AUTHOR: Nancy TITLE: News from the front lines DATE: 9/10/2008 01:26:00 PM ----- BODY:
Good Morning!

I’m on the plane from Orange County to Portland and finally home to Eugene. I have been away since early July and am very anxious to return home at last. However, realized that I had left you in the midst of Central America, but so much has happened since then that I haven’t had time to write. So, here you go. More adventures. And if you’re as tired as I am you can skip this and know that I’m going home at last!

Since I'm currently on a plane, I can’t check to see where I left off on my StoveTeam blog, but our trip through Central America was fascinating, filled with Rotarians and people clamoring for Ecocina stoves.

After we left Leon, Nicaragua, we returned to Choluteca to meet with Rotarians interested in having a local technical school begin producing stoves. From there we drove 12 hours to Tegucigalpa where we navigated the narrow, steep and unmarked streets in the pouring rain. We had hoped for a visit to the beach, but due to the rain pressed on to Copan Ruinas.

We decided to take a day off from “stoving” and drove to the Mayan ruins. They are famous for the beautiful carved staircase, remains magnificently carved columns, and a fascinating museum. Our guide explained Mayan “football” and history. Gustavo relaxed while Ethan and I clambered about, and Ken took the day off to read.

After our tour, Ethan mentioned he wanted a Honduran flag, so we went to a local tourist shop. He was wearing a StoveTeam shirt, and the owner asked what StoveTeam did. We were tired, but as we had a stove in the car, we showed it to him. He was extremely enthusiastic and said that they definitely needed the stove and we should arrange for a small factory in that area. We indicated that although it would be a great idea, all we wanted was to sit and relax and have a liquado or smoothie. He indicated a shop not far away and we left to relax.

Within moments of ordering my watermelon liquado a nicely dressed woman came up to us saying, “Hello! I’m a Rotarian here and I’ve learned about your stove. We need it, and please let me know if you would collaborate with us on a grant!” Whew…and we thought we’d have a day off!

Upon leaving Copan Ruinas we returned to El Salvador and quickly drove to Guatemala where we were to meet Juan Carlos, the former Executive Director of Helps, and Marco Tulio, also formerly of Helps. The car was making funny noises and Ethan thought we should check it out, but we pressed onward. We arrived in Guatemala City, had a lovely lunch with Juan Carlos and discussed future plans for grants and establishing a factory with Marco Tulio. We gave Juan Carlos a prototype stove and from there went on to Antigua. It’s a lovely town of cobble-stoned streets and colonial buildings, the former capital of Guatemala.

We had been trying to contact my ELAW friends Jeanette and Estuardo Noak by e-mail to no avail, so on the way Gustavo called the factory where his wife indicated that Estuardo had been there for a visit. We got the number and Gustavo gave him a call. He mentioned that we were hoping to meet him in Antigua the following day at 3pm in the hotel, and he responded that he would be there.

The following day we told the hotel owner we would be at the table in the back, and were waiting for our friend Estuardo. Marco Tulio had arrived and we were anxious to talk to both of them about starting a factory. Sure enough, in a few moments a man arrived looking for us…NOT my friend Estuardo, but another Estuardo, a Rotarian who had seen our project featured on Channel 12 from El Salvador and who wanted to write a grant for our stoves! We all got a good laugh about the mix-up and now we had one more Rotarian interested in the project!

Anyway, in the next few days we went to the site Marco Tulio had rented for a stove factory, discussed how we wanted to bring a team to help him expand it in November, talked to Juan Carlos about the intricacies of finalizing another Rotary grant, and showed Ethan around Antigua.

Gustavo left us after two days as he had a meeting in El Salvador, Ethan stayed a bit longer to have a rest before returning to Nahulingo for his remaining month and a half of internship, and the rest of us relaxed before our return flight to Portland.

Of course, all did not go well with Gustavo. The car broke down on the way back to El Salvador, he missed his meeting, and we worried about him all the way back to Portland. The good news is that within a week the car was repaired, Gustavo back at work, and Ethan was back playing soccer with the Stove Team!

After returning to the United States, I flew to Southern California. I’ve given twelve talks to Rotary clubs in my brother Ray's Rotary District (5320) in the past five business days.

In case you think that’s enough…in the middle of all of the speaking engagements I received a call from Gustavo in San Salvador. He had gone to a conference on wood burning stoves in Mexico, D.F. He called with some exciting but scary news…the government of Mexico is interested in producing 600,000 stoves per year for the next ten years. They want 2,000 Ecocina stoves per month for the next four months!

So now we’re trying to figure out how to respond. All of us are scrambling. It’s exciting, scary and intellectually challenging. And in the meantime we’re busy planning how to take our 20 volunteers to El Salvador and Guatemala on November 8th.

So, I’m keeping the fire burning and hoping all will go well in the next few months. The plane is about to land, and I’ll be happy to be home at last!

Nancy

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