cooking fires

While I was ECHO I learned about the need for fuel-efficient stoves. When people cook over a fire it's bad for their health (breathing all the smoke) and bad for the environment (cutting down lots of trees). If a person uses a better designed stove, however, they can use less wood and produce less smoke.

I've noticed that this is a problem in Los Higos. Most people in LH do own gas stoves, but don't use them, because gas is expensive. Also, fires work better when cooking large amounts of food. Lots of women, especially those who make casabe, complain that their eyesight has been destroyed by years of getting smoke in them. A lot of women also complain of lung problems, although I don't know if that is at a higher level than among people who don't cook over fires.

So, I've been thinking about how we might be able to help women redesign their fire pits, so that their fire might burn cleaner, producing less smoke, or with a chimney, to divert the smoke. I'm still thinking about what the best way might be to go about this. I want this to be something that is owned by the women, not something I push onto them.

Any ideas?

(The photo above is of Mina and Iris in their kitchen. Mina invented this little buren, for cooking casabe, when her old one broke. This buren is made from the bottom of an old 55-gallon drum.)