Onyaanya
Seventy-four-year old Markus Samaleka has turned his home into a recreation centre to attract tourists and local visitors to supplement his monthly pension grant from government of N$1 000.
He does not have a set fee for tourists who visit his palm stick house except whatever his visitors have to offer.
Constructed out of recycled materials such as used-painted plastic bags and painted palm sticks, the place has become a stopover for foreign tourists and Namibians travelling through the area.
The blue and purple dominated house is situated along the Oshivelo-Ondangwa road at Onyaanya. To supplement the look, the house is beautifully decorated with recycled material furniture made by Samaleka, who also utilised trimmed palm and thorn tree branches.
The chairs, tables and cupboards are either made out of recycled metals or boards that are well cut to fit with the rest of the decoration in the house.
“I collect material from Ondangwa or get materials from good Samaritans and then I weld them into anything that suits my house,” said Samaleka.
He narrated that he learned the welding skills from a friend who worked at a welding factory a few years ago in Walvis Bay before relocating to the north.
Samaleka is always on the lookout for visitors and gets to the door immediately after hearing a car stop.
“I always come out to receive my visitors because this is a people’s home, and in return I always get a little something to keep me going,” related Samaleka.
In addition, Samaleka also has a fenced off garden where he grows mahangu and other traditional food to sustain himself.
The energetic septuagenarian further makes a living from discarded old metal objects such as basins, pots, jars and many others for people from his surroundings and also from afar.
“I spend my days fixing basins, jars and pots to earn a little something. Sometimes I recreate these things for them, and I am satisfied with whatever they give me,” related Sameleka.