Not Architecture for a Rainy Day

I've always liked rain, in part for the cozy feeling I get when I'm inside, warm and dry, looking out at it. And when it rained yesterday here in Japan, I had occasion to think about people whose homes aren't quite so warm and dry in wet weather.

I visited the Congo during the dry season, but having lived in and traveled around tropical and semitropical Asia for 20 years, I can easily imagine how wet the rainy season is. The rainy season will see the dusty unpaved roads (and nearly all the roads in the country are unpaved) turn into impassable rivers of mud, which will connect seamlessly to the dirt floors of refugee/IDP (internally displaced people) huts (the roofs of which are made of those not-very-waterproof building materials, leaves and tree bark).

Above are some photographs of the huts refugees and IDPs construct for themselves, and a shot of a mother and child who invited me and my MSF nurse/guide Didier (whose shoulder is visible in the shot) into their tiny hut. Their hut was partitioned into two spaces: one for living/cooking, and one for cooking. The entire hut was the size of the passenger cabin of a compact car.