Whatever nature gives us.

"I am a widow, but I can still build my house."

Halla is the first village to create a construction business, building new homes. They started training in early December (2015) and break ground on the first house in early 2016.

The first family selected by the Muchi Village Company ( the name of the company in Halla) is led by an 11 year old and his 9 year old brother. They currently live in stick built home. Their family includes a sick grand father, their grand mother, a mentally ill cousin, and at least one other child whom they are supporting. The home is also where their chickens sleep and where they cook. Its a traditional house in that they use locally sourced materials, including sticks, mud, dung, and earth.

Most of the people in Halla live in stick and mud houses where they sleep, cook, and live, often side by side with their animals. They will walk miles each day just to gather the firewood needed to cook with, using simple stoves that fill their houses with black smoke.

They are an empowered and happy group, living life as they know how. Working with them is an amazing and eye-opening experience and we strive to shed some light on their way of life and inspire you as much as they have inspired us.

Local Materials, Local Labor, Local Techniques

The villagers we work with make very little money on average. Our own survey of 13 nearby villages, including interviews with over 200 people indicated that the average amount of cash earned during a year was around $350.

Cash is not king. Hard work, cleverness, and a respect for the environment coupled with a strong community is what rules in these villages.

Homes are built using local materials. This includes using clay and earth, dung and mud, sticks and grass. 

Modern homes bring in materials made elsewhere – in Kenya, South Africa, and China as significant sources of suppliers outside of Tanzania. Cement and corrugated aluminum roofing are perhaps the two materials most commonly sourced, and are often a sign of prosperity.

Homes are usually built over time, meaning that people will build what they can, when they can. Labor, locally available material, cash all matter and affect the timing as well as how the house is built.

Land titling is rare in most villages. A local equivalent called a Certified Right of Occupancy (or ‘CRO’) can be issued by the local government office. It is based on a local survey and designation of a specific plot of land. As many families have lived on land for decades, the collective knowledge of the community comes into play when formally issuing a CRO.

Some people can go back more than 14 generations in these villages. They may not have formal paperwork showing that they own the land they live on and/or farm. And the way of life evolves slowly. The houses, the materials used to build them, the techniques used by the masons and builders not much different than those used hundreds of years ago.

Any dispute can have significant rippling affects on the community. Maintaining peace in a community of 3 – 4000 people is a critical, daily function.

Simple homes. Simple life?

"I was born in this village of Halla. Life is good and the people of Halla are so wonderful. I am blessed having a beautiful wife and children."

It is easy to assume that the people in Halla lead fairly uncomplicated lives, uncluttered by the issues we face, and often bring upon ourselves in this overly connected world of instant gratification, and instant access to information. 

Reality is something different.

Complex family structures designed to connect and protect people ensure both, while also offering up cultural challenges that would not be as acceptable in more advanced economies (meaning we have more cash).

As noted in a previous post, family is an extension of friendship and of community. It can mean that people are free to borrow space, food, clothing, money…what ever you have that a ‘family’ member perceives is in abundance, suddenly is consumed by them.

This can lead to conflict, and mistrust.

But it also connects people to each other in a much tighter way than perhaps what we encounter. Social capital becomes real capital. Families might harbor mistrust, but they will also help each other when needed.

Parents die within weeks of each other. The community makes sure the kids have enough food, and shelter.

Not enough firewood? People will walk miles helping to sources the wood needed to cook meals, boil water, live life.

A land dispute, or argument over missing pigs or cows? Elders will meet to resolve the issue, maintaining peace in the village.

People know each other, and each others business.

And they look out for one another.

They talk politics – CCM or Chadema? Many will share their frustration over the loss of the underdog party (Chadema) in the last election. Others will praise the ‘bull dozer’ – the new President of the country - John Magufuli – for the way he has come into office, ‘firing’ many of the ministers, adding beds to hospitals, converting a recent holiday into a day of cleaning for all Tanzanians.

They will follow sport – the English Premier League seems big here – as it is in many countries around the world. And they will share community news often discussing and debating during long sessions sitting on tree stumps or stools under the protective shade of a large Acacia tree.

Literacy, Illiteracy, and Iraqi.

 Another aspect of life in the villages is that you can easily think that the people are illiterate. A quick look at the primary schools, with large class sizes (up to 100 – 1 from what we have seen) to broken blackboards with little chalk, 40 year old text books, deteriorating furniture, walls, and floors, and data that tells you few kids go on to higher levels (including secondary school – essentially the same as middle and high school in the States), and you assume most people are illiterate, or semi literate.

The real issue is not literacy, per se. It is communication. Most people in the villages speak a local language day to day. When they meet people from other villages, they may use kiSwahili as the common language. English is spoken by a few, understood by a few more.

This affects interaction, as contracts, training, and even simple discussions often have to be translated into at least kiSwahili (from English as our example), and then again often orally into the local language.

Iraqi is one such language that is predominant in the Babati District. It is a tribal language associated with the Iraqi people – a tribe that migrated south hundreds of years ago from Ethiopia.

Many villagers may be fully literate in their own language, partially literate in KiSwahili, and illiterate in English.

So are they literate – even if they can’t read this blog?

Of course they are.

The challenge is to affectively translate the text – in written or oral form such that meaning is retained. This can be very difficult as words and sentences do not often translate verbatim.

Resiliency and Creativity

Life in a rural village can be tough. Water may or may not be available when needed; drought, insects, disease can reduce agricultural yields. Animals can die or disappear. East Africa is currently facing a cholera epidemic – small currently, but threatening none the less.

West Africa faced an Ebola crisis in 2014 that set back countries like Liberia, Sierra Leon, Guinea for years – as far as development is concerned.

The people of Halla, and their counterparts in rural villages globally are resilient. They know how to survive day to day; they make choices about how to expend their energy, how to spend their cash, how to develop a sustainable life despite what we would consider simple, or even primitive.

They are also very creative, using all available resources in terms of materials and physical labor to lead what is often a happy life.

As one small farmer in a village said:

“We use whatever nature gives us. This is how we survive, this is how we live.”

Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays. Happy New Year.

AUTHOR BIO:

Bill Lightfoot is Managing Director, Village Inc. Africa that provides macrocredit capital and expertise to village companies situated in rural communities in Tanzania. 

The driver of Village Inc. Africa's model is working with the village companies in supporting their building of quality and affordable homes and other structures for the base of the pyramid. This drives employment, which drives economic development.

All homes use as much local labor and materials as possible, and include features that make the homes significantly healthier for the families, while also being environmentally friendlier.

Click here to visit village-inc.org for more information.