rebuilding

Lynn and I have been taking frequent visits to Salete’s to see her progress in recovering from the fires that burnt down her home. This is Salete’s temporary abode while she works on building a more sturdy, fire resistant home. Fire resistant, as fire resistant as you can get with the materials available to a typically Mozambican living in the bush.…dirt and water.
Yep! Noth’n but the right amount of dirt and water mixed together, poured into this mold and dried for three days and you got yourself one sturdyish brick for a new house. But if you can bake the bricks, well, then your laughing.

This bucket holds enough water to make ten bricks. Salete has 600 bricks made and she will need another 400. You might think she is well on her way but one thing to keep in mind is that Salete has to walk with this bucket to get her water. Lynn was told that the water pump was far away. Lynn explained to me that when a local tells you that something is close you can expect to walk up to a hour so, if they say it’s far, then it’s far! It is likely that Salete only makes at the most two trips in one day.
All that work and she still finds time to enjoy the day with her grandson who seems to be getting cuter each time I see him. I think I have enough pictures of him to tack one on each of the bricks of their soon to be new home. Since Salete’s son found himself a job and is no longer free to help his mother build ASAM has contracted a young man to haul water and help with the building.

This area may look familiar to some of you. This would be the ASAM farm after encountering a bush fire of our own... and in the back is the wooden hut. (just a little too close for comfort!) With Lynn and Dwight in Chimoio and Francois and Alta in South Africa, Nat and I, along with all the workers, fought a blazing fire for four and a half hours. It started by Francois and Alta’s house and was gaining momentum in the wrong direction. We frantically tried to organize a constant flow of water buckets from two different water taps along with the one garden hose in the front yard. Just as the fire seemed to be subsiding around the house it moved with ferocity towards the wooden hut. I don’t think I have uttered so many prayers as I did in those long, intensity charged fire fighting hours. I couldn't help but think of the big red fire trucks that I have seen in the western world more times than I can count and how handy one of those beautiful trucks would come in very handy at this very moment. Still I believe those brave firefighters would be amazed how twenty men (and one woman J ) with water and tree branches can prevent the entire farm from becoming ashes. Though I don’t think they would have approved of my fire fighting attire…a wrap-around-skirt and flip- flops. Don’t worry, I have already been scolded for that one.