Bob,
Are you suggesting that the Maasai people are not burdened, as are most
cultures, by nostalgia. Or is that the property of men.
Alex
On 23/01/2013 8:23 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Dear colleagues,
Cultures are dynamic not static.Ours stoves become a part of that
dynamic world.I work with the Maasai of Tanzania.All the women have
mobile phones, changing the way they can plan and cooperate.More and
more girls are resisting leaving school to enter the marriages their
fathers have arranged for them.There are national laws against Female
Genital Mutilation that communities must either comply with or
resist.There are more motor cycles, more young men finding jobs in the
city. Weather patterns seems less predictable to them, and they are
concerned about their livestock and are doing more farming.
Our stove 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 the thought "only men could do". Work like this was never in
their culture before. The ten to fifteen hours per week they now don't
have to spend gathering wood are spent on their small farms or other
activities 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 the soot gone, they get light colored mud and redecorate their
interiors.With the solar systems they buy from us, they have light at
night without having to light a smoky fire in the middle of the
room.They welcome these pressures on their culture that are occurring
alongside all the other pressures.They never would have thought to get
better stoves.That was our idea. They jumped at it.
Bob Lange
the Maasai Stoves and Solar Project
_______________________________________________
Stoves mailing list
to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
[email protected]
to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web site:
http://www.bioenergylists.org/
_______________________________________________
Stoves mailing list
to Send a Message to the list, use the email address
[email protected]
to UNSUBSCRIBE or Change your List Settings use the web page
http://lists.bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org
for more Biomass Cooking Stoves, News and Information see our web site:
http://www.bioenergylists.org/
