Noche Velas!

Fuel Efficient Stoves and Changing Habits

Way back when I arrived in my site and spent many hours of many days walking around the campo getting to know everyone and what type of work I might do here. It became clear quite quickly that my fellow community members were expecting a fuel-efficient stove project since a volunteer living in my site previously was unable to build stoves for the people where I lived. 100% of the people in my community cook over a ‘traditional fogon’ or an open fire with the pot resting on three rocks. Convincing community members of the benefits is not hard.  A stove with a chimney can reduce the negative health affects from daily smoke inhalation, as well as make cooking a more pleasant experience. The walls of the outdoor kitchens where women cook are covered with a thick layer of black soot, evidence left from years of an unbearably smoky cooking environment. A more efficient stove will also lower the amount of time needed to collect wood, and cutting down fewer trees for firewood is an obvious environmental benefit.  Finally, women place a very high value on clean, new, pretty objects in the home and many stove models are rather attractive in the kitchen setting. Needless to say, stoves are very popular and seem to be a wonderful project to undertake as a volunteer.

So life continues, and after organizing people in my community and gauging interest I submitted the grant and waited for about a year to get the funds from USAID. Now I have the money and am still sitting like a duck because I haven’t yet decided which stove model to build. There have been hundreds of volunteers who have built stoves before me with varying success in this country; but we seem to be at a crossroads of stove model evolution. From what I understand, the most common and proven model up to this point is made out of very large ceramic pieces that connect together with tubes on the inside leading out to a chimney.

As you can see these pieces are rather large and uncomfortable for packing tightly. I imagine the 14- hour trip from my site, up to the one place in the country where they are made and back, to be a test of the driver’s patience, the truck’s agility, the current condition of all the back roads: rather risky variables. As catholic roots dictate here, this voyage shall be made only if god is willing…

After experiencing problems with transport, and the relatively high cost of the parts, past volunteers experimented with a different stove design, called ‘the Rocket’. They successfully built a working stove made from materials available anywhere in the country thus decreasing materials and transportation costs dramatically. While the science of the ‘rocket’ design has been used in stove models around the world some specific materials were chosen more for their availability rather than their proven durability. Mainly, the inside of stove has burn chambers, and burners  made of cement. Cement is not particularly heat tolerant and since small-scale, long-term testing was not completed, many of the stoves built by excited, penny pinching Peace Corps volunteers are now quite literally falling apart.

Despite the fact the Dominican Republic rocket stove failed on some fronts, the volunteers designing it drew attention to the need for a stove model that is more cost-efficient and transportable to all sites in the country. This fueled the interest of a group of volunteers in the Appropriate Technology sector to dedicate their time and expertise to develop a stove that was cheap, easy to transport, and burned efficiently. The stove, currently labeled ‘AT-Duncan model’, after its creators, is currently undergoing a testing process. There are about 10 volunteers with two stoves in their sites monitoring the proper use of stove, and watching to see how it holds up. In August we spent some time at a workshop learning how to build the stove, and then in September and October travelled around to each other’s sites to make sure we build the test-stoves properly.

These photos show some friendly volunteers and some young adults in my community helping out with making the molds for the walls of the stove. The clay covered pieces are the inside chambers of the stove covered with a mortar mix we use to stick all of the pieces together.

This is my trusty neighbor, Jose, who is learning how to build the stoves so he can be the head mason in the project and earn some money building in the future. He is definitely a jack-of-all trades and I look forward to continue working with him. We are hoping to form a team with some high school-aged to help spread the work load and stove know-how throughout generations and parts of the community.

I hope to be able to do a full-scale stove project in my site, as I feel very strongly about the benefits of the project – but it is still a question of time as we wait to see how these new ‘Duncan-AT’ stoves turn out.  The test stove we built in my site is at my neighbor’s house. She has been using it every day without too much trouble, but we are still working on changing some old habits that are hard to kick. For example, the stove is designed to work with small pieces of wood so air can flow through the inner chambers and carry heat to both burners. Women here use big pieces of wood that make a visibly larger fire but block the airflow. Other small habits that several volunteers have found difficult to change include: learning how to cook both rice and beans at the same time utilizing both burners; using dry and properly cut firewood;  using firewood instead of charcoal…etc, etc.  Once we decide on which structural model is appropriate for the stove project the next challenge will be teaching the proper use and care of the stove as we encourage women to change their art of cooking that has been the same for generations.

Two Sides of the Same Mountains - Pico Duarte

  Pico Duarte is the highest point in the Caribbean and feels like an oasis of quiet and cold. Set 3000meters above sea level it escapes the claustrophobic dome of heat and humidity that traps the majority of Dominican cities in a cloud of deafening noise and general discomfort. Recently I spent four days with a guide and some other volunteers hiking up into the best vacation I’ve taken in this Caribbean paradise. The hike starts in a small campo outside of Jarabacoa called, La Cienega. After a night spent in the park office you spend the first full day climbing through a changing forest starting along a stream  lined with bamboo with sketchy bridges patched with old bathrooms signs. After passing through mixed palms with a lush humid tropical feeling, the pines start to appear and the breezes smell sweet of honey and pine.

Just before reaching the first camp we passed the head of the Yaque del Sur, one of the larger rivers that flows through to the south of the country. It was here that I started to realize where I was geographically and started to feel and see the connection between the park we were in and the highway that has a giant bridge crossing this same trickle of water along the southern coast of the country.

