Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
As alluded to in previous posts, we´ve been working on an improved cook stove project. Thanks to a recent U of M alumni, Rob Cerato, we were able to get an informed jump start on this project. Rob has been working in Peru for the past year on creating an improved cook stove that is made from locally available and accepted materials.
The notion of an improved cook stove, or cocina mejorada, is another way to say a stove with a chimney, one that doesn´t produce plumes of smoke, and cooks efficiently. Many families living in the surrounding rural areas of Puno cook using a open fire inside their homes. This requires much fuel and produces a grand amount of smoke, which is damaging and irritating to the lungs, not to mention smoke pouring into ones eyes.
With the help of our friend Dr. Ivan and his father we have been able to begin building these stoves in the campo of Huanuscuro. We began by introducing the project and explaining that we will provide supplies, the family must only have a free day and a number of adobe bricks ready for the project. Another thanks goes out the the Ginsberg center of Ann Arbor as they have provided us with a grant to fund the project. Thus we began a few fridays ago with one man who was ready to have a stove installed, many of the community members came to watch, speculate, and help out.
We´ve now built a few stoves in the village of Huanuscuro and in our final week here in Puno we plan to work alongside some of the medical students from ACEM-UNA to build more, as well as distribute the plans to the villagers before we leave.
If you click on the photo below it will lead you to an album filled with photos surrounding the stove project, including some of our testing phase at the acilo.
The notion of an improved cook stove, or cocina mejorada, is another way to say a stove with a chimney, one that doesn´t produce plumes of smoke, and cooks efficiently. Many families living in the surrounding rural areas of Puno cook using a open fire inside their homes. This requires much fuel and produces a grand amount of smoke, which is damaging and irritating to the lungs, not to mention smoke pouring into ones eyes.
With the help of our friend Dr. Ivan and his father we have been able to begin building these stoves in the campo of Huanuscuro. We began by introducing the project and explaining that we will provide supplies, the family must only have a free day and a number of adobe bricks ready for the project. Another thanks goes out the the Ginsberg center of Ann Arbor as they have provided us with a grant to fund the project. Thus we began a few fridays ago with one man who was ready to have a stove installed, many of the community members came to watch, speculate, and help out.
We´ve now built a few stoves in the village of Huanuscuro and in our final week here in Puno we plan to work alongside some of the medical students from ACEM-UNA to build more, as well as distribute the plans to the villagers before we leave.
If you click on the photo below it will lead you to an album filled with photos surrounding the stove project, including some of our testing phase at the acilo.
click me!
Con amor,
Erin
Erin
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Another one of our projects while here in Puno has been to teach English at one of the local elementary schools. Initially we were unsure as to whether it was really our place to be teaching, and if the effects of our teaching would be regarded as positive or negative to the community.
After questioning both Dr. Ivan and the school director we were reassured that teaching English to these students would be both appreciated and beneficial to the students futures. Puno is world known as the folkloric capital of Peru and thus receives many tourists on a year round basis. Many students here go to college to work in the tourism industry, and English being an international language is often used and required. The director of the school was adament on the basis that the school does not have any English teachers and often the students who do learn lack the pronunciation skills. Also the school that we visit, San Jose, has many children attending who live on the Uros Islands, a group of people who make their living on the tourism industry.
With the students we have been teaching 1st through 6th grades. Its been a challenge coming up with the curriculum and there was a lot of trial and error in our first few sessions. Pulling on our own experiences in learning language we have come up with a number of modules suited to different ages and attention spans. Aside from learning colors, numbers, and other group sets we´ve attempted to give each group some practice in converstional abilities.
Right now the students are on break, we can´t wait to start where we left off next week when school starts back up.
More to come,
EGW
Thursday, July 22, 2010
After about three weeks in Puno we have managed to work up quite the agenda of projects including teaching English at a local elementary school, piloting our jet stove project, and a conglomeration of projects and tasks at the acilo de ancianos in Chuquito.
Chuquito is a town in the region of Puno, about 30 minutes outside of the city. We´ve found ourselves spending many days at one of the elderly homes in the village, a place which we came upon in our last years trip. Our good friend and fellow Project Suyana member, Tyler, stayed there earlier this year and managed to complete many of the needed repairs. Anyone who is interested in his projects should check out his incredible blog, http://www.experimentsinwandering.com/
As for our progress at the acilo we began by putting our hands to work, cutting branches and trees in order to provide fuel for their stove, aiding in potato peeling, and eventually our work with the greenhouse.
Shortly after arriving Adela, the director of the acilo pointed out the poor condition of their greenhouse, the roof has been torn off by weathering, the structure is unstable due to multiple attmepts to fix haphazardly, and the garden overrun by weeds. Luckily most of these things were within our means, and we`ve made considerable progress.
