Home Visits

I only have 5 minutes left but let's see what I can tell you about this. Yesterday we went to a primary school (K-7) and were broken into groups to go visit the children's homes. Laura and I had a group of 6 kids and visited 5 homes (two were siblings). They took our hands and led us down a dirt road. It took us about 40 minutes to get to their village (they all lived in the same village). Along the way we asked each other questions and I sang them some silly songs. It was a pretty road with corn fields and tall trees. I wore a goofy cowboy hat but it saved my neck from sunburn!
At each house but one the mother was waiting for us and welcomed us inside. One house was made of visible sticks and mud, the others had a plaster like outside (it may have looked like the first originally). Most houses had 2 rooms, one that you were led into to visit with a small stool to sit on and their plates for eating. The other room usually had a bed for mom and the babies and a mat for the 2-6 other kids. No electricity - totally dark!
This little girl has no mother or father. She lives in a padlocked room with a bed and that is it. No windows, just a dark room with a high ceiling. I asked her who cooks for her and she says her Aunt. She was a sweet kid!
People in the villages hang outside - as you can imagine with no electricity, the indoors is mostly for sleeping or to go if the weather is bad. There are fires everywhere and babies as well. I guess they learn early to not crawl into the fires because sometimes you can't tell who is watching who. Everyone is glad to see you and they were so nice to let us into their houses - they are kept very neat! One house had a plate in it with the shape of the state of Texas and the Texas flag colors inside!
One of the girls had a 16 year old sister who was hanging out in the village. Her family could not afford to keep her in school so she had to quit. She had a room of her own and it was the most decorated I saw! It had Sprite posters on one wall and the other two walls had pretty fabric. There was also fabric on the floor. I would say this is the equivalent of a teenagers room! She really wanted to have a picture with Laura since they were the same age.
One woman told us she had built the house herself. Other people in the village had helped her. They used logs (about 4-5" in diameter) for upright and horizontal support and then fill in with mud. They usually have sheet metal roofs though we saw thatched roofs as well. I often wonder what happens when the big rains come - do the walls melt? There are also structures made out of handmade bricks. The mortar work isn't as neat as the work you see in America. Did I have to say dirt floor? That's all for now!