Dear colleagues, Culturesare dynamic not static. Ours stoves becomea part of that dynamic world. I workwith the Maasai of Tanzania. All thewomen have mobile phones, changing the way they can plan and cooperate. More and more girls are resisting leavingschool to enter the marriages their fathers have arranged for them. There are national laws against FemaleGenital Mutilation that communities must either comply with or resist. There are more motor cycles, more young menfinding jobs in the city. Weather patterns seems less predictable to them, and they are concerned about their livestock and are doing more farming. Ourstove is produced locally. The women helped us design it over a year and a half. The brick work for the chimney, the hole in the roof,the installation are done by teams of women who love the new work that thethought “only men could do”. Work likethis was never in their culture before. The ten to fifteen hours per week theynow don’t have to spend gathering wood are spent on their small farms or otheractivities which change the balance of activity in their culture. No smoke in the house means kids sick less,more peace and time for mom. With thesoot gone, they get light colored mud and redecorate their interiors. Withthe solar systems they buy from us, they have light at night without having tolight a smoky fire in the middle of the room. They welcome these pressures ontheir culture that are occurring alongside all the other pressures. They never would havethought to get better stoves. That wasour idea. They jumped at it.
Bob Lange the Maasai Stoves and Solar Project
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