Getting the Dirty on Community Work In Mastatal

The following  project in Mastatal was smaller in scale but lead mostly under my direction.  I did what I know how to do best, which is include those bright minds that have more skills than I.  The following is an account of bringing together the many brilliant minds at work at the Ranch to improve the living situation for one sweet old man in Mastatal. 

A Rocket Stove for Mancho

The first week in February brought about one of the worst windstorms in Costa Rican history. It was felt throughout the country, but as is often the case, the devastation is more widespreand in poor rural areas.  In this village, many people have constructed their homes out of cheap local materials, or don`t have the resource to revamp old wood that has been worn by many rainy seasons.  And so is the case of Don Mancho.  He is a sweet, and I mean sweet, old man that lives in a shack tucked back in the brush.    He is an old man, a squatter, a master gardener--- with a reputation for having a magnificent seed collection (he can seriously grow anything in any condition, I am told) and prefers to live rustically.  His home is hidden behind Noni trees, Caña Brava reeds and a hearty garden of plantains, yuca, sugar cane, pigeon peas and beans.  He sent us home with arms full of his bounty as our most cherished payment upon every visit.  The wind storm tore the roof of his house and he reached out for help through the Ranch´s charitable arm- The Mastate Foundation.  We fixed his roof and revamped the old frame, but found that his well being could be vastly improved with a few simple solutions: a raised bed to protect him from the snakes that creep in at night and yet again, a rocket stove.

Volunteers put together a stellar semi-lofted bed complete with a soft cushion.  Other work completed was a beautiful window shutter that would provide protection from the rain but could also be easily opened and closed to increase ventilation--- completed by the talented hands of our beloved Johnny "Goma" (spanish for hang over which he acquired after a night of celebration way beyond what we were accustomed to seeing from this sweet southern gentleman).

Mancho has been cooking over an open fire in his little house and the remnants of soot and cinder are apparent on the walls.  It is difficult to imagine the state of his lungs.  Just imagine the sweetest little man in the world and there you have Mancho.  Mancho is a small man, less than 5 ft tall with dewy chocolate eyes and long lashes.  He has the a very sweet smile, so much so that you can´t help but find yourself doing the same when coming in contact with him.  

I organized a group of more or less 8-10 people to help with the planning and construction of the rocket stove to be installed in his home.  This time, I did some further research and asked around the engineering-design minds at the Ranch.  We built the stove pipe elbow out of bamboo and installed a rebar cage that would wrap around and over the elbow.  This serves two functions 1) to provide a stable stove top for the pot to sit upon 2) to provide an internal structure after the bamboo elbow burns out.  All of this is then encased in a cob mixture of manure, sand, clay and sawdust.  This mixture was adjusted to provide increased insulation and less heat transfer so that more of the heat is transfered directly to the cooking pot instead of the material.  This was set upon a foundation of concrete, cinderblock and mortar to provide strength against the hefty rains and erosion experienced in this mountain-side location.  

We hauled materials, we bagged up sand from the nearby river, collected manure from the local pasture and away we go.  Over weeks time, we installed the rockets stove complete with the experimental design.  I will never forget the afternoon were we spent most of the day with Mancho, Rachel and I sat on his bed and shared a lunch of beans, rice and boiled eggs.  We told jokes and laughed at bad translations.  The bulk of the work was finished that day.

I returned a few days later to meet with Mancho and to make sure that he could use the stove effectively.  Low and behold, we boiled a pot of  beans in ten minutes.  Success!  Mancho was just as excited as I.  Then next step is to have Ana (from the previous post) make a home visit and help with any trouble shooting.  There you have it.  After finishing up with Mancho, his niece Mauritza who lives near by and who has been really helpful throughout the process of both projects, asked if she too could have a rocket stove.  Making sustainable development fashionable, that is what I aim to do--- I could only exclaim "Nice".