Building a Bush House

Jeff writes ...

One of our students, Matthias Koim, is a pastor in our area. We have gotten to know Matthias and his family well. I have had several opportunities to preach in his church at Warala. I told him that one of my goals for this term is to get off of the CLTC campus and spend more time in the villages learning more about their customs. When he heard that he told me that he was in the process of finishing his house, and he asked me if I wanted to see what he was up to. Of course, I was interested, and this photographic essay is the result. Hope you enjoy it.

These photos depict the finishing of the interior of his house. In the States we use a material called sheet rock to finish our inside walls. In Matthias' home he will weave his walls from a material called pitpit. Pitpit is a cane-like grass which grows along the Waghi River. The pitpit is cut, bundled and carried to the job site where the house will be constructed. This photo shows some pitpit laying on the ground waiting to be processed.








Matthias' mother is flattening the pitpit with a large stick. Once flattened the pitpit is ready to be woven into wall material. Like mothers everywhere she is multi-tasking. This little boy was content to sleep on her lap while she was working.












These three are in the process of weaving the pitpit wall or blain (pronounced as "bline"). The man on the left is Matthias' father.

They can weave different decorative patterns into the wall. The woven wall stretched out behind them for about 7 meters. When finished they roll it up for transport or to sell. The individual wall sections can be cut to measure.

Matthias' father was one of the first to settle in this area. He cleared the land and marked it by planting a tree to indicate his ownership. He said the process they use to identify their land is the same that the Israelites did, but instead of using stones, they plant hedges made of a red-, green- and white-leafed plant called tanget.



This picture shows a closer view of the weaving process.
















Matthias (on the right) and his friend Michael are carrying a cut piece of blain through the front door to install in one of the rooms of his house. Note that the outside walls of the house are made from hand-split wood planks. The roof consists of around 1,500 tightly wrapped bundles of kunai grass. They are woven into place on top of the roof rafters and cross members. The grass roof provides shelter against the torrential rains of the Highland's wet season. Special woods are used for the framing and for the flooring. Certain trees are more resistant to insects, and their wood is used wherever the house comes into contact with the ground.

Matthias has also cut holes into the walls where he will install his store-bought louvered glass windows. Other than nails these are the only non-natural materials in the entire house. To keep things dry he has built his house off of the ground. He will use the pitpit blain for flooring as well. It is laid over the floor joists.

Matthias and Michael are getting ready to hang the pitpit blain on a wall of Matthias' study. The house has a central area surrounded by four small rooms. Cooking will be done outdoors in another small shelter, and there is no indoor plumbing. Matthias will build a liklik haus or latrine for his family to use.











This photo shows the house located in the midst of Matthias' garden. When his wife Jennifer needs some fresh vegetables or fruit for dinner, she doesn't go to the refrigerator to get them. Instead with her garden at her front door, she merely steps outside and harvests the meal.

During our "summer" break, which takes place over Christmas (Think about it.) Matthias wants to begin construction of his new church building. I told him that I would like to help, so if it works out, look for a blog article about it in the coming months.