Actually, if done right, adobe walls can be quite strong. My grandmother owns a house in downtown Cali, Colombia that has a brick facade with the rest of the building made out of adobe.
It was built in 1949, with 15-foot high ceilings and walls that are like about a foot thick.
The house has survived quite a few tremors in its lifetime; unscathed.
The way I've seen these walls patched is you just mud over the holes with some sort of weird mixture that sometimes includes cow-dung (because of the high fibrous content as a binder). Once it's properly done, it will not stink, though.
Adobe has fallen out of use down there though. New housing is built either using brick, block or poured concrete.
