there were no roads , instead just winding paths through clusters of ramshackled homes , bunched together in no discernible pattern , as if this ground once held the element palate of some giant architect that had been commissioned to paint more fortunate neighborhoods beyond the horizon , taking bits and pieces , here and there , scraping off the blobs that didnt quite work on the edge of this settlement , then had splattered the remnant material here as it cleaned off the brushes .