Advanced respiratory illness is a major cause of death among children in Central America, and has been linked to open fire cooking, which is pretty common in the region. The stoves we helped to build are very simple, and only cost around $140US, but they are a big step in combating the problem. There are three steps to making the stoves, and we were only able to complete the first, but I’m hoping to be able to go back and learn the other two. While we’ve done several active things through the school, this was the first time it had a clear purpose beyond pure pleasure and diversion. It felt really good to work hard all day and have something at the end that we knew was needed and would make a real and tangible difference in the lives of the family. To give you an idea of what a completed stove looks like, here’s a picture in a house we stopped at before we left. I’m sorry it’s so dark, but I hope you’ll be able to see well enough. We built ours up to where Dave is pointing.
When we first arrived, we stopped here, the only store in town, to get snacks, meet with the town coordinator, and use the last “modern” bathroom we’d see the rest of the day. This seemed to be the only street in town, the rest of which was only accessible by hiking through the forest.
Hiking down and up to our houses. It was such a perfect day for working outside.
Arriving at my house. The family here has a separate structure for cooking, the wooden building on the right, and they live in the white house on the left.
Close up of the kitchen.
Inside the kitchen, before. You can see the fire pit on the right. While they don’t live in this building, and while the slats are separated a little to give some ventilation, the smoke when she cooks in here must be awful.
My team. The two on either side of me are students from my school, Holly on the left from Seattle, and Johnny on the right from Ireland. On the far left is Mertz, a fourth-year med student from New York. Dave is on the right. He and his wife retired last year, and the day after they did, they flew down to Guatemala to look for volunteer opportunities. They found this and fell in love with it. They’ve done a lot of fundraising and are down again for two months to work on it some more.
We used a two-part-sand-one-part-concrete mixture to hold the bricks together. The sand we started with was pretty stony, so Holly and I did a lot of sifting.
While we were busy with that, the others dug the pit, and placed and leveled the four corner bricks. That was definitely the most tedious part, and once that was finished, we flew through the rest.
Holly mixing up a batch of concrete.
Laying the rest of the first level.
Our stove! We stopped at this point because the concrete needs several days to dry. There will probably be another group going sometime this week to finish it up.
We finished our stove first, so we hiked through the village to the other group’s house. It’s the dry season here, so the fields were all brown and harvested, but it gave us a great view of the village and their terracing system.
On our way, we stopped at a house whose stove was at the second stage. After the first step dries, three layers of brick are added on, leaving a space at the front for adding wood, and a space at the back for the stovepipe.
Here’s the other group working on their stove.
This little boy, Julio, was at the house with the completed stove. While Dave was explaining to us the other two steps and showing us the stove, he came up to me and started playing hide-and-seek/peek-a-boo around this pole. He was really interested in my camera, and insisted on having several pictures taken.
All in all, it was a great day. Everyone enjoyed it, and I think at least a few of us may go back again this weekend.
Inside the kitchen, before. You can see the fire pit on the right. While they don’t live in this building, and while the slats are separated a little to give some ventilation, the smoke when she cooks in here must be awful.My team. The two on either side of me are students from my school, Holly on the left from Seattle, and Johnny on the right from Ireland. On the far left is Mertz, a fourth-year med student from New York. Dave is on the right. He and his wife retired last year, and the day after they did, they flew down to Guatemala to look for volunteer opportunities. They found this and fell in love with it. They’ve done a lot of fundraising and are down again for two months to work on it some more.
We used a two-part-sand-one-part-concrete mixture to hold the bricks together. The sand we started with was pretty stony, so Holly and I did a lot of sifting.
While we were busy with that, the others dug the pit, and placed and leveled the four corner bricks. That was definitely the most tedious part, and once that was finished, we flew through the rest.
Holly mixing up a batch of concrete.
Laying the rest of the first level.
Our stove! We stopped at this point because the concrete needs several days to dry. There will probably be another group going sometime this week to finish it up.
We finished our stove first, so we hiked through the village to the other group’s house. It’s the dry season here, so the fields were all brown and harvested, but it gave us a great view of the village and their terracing system.
On our way, we stopped at a house whose stove was at the second stage. After the first step dries, three layers of brick are added on, leaving a space at the front for adding wood, and a space at the back for the stovepipe.
Here’s the other group working on their stove.
This little boy, Julio, was at the house with the completed stove. While Dave was explaining to us the other two steps and showing us the stove, he came up to me and started playing hide-and-seek/peek-a-boo around this pole. He was really interested in my camera, and insisted on having several pictures taken.All in all, it was a great day. Everyone enjoyed it, and I think at least a few of us may go back again this weekend.
1 comment:
Aww, Becca. That sounds like a really cool opportunity for you, you should definitely go back. Hope you had fun at CARNIVAL!! We're having fun here for Lent, let me tell you! No, we kind of are. Katelyn and Micah and I missed you last week after church. They came to my place and I made stuffed peppers with couscous, chick peas, tomatoes, curry, etc. We had vegetarian while you're having meat! The world really is upside down there. Ha. Ha.
Post a Comment