In the classic tale of "The Three Little Pigs", they built their houses of straw, sticks, and bricks. But the Big Bad Wolf easily destroyed the first two styles of houses. The rural dwelling styles in Ethiopia reminded me of these building materials.

The oldest homes are circular around a vertical central pole, with a thatch roof. Sides may be of straw, sticks, and dried mud.

Old stick walls can tilt with age.

The majority of homes being built recently are of eucalyptus poles, from fast-growing vertically straight trees. It was common to see donkey-pulled carts dragging such sticks.

During construction, the walls are braced.

Slanted metal roofs are always used to protect the buildings from the rain.

Stick homes and shelters with metal roofs, near Lalibela.
The walls are usually sealed with mud. Sometimes they are painted.

The mud is reinforced with straw, acting like rebar.

These photos show animals walking in a circle, crushing new straw left over from grain harvesting. We also saw donkey carts loaded with new straw.

Even store-front buildings may use the stick construction style.

However, the Ethiopians have a design flaw in these stick homes and buildings. The vertical sticks of the walls are somewhat braced by only horizontal sticks of the same kind. No buildings use any diagonal sticks to keep the walls upright. Older building walls can be seen tilted as a result.

There are many homes of circular design near the stone churches of Lalibela. Their walls are made of stone quarried from the excavation of the church buildings. These have survived for many centuries.

In major villages and urban areas a frame of pillars of reinforced concrete are erected, as in the foreground of the next photo. They can hold concrete floors and roofs. Concrete blocks or ceramic tiles fill in the walls between the pillars. Note in the rear building the same eucalyptus sticks are used for the scaffolding.

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