We began by clearing all of the weeds and tilling the soil, check out our before and after pictures. Next we made some major structural repairs to the building, and this is in prep for the roof replacement. We are still in the process of seeking out the right type of roofing, and luckily with the help of our friends at the university we think that the purchase of material should not be all that difficult, and we are confident in our abilty to repair the roof once we have the material.
Aside from our work at the greenhouse we have become friendly with the elderly who live there, and its so enjoyable to see them when we arrive each day. They have been a great help in aiding us with the construction of adobe bricks for our jet stove, as it seems they know much more about adobe than we do. It´s been very nice of all of them to allow us to use their property to practice building our stoves, and in return we hope to provide them with a very efficient outdoor stove.
Our progress with the stoves has been moving along nicely, and we hope to come to you with more updates of this project soon.
Con mucho amor,
EGW
Greenhouse before weeding and tilling
During...
After!
Chuquito is a town in the region of Puno, about 30 minutes outside of the city. We´ve found ourselves spending many days at one of the elderly homes in the village, a place which we came upon in our last years trip. Our good friend and fellow Project Suyana member, Tyler, stayed there earlier this year and managed to complete many of the needed repairs. Anyone who is interested in his projects should check out his incredible blog, http://www.experimentsinwandering.com/
As for our progress at the acilo we began by putting our hands to work, cutting branches and trees in order to provide fuel for their stove, aiding in potato peeling, and eventually our work with the greenhouse.
Shortly after arriving Adela, the director of the acilo pointed out the poor condition of their greenhouse, the roof has been torn off by weathering, the structure is unstable due to multiple attmepts to fix haphazardly, and the garden overrun by weeds. Luckily most of these things were within our means, and we`ve made considerable progress.
We began by clearing all of the weeds and tilling the soil, check out our before and after pictures. Next we made some major structural repairs to the building, and this is in prep for the roof replacement. We are still in the process of seeking out the right type of roofing, and luckily with the help of our friends at the university we think that the purchase of material should not be all that difficult, and we are confident in our abilty to repair the roof once we have the material.
Aside from our work at the greenhouse we have become friendly with the elderly who live there, and its so enjoyable to see them when we arrive each day. They have been a great help in aiding us with the construction of adobe bricks for our jet stove, as it seems they know much more about adobe than we do. It´s been very nice of all of them to allow us to use their property to practice building our stoves, and in return we hope to provide them with a very efficient outdoor stove.
Our progress with the stoves has been moving along nicely, and we hope to come to you with more updates of this project soon.
Con mucho amor,
EGW
Greenhouse before weeding and tilling
During...
After!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
After a series of long bus trips we have made it to Puno and settled quite nicely into our home. This summer´s trip is comprised of an extremely decicated group of individuals and our prospects look to be promising.
Thanks to the Detroit branch of the World Medical Relief (http://www.worldmedicalrelief.org/) we were able to bring down two microcentrifuges and a plentitude of glucometer test strips for donation and use by our companions at La Universidad del Altiplano. With these donations the medical student group ACEM-UNA and Dr. Ivan will be able to test the elderly at the Acilo de Ancianos we work at for blood glucose levels, as well as test the blood of the local school children in order to detect anemia which is all to common in this region among children.
We also received donations from Americares (www.americares.org), a variety of non-prescription medical supplies and several glucometers in which we are so thankful as this is one thing our friends requested with much need. And need us not forget all of our members local dentists who openly donated boxes and boxes of toothbrushes and toothpaste for our sanitation and health packets.
As for our projects this trip there will be more updates to come, everything has thus far been smooth and looks as though the hard work from the meetings this previous year are paying off.
Con mucho amor,
Thanks to the Detroit branch of the World Medical Relief (http://www.worldmedicalrelief.org/) we were able to bring down two microcentrifuges and a plentitude of glucometer test strips for donation and use by our companions at La Universidad del Altiplano. With these donations the medical student group ACEM-UNA and Dr. Ivan will be able to test the elderly at the Acilo de Ancianos we work at for blood glucose levels, as well as test the blood of the local school children in order to detect anemia which is all to common in this region among children.
We also received donations from Americares (www.americares.org), a variety of non-prescription medical supplies and several glucometers in which we are so thankful as this is one thing our friends requested with much need. And need us not forget all of our members local dentists who openly donated boxes and boxes of toothbrushes and toothpaste for our sanitation and health packets.
As for our projects this trip there will be more updates to come, everything has thus far been smooth and looks as though the hard work from the meetings this previous year are paying off.
Con mucho amor,
EGW
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