Thanks to Ralph, I’m back in the saddle again

I have been offline, unable to make any blog posts, since we’ve been in Mexico.  Ralph Beckett, our tireless, volunteer webmaster has gotten me back in the saddle.  I am now able, once again, to make cyber entries.  Thank you, Ralph, for your heroic efforts on this front!!!!

Last Wednesday, when the community of Aldama was having an internal meeting to resolve the issue with the “masons”, we (THP and WFH) went to Bayalemo to see how the La Mazateca Generation 1 stoves were doing and to get some feedback from the users.  We found that the end users are ecstatic about the stoves!!!

We were last in the community four years ago, when the two pilot stoves were constructed.  Since then, at least 27 additional families in the community decided to have stoves installed, they raised funds for the materials to build the stoves and the promoters constructed La Mazateca stoves.

The community greeted us warmly and had prepared a special lunch for us.  After the delicious meal was served, there was a general discussion about the stove.  That is when we found out how much they liked the stoves and that they are using ¼ of the wood that they used to use for cooking.  They showed us how much wood they collect and store for 1 year of cooking and said that they only use ¼ of it in a year using our stoves.

They then showed us how the wear and tear of everyday use has worn parts of the stove down.  The main parts showing wear are the combustion chamber, the pot holes and parts of the sealing rings.  They continue to use the same large pieces of wood that they have been using for centuries for their cooking fires.  They force the big pieces into the tiny combustion chamber (with the ends hanging out), which eventually damage the combustion chamber.  It is still usable and still very effective, but is not designed for large pieces of wood.  Nevertheless, there are things we can do to help the situation.

We now use tough refractory cement for the GEN 2.1 combustion chamber which is more resilient than the GEN 1 version.  We will show them how to coat the current combustion chamber, the pot holes and sealing rings with the more durable refractory.  We will also design a wood stand outside the stove on which the large pieces of wood can sit as they push them into the combustion chamber when the tip of the wood burns away.  That way, the wood will not be sitting at strange, random angles, damaging the combustion chamber.

We met with many of the community members and visited four homes to examine their stoves, three of which were being used while we were there.  Overall they were all happy and excited about their stoves, were glad to see us and were glad to know that we want to help them get many more years of service out of their current La Mazateca stoves.  We were elated to see, first hand, how these ecological stoves are curtailing deforestation and having a positive effect on community life by significantly reducing the time that women and children collect firewood.