Stoves

Part of what endeared me to this program in the first place was the promise that we could participate in hands-on projects within the community. And true to their word, ProPeru has kept us busy every weekend with activities, trips, and construction projects. The most common construction project so far is the process of converting open fires to stoves with chimneys within each community. As of now, most of the indigenous people and surrounding communities cook their food inside their houses on open fires, which is a pretty big health problem. So every friday that we haven't got something else planned, we head to a different community in the Andes and build these stoves for them. 

Each stove is made out of six ceramic bricks, nine tuvos (chimney pieces), three ceramic top pieces, and a lot of mud. The mud has to be very fine, so often times when we get to a community and they don't have the right kind, we have to make it for them. With huge screens propped against tress or fence posts, we sift significant amounts of dirt by throwing shovel-fulls of dirt against the screens. Then we take the finely sifted dirt, mix it with the right amount of water, crumble straw in it to make it more durable, and occasionally throw in a bit of cement. With our hands, each piece is coated in water to make the mud stick, mud to fill in the cracks, and then put together. Every problem can be resolved with mud - add mud to make it more level, to make it taller, to make it stronger... In the end, most of the bricks aren't all that visible. After a day or two the mud dries, and the stove is clean, sturdy, and ready to use.

And the best part?

We get to play in the mud all day!