the de-molder

The house we live in is an old house that was bought by the mission from one of the local “big men” by the name of Timothy Lolem. The mission spent some time renovating it and making it suitable for living in before actually moving in in 2000. And since then the mission has expanded considerably. Not including the clinic and all its staff housing, three whole houses have been built as well as many smaller huts or bandas for visitors and MA’s etc, and loads of smaller projects are constantly going on. One such project is in progress at the moment.


The roof of our house is made of tin sheeting which makes for a very loud rain fall. I have often wished that we could have had just a flat concrete roof so it wouldn’t be so loud. You know, like the ones in the Bible where they have a staircase built into the wall so you can just climb up there anytime you want. I mean, how cool would that be to just be able to climb up there and hang out and do stuff. That would be so cool. Actually, over a portion of our house there is no tin roof so it is just flat concrete and we sometimes climb up there for trimming trees, tanning, and fetching things such as Frisbees, baseballs, basketballs, shoes, kittens, alligator skins, Jamie’s money belt…just things that we left, lobbed, forgot or hid up there. One of these flat areas is over the bathroom off the kitchen and because it is flat, when it rains the water sits in a stagnant pool up there. This did not seem to make that much of a difference until last rainy season when we noticed 1) water streaming down the wall inside the bathroom through a microscopic crack in the ceiling and 2) very large growths of mold in several places around the bathroom. The roof of Dad’s office was also like this and he too had found large areas of mold in his office. Because my dad especially, among other members of my family, is very allergic to mold, a solution to this problem was carefully thought out and executed by Mr. Wright. It seemed that the water had been seeping into the walls through the ceiling and so making it damp all the time. So a tin roof was built over Dad’s office to keep the rain off. And it has worked so far. Not only has it kept the mold away and prevented the office from flooding through the many cracks in the windows, it has also provided a shelter for various cats living in the vicinity.

Since it worked for the office and we were still having the same problem in the bathroom, it seemed reasonable to deduct that this problem would have the same solution. So now, as I speak, Mr. Wright, Heather, James and Bobby are in the midst of building an extension onto the present tin roof so as to cover the flat roof over the bathroom. We are confident that this will affect a major improvement.

Random Thing: there is this huge monster crack in the wall of the same bathroom, actually in the shower. Our shower (as most showers are) is built into a corner of the room and the crack is at about eye level (my eye level) through both walls, so I can see all the way out into the courtyard while I’m taking a shower. It’s kind of cool and kind of creepy at the same time. That’s been caulked before and we’ll probably just caulk it shut again. Though really…I think it’s kind of cool. Like watching tv while you’re showering. I mean, not that much happens out in the courtyard at the time when I normally shower, but sometimes I see a bird or something. It’s pretty cool.