update from Africa

[patrick newberry]

Update from Africa:
My sister and her Husband live in west Africa (Cameroon).
Anyway I talked with them yesterday and they are visiting the US for about a
year.
their kids are 17 and 18 and they are giving them a chance to see if they
want to live here in the states.
Terry (the Husband) has done quite a bit of building with "mud" as he says.
He has build several building including two story buildings..
He as build some one story buildings using only  mud  including the roof.
I only talked for a short while but basically he is working with arches and
circles. 
They generally build with circles (hut like) because it one is stronger and
two it works better for thatching
the roof. 
On his total mud house he as a Pillar in the center and builds a series of
arches from the wall  to the pillar.
he uses some rebar but he encases the rebar in cement first then places  it
in the mud because the rebar 
doesn't stick to the mud very well but the cement and mud seem to join just
fine.
Wood isn't used very much. For one reason it is expensive and two they have
termites from hell.
When he does use wood for the roof  has taken to placing the poles in tin
cans and then imbedding the 
can in the mud (OK cob) to protect it from the termites. He uses only metal
windows and doors for the same reason.  He does not use overhangs or eaves.
He coats the whole outside of the structure with cement. Now I believe this
works fine for him based on the following reasons. They are living basically
on the equator and thus only rainy and dry seasons exist. they always have
air flow from outside to inside year round and thus I am sure not much air
is going to bother going through a cob wall with several open windows around. 
I will be talking with him in a couple of weeks if anyone has any questions
they would like to pose then pass them this way.
He is living in North Dakota now (big change!)
He ask if anyone has tried to make two parallel walls say six to eight
inches each with a 3 inch space between the walls (maybe some kind of rebar
joining the walls) and then filling the space with insulation. this would
give the economy of cob and add more insulation.
Talk to you all later.

Pat.