Mandhla's House Part 1

Brandon: Hey Sindy, how's it going?
Sindy: Pretty good, how's it going for you?
Brandon: Oh you know, just building a house, no biggie.
Sindy: Yeah no big deal.

The day was hot from the start and it reached a solid 33 degrees Celsius by noon, which is about mid 90s Fahrenheit. The past two days have been spent removing grass and shoveling dirt onto a pile until the ground was leveled. Today we carefully measured out where each pole would go and then dug holes for the poles. After placing them inside the holes we pushed dirt back in and pounded it down. It all sounds fairly simple and it's hard to imagine that the work you see in the picture above took two days to complete, but it did, and that's why Brandon and I were being sarcastic when we said it's no big deal to build a house.

We shoveled for two days because we basically removed a whole hill. When we first arrived at Mandhla's house, the front yard was 2 feet higher than it is now. We dug all of that out because it's the dirt we're going to use to make mud for the walls. Today we had a guy named Michael helping us measure where the poles should go. It took a whole hour to get the measurements right and to make sure we dug the holes for the poles deep enough. Also, we have to make sure the roof is tilted down towards the right because that's where the rain and wind hits harder so the poles on one side have to be higher than on the other side. The more accurate our measurements are, the sturdier the house will be. Packing down the dirt around the poles is also important because it holds the poles in place. We stood at each hole for about 20 minutes pounding down the dirt with a giant metal rod. The metal rod weighed a solid 20 pounds. Each pole is about 3 feet under the ground and is then surrounded by rocks, soil, rocks, and soil. Each time we added soil, we pounded it down some more. Above the ground, the poles are about 6'5'' feet high.

Brandon and I were being sarcastic in our conversation because, as I am slowly starting to realize, a lot of effort goes into building a house, even if it's just a simple mud house in Haniville. There's hard work involved, patience, perseverance, and strength. Our motivation is Mandhla because we know he's going to enjoy every corner of that house and we're excited to see it finished.