Have you seen what he did to his door???" I got a kick out of that.


Door and shelving. (Mom, see, now I am as organized as Tim!)


Close up on the shelving.


My compost pit. Water from washing my hands after going to the bathroom automatically waters the pit.


The door to my garden.


A small veggie garden behind my hut.