The Sinking House

For Tom Dunckel, a JAARS-trained construction worker in Papua New Guinea, repairing and updating translators’ village homes wasn’t unusual. What was, however, was the radio message he received one day from a concerned translator.

Her house, she said, was sinking.

Tom radioed back to the woman, sure he had misheard. He asked her to explain.

She replied, “Well, when I go to use the toilet, my feet don’t touch the floor anymore!”

After a lengthy discussion, Tom determined that the wooden posts holding up the house were being eaten by termites. Indeed, the house was sinking.

The translator’s village home had been built just a few years earlier in the foothills of a mountain range, where she lived with the Girawa people. It was built on wooden posts, which kept her dwelling away from the often-muddy ground and the possibility of flooding.

Typically, kwila wood is used for these support posts because of its density and resistance to termites. The wood provided for this home’s posts was similar-looking—yet came from a different tree.

And since the building supervisor was new to Papua New Guinea, the difference in wood went unnoticed during construction.

The posts looked sturdy initially, yet little by little, termites began to eat away at the wood. Since the toilet was connected to metal plumbing, however, it had stayed at the original height of the house. Inch by inch, the sinking became obvious—and the translator eventually radioed in for help.

Within days, Tom arrived at the translator’s home with new steel posts and all the necessary tools. He stayed nearby, housed by a missionary group on the other side of a small river. Yet nearly 12 inches of rain fell just as Tom arrived, making the river so swollen that he had to wait several days before crossing and beginning work.

When the river finally calmed down, Tom enlisted the help of a water buffalo to carry bags of cement, sand and other supplies across the river. After several days of work, the new posts were installed underneath the woman’s house.

And once again, her feet touched the floor.