Conte's Passing

From Matt On Behalf of Sarah -

Sarah is safe and relaxing in Freetown, Sierra Leone, with several other PCV's on their Holiday Break. She wishes everyone back home a Happy Holiday season and wants you to know she is doing ok.

my garden!...one of the things that makes me happy here:)

some of the people who help me in my village get stuff done

yay! finally done- this is a picture of my audience around the new "forno ameliore"

making an air hole using a stick...

smoothing out the platform where the wood will rest...

and the walls go up up up...

then, when the walls are a little built up, you put the pot on the rocks like usual, to build the walls up around the pot to really insulate the fire/heat well...

after the rocks themselves are insulated, we begin to add mud "bricks" (balls of mud) to form the walls...

that yellow can there is to hold up the hole which will be where the wood is inserted...

First i put down the three stones and began to insulate them with my "mud" mixture: cow poop, powdered termite nest, straw and water...

mud stove demonstration

i recently gave a demonstration to the presidents of four women's groups in my area on how to build a fuel efficient mud stove. here are some pix from it...

this one is the traditional way women cook here. see the three stones? they balance the pot on there and put the fire underneath. a lot of heat and smoke escapes.