Building Houses, Building Lives

As the rainy season fast approaches, many people are busy building their houses in the village where we live. The houses are being built from mud and can only be built in the dry season because if the mud is still wet when the rain comes then the houses will just collapse. The person who wants to build makes sure all the ‘building materials’ are at hand; water, gravel (if it is not found around the house) and sometimes some tools. One or two local professional builders come to build the walls of the houses and are paid a little money for their labour. Neighbours and friends come together around a heap of gravel which has been made soft with water. They form balls out of the mud and others transport those balls to the place where the house is being built. Passersby often stop for a while to join in the talking and to also help in the transportation of the balls.

A few weeks ago we observed the progress of the building of the house of one of our neighbours. Abukari joined the men in making the balls and Samuel and Micah carried them to the building.

Men come together around a heap of gravel

For Micah it is more like a game

I can even do two balls at the same time!

The walls of the house are almost finished

After the walls have been finished, the women plaster the walls and so everybody in the family from young to old, male and female get involved in the building process.

The women plastering the walls

We continue to be impressed by the willingness of people to help each other with the building of houses. It is a social event. It lightens the communal spirit and the ‘we’ feeling among the people in the community and it strengthens the unity and ties with one another. This is not only the case when building houses but also in working the land, for special occasions like the birth of a child or a wedding or funeral, and many other things which are hard to do alone. It stands in strong contrast with the Western society where in many cases it is everybody for him or herself. The involvement in each other’s lives, the willingness to help and the community feeling makes the Dagomba culture rich and we can learn a lot from it as we relate it to the uniqueness of the body of Christ as seen in 1 Corinthians 12.

On the other hand, in such a culture, it makes it very difficult to break with certain traditions, values or religions which are so strongly connected to this community life and unity. As such, as a Dagomba it is very hard to become a Christian as it is seen as a threat to the existing cohesion. As we live and work among the Dagomba we try to daily reflect in our words and actions that the good news of Jesus transcends all cultural and traditional values. Please join us in prayer and support as we seek to use every given opportunity to live out the love of Christ among the people we work with.