Volunteer Work Part 2 (Success)

I continued installing these stoves for a few weeks and was fairly happy while doing so. Seeing how appreciative the recipients were when receiving theirs stoves really made me feel good about the work I was doing. Many of the people I was working for would invite me for lunch, sharing the little food that they had. One family even made me a bracelet as a remembrance. Even more impressive was how kind the people were to me while riding to the village by taxi.

A family with their new stove

Every time I went up to the village I took a bus from my house about 5 minutes, followed by a taxi ride with the villagers up to the village. I found this to be the most economic way to the village as the bus was about 20 cents US and the shared taxi 30 cents US. As a way to reduce transportation cost to and from a village it was common for the villagers to pack taxis as full as possible so they would only need to pay 1 Peruvian New Sol (30 cents US) to get to and from the village. It was not uncommon for me to ride to the village in the taxi shown below packed with 14 adults! I even went in the taxi with 20 school children one time. It was incredible how they packed people into the cab. It really looked like a clown car with people continually piling out. The people I was riding with, however, I found to be incredibly kind. Whenever I went to or from the village with them I was truly treated like a king. I was always given the passenger seat as thanks for the work I was doing while others piled 5 in the back seat, 7 in the trunk area, and even 2 in the driver’s seat! I felt bad riding so comfortably while everyone else squeezed in, but they insisted that I was comfortable.

The taxi often packed with 14 people

Now I was installing stoves, but did not feel I was leaving quite the impact I wanted. After finishing the installation my 30 or so stoves the recipients would use them for some time, but as they were made from ceramic, they would eventually degrade and the people would once again go back to their original ways of cooking in smoke filled homes. I did not feel this was a sustainable solution to the indoor smoke pollution problem here. Because I had done so much research early in my time here and with my new knowledge that I could obtain clay in the region of the village, I decided to construct my own stove prototype. It would be one that would be cheaper than the $17 USD stove that I was installing now and one that would be more sustainable in that the villagers themselves could construct and maintain the stoves.

After some preliminary sketch work and many calculations from my research, I designed a new stove using only clay, sand, mud, straw, a piece of re-rod, and one aluminum roofing sheet, all materials available locally to villagers. What is even better is the new design costs only about $7 USD, less than half the cost of the original stove design I was installing. In addition the new stove consumes about half the wood villagers previously used and still eliminates smoke from villagers’ houses.

Preparing mud mortar for the stove

Stove Platform

In construction

In construction

Finished Stove

Now, I finally feel satisfied leaving a sustainable project in the village in which I was working. In addition, I also created a detailed step by step process to construct the stove which I passed on to 3 different volunteer organizations who will be continuing my work in the Cusco and Sacred Valley area. I’m happy to say that one of the organizations has already implemented my design in 2 more rural communities. I estimate these to be the benefits, based on some tests I performed and based on tests of similar style stoves:

Over 90% reduction of smoke and carbon monoxide in the home

• 10-15 years of added life for every person in the household
• 12% increase in lung capacity after three months
• Reduction of burn incidence of small children
• Reduction in eye maladies
• Reduction of respiratory illnesses

20-60% reduction of firewood consumption

• Conservation of the environment as less firewood and therefore less trees are consumed
• Reduction in time spent collecting firewood (currently 3-4 mornings per week) and a subsequent increase in time spent in other ways raising family income

After a bit of a slow start, I finally feel good about leaving my work in Cusco behind.

Until next time, keep livin’ the dream!