Project Squatter Camp

Our church is holding our annual Missions Conference this week. In conjunction with the conference, our Brazil Mission Team participated in a Squatter Camp project from Friday evening through Sunday morning. Below were the instructions we were provided.

Two-thirds of the world lives in the third world on one dollar per day, without running water or electricity. As an activity, build and live in some squatter shacks, which are home to about 2.5 million people living around Johannesburg . When Africans come here for work from the rural areas or from foreign countries, the first and only place they can afford is a squatter shack. Preferably, your squatter shacks will be no more than 5 feet from each other – all huddled together.

You will need a hammer, nails, twine and wire. You cannot use any straight or standard size lumber (like 2x4x8s). You should use mostly poles or even small trees as your main supports. For the sides and roof, you will need either old plywood, old siding or the African favourite – corrugated tin. The floor should be dirt or grass. There can be no proper bedding, foam or air mattresses, etc. – just wadded up and layered clothing and old blankets, no pillows.

Use no electric or batteries. You may build a fire out front of the doorway where you will heat water that you need, and cook any food. You may get the water from the tap at the church building, or the residence on the property on which you are staying, but you should try to be at least 100 yards from a water source. If it starts raining, you can use only black trash bags on top of the house or your body to keep dry.

You may eat one piece of fruit for breakfast, but no lunch. You go about a normal day or work or school. The main food at dinner must be “mealie pap” – boil water for 3 minutes, mix in grits double or triple thick until it becomes almost solid, like white bread kids like to wad up in their hands. You can also heat up a can of tomato sauce or tomato-onion mix. You then dip the mealie pap, which you’ve wadded up in your right hand (no utensils, no no) into the tomato sauce and eat. You may have either water, Coca Cola, or Fanta orange to drink (Africans love Coke, no Pepsi). If you have a little extra money, you can boil cabbage and carrots and have them with the pap (pronounced “pop”).

For the 2-3 days you do this, you won’t shower (Africans don’t like that “hot rain”) or take baths (you might drown). You may sponge bathe, washing your face or upper body outside the shack.

For most of us, it was our first experience eating grits. For those that have had them, they’ve never had them like this! They were ok.

This was a good challenge for our team and a good opportunity for us to pray together and bond closer. 

Our missions conference theme is on the topic of compassion. We are learning a lot and it is helping our focus on our mission trip for next summer. We are receiving quality teaching that is invaluable to us as we seek to minister to Brazil…and our neighbours next door!

Brian getting ready to cook our dinner on Friday night.  What you may not know is that we found a bug in them when we opened it up. 

Cooking over an open fire on Friday night.

The camp...apparently Africans don't set theirs up in nice neat rows.

Ethan's "shack".  We called this one the Super 8.

We used pallets, tin and tarps for this one.  We referred to it as the Marriott.

An inside look at the Marriott.

We referred to this one as the Hilton, although it was a downgrade from the Marriott as it proved a bit leaky when the rain came.

Camp on Saturday morning.

Setting up another one designed by Ashley. 

We called this one 'Motel 6'.

We found some more "scrap" on Saturday and renovated the Marriott!

Dinner on Saturday night.  More grits.  Though the pasta sauce helped w/ the taste and edibility.