The reward for climbing 18km is a well-developed camp fully equipped with flushing toilets and running potable water. The sleeping bunk is a wooden long house and the kitchen could easily hold fifty cooking fires – certainly ready to accommodate the hundreds of Dominican visitors that come up around Christmas time.  Before an early bed time, we relished in the simple pleasures of cold fresh air, warm drinks, and good company.   

The bright city lights of La Vega and Santiago shined in the early morning darkness as we climbed through the 4am fog of day two. Recognizing I was making space with each step between me and all the stress associated with the heat and commotion down below powered the trudge to the top. We made it just before the sun rose over the crest of the mountains. Hiding out until sun rise our guide Manolo sat protected from the wind behind the statue of Senor Duarte and the Dominican flag.  Arriving was cold and windy, but true to the Caribbean, the sun rose and burned off the clouds unveiling a 360 degree view of the sun-kissed tops of the Cordillera Central.

Walking back down the mountain on a seemingly new path in the daylight reveals the skeleton of an old-growth pine forest and the beginnings of the next generation. The result of a forest six years back is breathtaking views for miles and miles as all the trees growing lush aren’t much higher than six or seven feet. We reached the ridge leading to the valley with our camp and could see our destination about five hours before our arrival. The valley was the ultimate prize after a long downhill hike, complete with clear running rivers, sunning rocks and little waterfalls.

The natural cycle of forest fires and re-growth reminded me we were in a park where accidental human caused forest fires are frowned upon. The Dominicans running the park and in charge of tours understand this sentiment and the value of protected areas, but folks living just on the other side of the range still practice slash and burn agriculture. The village I live in sits in the Southern foothills of the exact same mountain range. Farmers climb up into the mountains in search of more rain for their bean crops. I’ve had several conversations with farmers and kids alike as we hike in the hills behind my house and look at the beautiful scenery scarred by acres and acres of burning in preparation for planting. While they recognize the beauty and see the contrast with the burned areas, many feel that they should have a right to plant and use the land in the park which borders the farthest reaching farmland. It is hard to understand why anyone would want to burn such a lush and pure treasure, but when it comes to producing food to feed families I often feel like I don’t have a right to argue. The benefits of national parks and conservation sites are obviously huge and important for a country so rich in natural beauty, but sometimes I wish the economic benefits were more direct, and easier to understand and explain.

Yay! Latrines are happening!

After months of fundraising, organizing, and preparations, we’ve actually started building latrines. It’s exciting and almost hard to believe its happening; this project was once just a thought in my head and I was so easily lost in all the steps to get to this point that I think I lost touch with the reality that one day physical construction would begin. Before I continue, I want to thank all of the generous donors, old friends, and family members, who donated to the grant needed to make this happen, and also to the Post Crescent for publishing an article to help raise awareness about the project.

As planned, we started with a little workshop to talk about the importance of hand-washing and proper hygiene techniques. Each of the families receiving a latrine attended and made a simple hand-washer that will be attached to their latrine once they are complete.

After the workshop, we ran into a bit of a challenge collecting sand. The community was responsible for the collection of the sand needed to mix with the cement for the floors of the latrines. However after discussing exactly how much sand was needed, we decided that 10 trips to the river for each person with their donkey or mule was just a few too many and that a truck was necessary. As trucks are hard to come by, we relied on the local political leader for the use of the municipality truck to lug sand from the river. We jumped through several political hoops to make this happen: passing a week working to obtain an environmental permit to take material from the river that we ended up not using because it expired before the trucks tires were fixed, then waiting another week for new tires to be put on, a few more days since the driver only wanted to work on the weekend so he could be paid extra for working on his day off…etc, etc.

Luckily, despite being down a few extra pesos and a bit behind our roughly planned schedule we had most of our sand and everyone came with their animals and wheel barrows to bring it back to their homes.  While it certainly would have been easier to have just bought the sand from the hardware store, sand was part of the community contribution – and important part of the process that intends to allow local ownership to a project funded primarily by Americans. 

Next we had the grand delivery of almost all the materials from the hardware store. Everyone showed up to unload the truck and take a look at all the goods. We are storing everything at a community member’s house – a gracious sacrifice as his living space has since been taken over by all of our tools and materials.

We spend the next week measuring out the holes that each family has to dig out for their pit. But first you have to make a cement/rock lining at the top of the latrine to ensure stability. Also, we inserted the PVC tube that acts as a vent and insect killer for the bathroom. After filling in this ring at the top everyone began the arduous task of digging down 10 feet with a diameter of just over 3 ft.

Checking out the Progress...

Diggin' Deep

Meet Mariano: The local jack of all and every trade:

While none of the housed were mounted in the first week – Mariano (local carpenter/mason/health promoter/great friend who is working for very cheap to build the latrines) finished one caseta to have a model to work from (pictured above).

Post Crescent Newspaper Article Link - Project Donation Information

http://www.postcrescent.com/article/20110201/APC04/110131124/Peace-Corps-volunteer-from-Appleton-looks-for-an-assist-from-hometown

Dancing Baby

Learning to dance and walk at the same age...no wonder so many booties around here shake it in a way I just cant get down.

Carrot Harvest!! Jan 15, 2011

Finally picked some of the first veggies from the backyard garden! Tasty treats as well as great motivation for the local kiddos to get going on their own garden space. Thanks to the above helper for building my chicken proof fencing!