Home Sweet Hut

As we traveled up through Togo heading to the conference there was one thing that obviously became more prevalent. Homes... made out of mud... Mud huts. Or "Caz" in French. The huts were everywhere in Togo, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

This was an amazing sight! I couldn't get enough and I had so many questions. The only thing was, my questions could barely get answered because of the language barrier. My feeble attempts were lost in translation... literally! So after a few mis-interpreted tries, I just sat back and stared out the bus window as hut village after village passed me by.

While I was absolutely enthralled by the huts, since I've never seen the circular huts in Ghana, the other students seemed to barely notice. Like they were use to the sight... however, I can almost guarantee that not one single one of them have ever lived in one.

I tried to ask how many people live in a single hut, and Daniel informed me that it depended on how many people were in the family... But I really can't imagine more than 2 people having enough floor space to lay down to sleep.

The huts were often nearby others with up to 20 or 30 in a given area. I wonder what happens if they get mad at their neighbors? Do they move to a different hut? There weren't any mud garages... LOL. But this would be a little silly to have, since none of them had cars... or power tools to store.

The only road that passed through the communities was the main road that our bus traveled. There weren't even dirt paths connecting the small villages...

The American mentality that I have acquired over the 20+ years I have lived in the United States had me wondering why they just didn't build their huts bigger? I mean, why not? Give themselves a little more room! There obviously weren't rooms, like a kitchen or a living room. I tried to imagine a couch in the middle of the hut, and a closet to hang their clothes. LOL. But this was all in fun, because these things were definitely not a reality.

After seeing the huts it's still hard to imagine how people who live in them operate on a daily basis. I want to do a home stay in a rural part of Ghana in order to try to better understand, so I will keep you posted on my progress. I'm not sure how receptive the ISEP coordinator will be. LOL.