The War Against the Termites!

I love being in the Gambia, and many things about living here are lovely. But of course, like everywhere, there is no doubt that there can problems too, and for most Gambians, life is a daily struggle. In the rural areas, most people are subsistence farmers, living on very little, and doing their best to take care of their families. There is no mains electricity – at Balaba we have a solar panel, which feeds a large battery. This means we can charge phones etc. and it gives us light in the two rooms in the house, and for one outside light. But most people don't have that luxury, and so they rely on torchlight after dark. In the dry season, we mainly live outside, so people often light fires as well, and the evening 'entertainment' is usually sitting round the fire and talking.

Maintenance is a constant problem, due to the dust in the dry season, and wind and rain in the rainy season Machinery breaks down regularly because of the dust, and house maintenance is a particular issue. Fences and roofs are usually made from palm leaves, but they are now very difficult to find, and need replacing every two year – in fact the fence around our garden has completely broken down, a victim of the rainy weather.

But probably the biggest menace are the termites! Houses are mainly made from mud blocks, with palm leaves laid on wooden poles for the roof. Termites try to eat through the mud blocks to get into the houses, and if they can, they will lay trails up the wall, and then eat the roof poles. When they can afford it, people try to build on a layer of concrete, as the termites can't eat through concrete, but they can sneak through any small crack, and even worse, they can burrow underneath. This makes the house unstable, and then in the rainy season the walls can crack and collapse – this is what happened to Lamin's mother's house last year. A huge section of outside wall collapsed completely, so the rooms are shielded by plastic, and the rest of the walls are held in place by a patchwork of corrugate sheets.

They have got into several of our buildings, and last week Lamin and his friend Malik tackled one building. These photos should explain the process, which is very hard work.

The termites leave mounds as they munch – sometimes they can be taller than a man!

Termite damage to one of our rooms

You have to dig down to see the extent of the damage – the termite nest is soft and spongy, and need to be completely removed.

The spongy termites nest material, full of termites

This leaves large holes!

A hole left by the termites!

An enormous hole on the verandah outside the room.

This has caused the building to shift, leaving big cracks in the mud block walls.

You can see daylight through these cracks!

The holes need to be filled with rubble – we used some of the concrete floor from a roundhouse which collapsed a couple of years ago.

Lamin filling in the large hole by the door

Rubble filling the hole

Then the concrete can be laid on top, to secure everything.

Adding a layer of concrete to slow the termites down

A brand new step

As I've said before, Gambians are masters of ingenuity, and this plaster skimmer is home-made.

A home-made skimmer

Once that's done, then the cracks can be repaired, and finally the room can be painted.

Now the cracks are filled

Lamin and Ish spent two days earlier this week at his mother's house, doing the same thing. Now a bricklayer is repairing the damaged walls, which we hope will keep the house stable for the rainy season, but it will probably need to be completely rebuilt next year.

So the war against the termites continues.....