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Old Houses



We lived in cow dung floored houses during my primary school days. 

One of my tasks was to fetch cow dung in pails to enable my granny to spread it on the floor.

Although now I wonder how we could have lived in a cow dung floored house it wasn't uncomfortable then. Once the floor is dried you do not experience the smell of dung. It was only in 1952 when we went to live in a cement floored house. The rent was $5.00 per month - when not paid, the landlord would lock up the only standpipe which was the sole source of water. But we were spared, as the kind wife of the landlord would unlock the pipe for my mother to take as much water as we wanted when the husband went to work. The husband used to wonder how we survived without water and he concluded that the neighbours were helping out with our needs.

This landlord had about 2 acres of land behind his house. On half an acre he had erected 4 wooden terraced houses that were given out for rent. The rest were planted with coconut trees, mangosteen, guava and mango trees. We made sure the landlord had no access to the fruits by plucking them when the fruits were unripe. They knew we were the culprits but we were never caught on the trees for us to be arrested. One day he saw some movement on the mango trees and summoned the Police to come and arrest the poachers. When the Police arrived they were surprised to see that the poachers were from the neighbouring kampong and not us, the usual suspects.


The image is purely illustrative of what cow dung flooring looks like, as I don't have any photos.

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