Out with the old...(part I)

First there was this...

Our late friend Sra. Petrona and son Luis in their casita,

Catarina Palopo, Guatemala, circa 1977. (Not present above:

two-year-old Susana, la señora's daughter.)

 Back in the late 70s when Linda and and I lived in the

 village, the women cooked every meal on open, uprotected fires

 inside their huts. It was smokey, labor-intensive, polluting, and

 horribly unhealthy (not to mention dangerous).

Little Susana, back in the day

Then there was this...

This is the stove that Susana cooked our dinner

on (gnocchi!).  There's a hatch in front where

the wood goes. This particular construction was so 

poorly vented that everytime she used it (2-3 times

 a day), her entire house would fill with smoke.

  (Imagine grilling on a Weber in your kitchen or building

a raging fire in your fireplace...then closing the flue.)

Fast forward 35 years.  Little Susana now has four

children of her own ranging in age from 6-18 and just like her

 mother, she struggles day-to-day to get by.  When Amira and I

 visited the village in August 2011, she invited us for dinner, and

when we arrived at her casa -- a rudimentary cement block structure

high up on the mountain overlooking Lake Atitlan -- it was like entering

a smokehouse.  I was immediately alarmed. Was the house on fire!?! 

 No! Not to worry! was the sheepish, resigned reply...just cooking....

And finally...

This pre-fabricated wood burner (called an ONIL stove after its
inventor, an American engineer) eliminates the danger of burns

 and pulmonary illnesses caused by the traditional open fires and
inadequately-vented makeshift stoves still found in so many
Mayan homes. Known for its efficiency, the ONIL eliminates
 smoke from the interior and uses 70%  less firewood (thereby
 addressing another major environmental

concern in the area: deforestation).

(Stay Tuned for Parts II & III)