AUTHOR: Nancy TITLE: Heading Home DATE: 11/18/2008 07:18:00 AM ----- BODY:
I’m writing on the plane on the way home, but will try to reconstruct the past ten days for you as best I can.

Our team of eighteen left San Salvador after visiting the Archaeological Museum and stopping for lunch at a former coffee finca now raising talapia, growing hydroponic vegetables, and experimenting with cacao production. We arrived in Nahulingo where Gustavo explained why and how the Ecocina was made. Neri and the boys took the team through the construction process of the Ecocina. Then, as a few of us met with the office staff, the rest of the team learned to make fire. Fire is started with paper and matches, but not with ocote or pine as pitch causes smoke. Of course, the villagers know their wood better than we do, and I later learned how to tell green or pitch wood from good dry wood.

After “fire practice” we returned to the hotel to host the Santa Ana Rotarians. They are sponsoring our next grant and are a great group. It was quite a celebration, as not only were the Rotarians there, but we celebrated Bob and Susie’s birthdays with a surprise piñata.

The following morning Gustavito and Marvin took a few hardy souls to the beach, and the rest of us slept until it was time to meet Martin.

Martin was the very first Peace Corps Volunteer to distribute Ecocina stoves and, due to his work and Gustavo’s continued marketing, we have made and distributed over 4,200 stoves since December of 2007.

I spent the time in the factory with Gustavo, Gerry, Marga, Elvira and Luisa, as Martin had arranged the entire visit to his village. Stoves were distributed, school supplies were donated, and there was great interaction with many of the previous stove recipients.

Although Ecocina orders keep pouring in, we are always anxious to hear comments to know if there are design improvements or flaws in the current model. Marti had designed a question and answer session that we will continue to use. Four women were brought from another village so the volunteers could query them about the Ecocina. We had no set questions, but the volunteers covered everything…

How much wood are you saving?

Do you like the size of the comal?

Have you noticed any changes in your family’s health, etc.

Not only did we get good positive feedback, but the timid new stove recipients received good information without having to ask questions.

When the team returned, they returned to some village excitement. It was “Pupusa Day” in Nahulingo and Elvira and Luisa had prepared the masa, cheese, beans and cabbage to make absolutely delicious pupusas. Of course, they cooked them on the Ecocina. Gustavo had made a banner near the exhibit and people crowded around to see how the stove worked without smoke. We were invited up on stage and I gave my first speech in Spanish before a huge audience. It must have been adequate as the following day a couple from a nearby village came to pick up a full-priced stove.

That morning the team returned and built fourteen new prototype models of the cement Ecocina.

We are now changing from a metal exterior to cement. It has taken us six months to design the molds, but we are confident that we now have good ones to bringing to Aprovecho for testing. The weight of the pumice used for insulation has also been an issue, so half of the prototype stoves were filled with fiberglass and half with rock wool. Having the team complete the stoves gives us samples for distribution. Each stove is carefully marked and identified and now the only issue is price and availability of material.

That afternoon we boarded the Pullmantur bus for the four-hour trip to Guatemala to help construct a second factory. Oscar, our driver, met us with the spacious Coaster van and we were off to Pension la Merced in Antigua.

The following morning the team was up early to breakfast at Fernando’s next door, and there they met Marco Tulio Guerra and his son, Maco. Maco, age 9, was on vacation and wanted to work with his father, so he accompanied us to San Antonio Aguas Calientes where we began to really work.

The team was divided into a construction crew and a grounds crew and started from the ground up… literally! By the end of the day a “gallery” had begun to take shape… metal pieces were welded, wooden work tables were nailed together, areas of brush were cleared, rocks were moved to make a rock wall, and the volunteers were exhausted. One of the women said, “When you said we would build a factory, I didn’t really realized we would BUILD a factory!” However, when you start with a few acres on the edge of a former coffee plantation, that’s the way you start.

Throughout the next few days the factory began to take shape, the grounds looked organized and cleared, and although the final truss was not up by the time we departed, all of the steel was welded and all of the tables were built.

Every evening we ate typical Guatemalan food in the village, and although in the future we would design the experience so people had a chance to shower and clean up before supper, everyone seemed to enjoy eating typical food.

On Saturday, the construction crew was so engaged in the process they gave up their “free” Saturday morning to help finish the welding and put up the first truss. Many on the team shopped and toured Antigua, and others visited a local organic coffee cooperative to see the entire coffee process from the point of view of a small coffee farmer.

We ended the trip with a lovely dinner at Casserole with Marco Tulio and Ana Luisa. We have complete confidence that Marco Tulio will not only be able to produce Ecocina, but spread it throughout Guatemala. His goal is to have a main factory and various small factories employing local people in each of the 22 districts of Guatemala.

So, as a result of this week’s work, a second factory has begun in Guatemala in the village of San Antonio Aguas Caliente. Marco Tulio’s business is called EcoComal and he will produce three types of stoves, a plancha stove, the EcoComal, and now the Ecocina.

Our mission is, and always has been, to help local factory owners start businesses to produce fuel-efficient, environmentally friendly stoves for those who cook with wood over open fires. I feel we are well on our way!

Nancy

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