Better Homes and Gardens

There aren’t really very many beautiful man-made things here in Lichinga. Every now and then you’ll go past a house that looks a bit like somebody loves it, but by far the majority seem to be just functional. I don’t know if it’s purely related to a lack of resources – water, money, council junk collection 3x a year, Bunnings – or it’s just a different way of looking at things. But it sure does make me appreciate beautiful places when I see them.

Last week I went to visit our guard’s house. I’d like to say it was for a different reason but I was pretty much there to suss out whether some things that had gone missing from our house were now living at his. I didn’t find what I was looking for. I’m still not sure whether that means he didn’t take it or he took it and sold it. But without any proof for now, we’ll assume the best.

But what I did find was an incredible house. It is by far the most beautiful house I’ve seen in Lichinga. He is such a talented gardener and just general all round handy man and has such a great eye for repurposing. Granted, he has access to way more stuff than a lot of people around (our old windows, toilet cistern, pipes etc) but what he has done with it is incredible.

These shots were from July last year when Cam went to help build the place…