Build a stove? No problem.

Written by Bessie about Guatemala. Feelin' thoughtful
Bessie_thoughtful

My first volunteering experience in Guatemala pretty much rocked.  It was hot!  It sizzled!  Pretty much whatever cooking pun you can think of it was that.

Our spanish school, Pop Wuj, gives 5 hour/ 5 days a week spanish instruction, and they also have awesome programs like a free medical clinic, scholarships for needy Guatemalans to break the chain of poverty and go to school, a daycare so parents can work, and the students build stoves free for super needy indigenous people.

Overall the experience opened my eyes to a whole new level of poverty, that I knew existed, but hadn´t quite experienced up close.  Families share a small one room home made of clay.  People and maybe the whole family live on less than $1/day. Let that sink in if you´re not familiar with this statistic.  For some it means eating an egg for a day and resorting to things like eating "mud cookies" to subside hunger.  In October, the United Nations published that 980 million people live on less than $1/day = extreme poverty.  980 million people is more than 3 x US population (303 million) and about 1/7th of the world´s population (6.65 billion people), aka,  1 in 7 people in the world.

The community, Momostenango, Guatemala we´re building in. So far 50 of 112 stoves have been built here.  The stove recipients contribute the sugar, clay, and any other resources they might spare.  They also feed the volunteers (on the right below: black bean soup, tomalitos, and coffee.  Yummy.) 
On the way to Momostenango, Guatemala   Lunch in Momostenango

The house we worked in.



Some of the people helped:

  Cute, crazy kid  Cute Guatemalan girl


Building a Stove from Bricks and Clay:

Stage 1: 3 layers of cinder blocks & cement.  Topped off with dirt.
Before the work

Stage 2: 3 layers of normal house bricks.  Mortar of cement on the outside, clay & sugar on the inside to capture and perpetuate hear.  This is where the firewood will go.
The finished product

Stage 3: Add a chimney to the back to take smoke out through the roof, make a ramp to house the fire inside, and a metal top that transmits the heat. 
The inside of a wood stove    A Finished stove
(Left: ramp in the stove. Right: finished stove, wood forms come off.)

Benfits of this stove:
1. Health.  The family used to cook on a clay base about a foot off the ground (you can see it in the video), and sooo much smoke filled the house.  Since they sleep, relax, eat, everything in this house, people often had severe respiratory problems.

2. Less resources used.  The stove costs under $140 to build, and is a small investment because the stove uses 1/2 the wood and holds heat much longer.  I have a theory it could also warm the house better.  (Everything is paid for by our school.)

3. Safety.  The old stove was an open fire that people were easily burnt by and of couse the clean air benefits.


Contact us if you want to learn more or if you´re interested in making a donation to the school, Pop Wuj, fund their programs.

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