Mumbis Haus – Teil 2 – Miners in Afrika

Mumbi's house is finally habitable. If you missed the first part of this story, you can find it here.

The family of five (their eldest daughter is already at boarding school) moved in two weeks ago. A few things are still missing: water is still being carried by hand from the stream, there's no electricity connection yet (in the meantime, David's solar system is being used), the toilet is a hole in the ground shared with several other families, the walls aren't completely sealed, and the outdoor kitchen still needs to be built… but it belongs to the Wahwai family. They don't have to pay rent and don't have to worry about being evicted.

Here are a few more photos of the final work steps and the finished product.

The door and windows are made of metal to make theft more difficult. Glass will be installed in the windows.

First, large stones were carried from the river up to the house and distributed inside. Then the stones were broken into smaller pieces to create a kind of gravel base for the floor.

Then concrete was poured over it and the floor was painted red. The chipboard panels will form the interior walls and the interior cladding for the exterior walls.

This provides some protection from the cold and an additional barrier against small animals and insects. However, the bottom 80cm of the outer wall are already made of masonry.

This is what the inside will look like when it's finished. Here's the living room.

There you can also see one of David's solar lamps. A 15-watt PV panel, a battery, and four lamps supply all his electricity needs, including charging cell phones. Unfortunately, this isn't a long-term solution because David needs the system. The electricity provider refuses to install a meter for the house (the neighboring house belongs to Francis's mother). The provider wants approximately €450 to lay a new line from the main road. That's the way corruption works, unfortunately.