Shoes, Hats and Stoves

Well, I am glad to get time to write another short report. This story actually begins over a year ago in a check-out stand in Gig Harbor Washington. I was buying discounted shoes at a local Big Five Store. They were moving to a new location and had good quality shoes for $5 a pair! I was buying enough kid’s shoe store fill a suitcase for my next trip down south and struck up a conversation with the teller and lady in line behind me about what I was going to do with so many shoes. I must have given them our business card and headed on my merry way not thinking anything more about it. Fast-forward to a year and half latter when I receive a call asking if I still wanted shoes. The lady in the line behind me had been following our blogs and had saved up a pile of shoes!

Of Course we will take the shoes! And one month later here stands Manuel Lopez in front of an open door in the village of Las Flores with a whole gunny sack of shoe. This is truly something special. This is like winning the lottery or having Christmas in July!

You see these families never imagined that one day someone would walk into their home and pour out a sack of shoes. Busa lo son de calidad excelente! Look for a pair! They are from a lady in the states and are of excellent quality. A true jackpot of blessing has come to their home.

 Ah, what a find. This boy will be the envy of the friends at the next soccer game.

Another home we visited was Juana Mateo. When we arrived she was sick in bed with a fever.   Juana’s needs are great as she is a single mother with five children to care for. 

We actually had brought two gunny sacks with us. The second one had stocking hats from Miracles in Actions. They collect them from women’s church groups in Florida who have been knitting up a storm.

Shoes and stocking caps for every one! What is extra special is that the children get to pick colors and styles. What a treat!

We next crossed the river to visit the home of Hacinta.

Hacinta is married so she has a spouse to help her but she has had some type of disability that makes movement slow and challenging. You can see how her arm is miss shaped. Her legs are also affected. Her husband and she have three great kids who could not have been happier.

Here her son is sporting new shoes and hat. What a radiant smile!

Hacinta daughter is as happy as can be with her new look. She is standing by a stove called the eco-stove. This stove brings us to the third ripple in this tale. The first came from a lady with a heart to save shoes, the second from a women’s church group in Florida knitting 100’s of hats and now a friend in Tacoma has started a stove ripple.

last year I worked for Habitat for Humanity and met a man that quickly became a friend. He wanted to donate to our projects and he wanted to donate something more than a sheep or pig. He decided to give $500 and we decided to use these funds to bring in some stoves from the Antigua area to see how they worked. Here is a picture of one of the models. The factory making these stoves was started by a Rotarian from Oregon.

I have made two trips back to the villages to bring stoves. I load up all the aid I can carry in Antiqua and make my way using the public transportation back to Chel. Here we are transferring cargo in Santa Cruz Quiche. All the white bags are mine and inside the van we had 18 people. Needless to say we were styling real cool in a low rider the whole way. A word of caution to everyone out there. Don't buy a used vehicle from Guatemala. 

After two days of travel here we are in the village of Xesalli demonstrating two stove models.

A good crowd  from this small village came to view the stoves. The building to the right is my home here. The village built it for me last year. It is a sort of duplex with the painted side belonging to Jose and his family while I stay in the unpainted side. The main and only road to Xesalli passes right in front of the house but there is not much traffic. Maybe one pick-up truck a week.

Here Anna is admiring the stove. I think she is imagining how good it would fit in her home.

She was not alone in this dream.  We brought in two stove types and here Manuel (only his hands show) is explaining the special features of each.  The most popular feature is how little firewood is required.

This smaller model is the more promising one of the two. It can cook a meal using three small sticks. It does not have a chimney but re-circulates the smoke to burn off 80 percent of the pollutants. 17% of the deaths in the Ixil region are attributed to respiratory failure. Often I cannot see clearly across a smoked fill kitchen while the women with babies on their backs work over the fire all day long.

On this day we drew names out of a hat to see who would get to test the stoves. We have put three different stoves design in homes in three villages to test how well they were received before we start a real stove project.

The small one is great for smaller homes or small families. It can be carried outside when it is real hot or set upon a wood shelf inside to make it a better height to work at. The sides of the concrete are insulated enough not to but fingers or wood. Notice here how little wood is being used to boil this pot and where is all the smoke?  Another stove design we like is made of adobe and has a warming oven below the firebox that can be used to dry cloths.  I love to use this feature when I come in wet from the trail and don’t have a dry shirt or sock to my name. The adobe stove allows us to cut cost down by using local free material for the body and only having to transport and buy the stove top and chimney.

Here we come to the end of the tale but not the ripple. It does what ripples are suppose to do – constantly reach farther out and touch more lives. Our stove study is complete we would like to raise $3,000 to put a program in place. Our cost for a stove is $65 each and we will sell them for $32.50. This helps us in family selection because almost anyone will say yes to what is free. It also means for the donation of $130 for two stoves we can purchase and deliver three. 

We want to send a special thanks to the ladies in Florida who have made thousands of children happy with their colorful hats. And to our shoe saving sponsor – Well done- You have given some children the best pair of shoes they have ever had. Thanks to all and remember to daily practice “random acts of love and kindness” they always bear good fruit.