My Adobe Home
“The storm is here, the storm is here…”
My grandfather scurried, warning the villagers to protect their belongings, before we were hammered by intense winds and horizontal rains.
Dark, stormy night; the rain fell continuously, except slowed at a few intervals, by a violent gust of wind, strengthening to 150 kilometers an hour, which swept up the streets…rattling along the mostly adobe house-tops, fiercely agitating the struggling dim flame of lanterns against darkness.
“Get inside, get inside… quickly,” he commanded as he entered the home.
“Water is leaking into some rooms – it’s scary,” he lamented.
Our Adobe home was destroyed, crops were gone, gusty wind brought down the trees, cut power and caused considerable flooding.
My grandparents’ Adobe had an extensive history which goes back probably about three generations. Adobe is the architecture, the art form of the people who lived in that area, and making adobes was my grandfather’s passion. It was his life, his expression of our culture.
“No weeping for shed milk,” Grandfather nodded, looking at us.
“Let’s get to work, we can build this again in no time!!”
“You can break it up, re-shape it, re-use it with water,” he reiterated.
And that is what we did.
Grandfather collected the basic ingredients from ecological materials: clay-rich earth, straw, water. Soon a marvelous, ecological building was up. Our Adobe home was built again.
“What a work of art!!! Functional art!!!” we marveled.
“Awesome, a true testament to human ingenuity!” neighbors complimented.
“From the earth to the earth!! Our adobe house.” Grandfather boasted.
Our home, our sweet home; where we share all our pain, every happiness, every joy and every sorrow together.
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleA lovely story of triumph over nature. Then I think of of all the bush fires raging across the world, and the devastation of tropical storms. In your story you show us the power of human spirit.
Thank you Eric for the encouragement.
I really enjoyed your story of self-reliance, resilience and re-building, and Grandfather is a wonderful character. You really brought him to life…I can see him standing there and boasting, and I can’t help but smile 🙂
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleThanks a lot Sandra, your feedback means a lot.
Nice story with the moral that nothing is ever completely lost and we can always rebuild from stumbling blocks.
Thank you for the feedback Leena.
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleI haven’t heard the term before, except in photoshop, and have looked up some pictures of the houses/building material. Good story of eventual triumph.
Thanks for reading the story Susan. These kind of homes are very prevalent in rural Mexico, India and South America. Nowadays Adobe homes come with all kind of modern amenities but in early days they used to be basic and very eco-friendly.
A nice, personable story, and inspiring read which gave me just the bit of inspiration I needed during our global lock-down. When we have been hit by the “storms” of life, this story reminds us of our resilient human spirit to rebuild.
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To Leave Comments - Please SignIn with GoogleI was wondering what is an adobe house, then I made a research on the internet and looked at some pictures of adobe houses. This is a great story that is full of positivity, hope and endurance. And the phrase that I love the most is this : “From the earth to the earth”. It made a great impact on me and imprinted on my mind.