Village Stoves and Cow Dung?

You're kidding, right? Nope.

Our destination this morning is a house at the far end of town. It takes only 30 minutes to walk there from our place, being careful to greet everyone on our way. Greetings are very important to Ugandans, and these people in particular.

Margaret is the one who speaks the language, is welcomed into to the houses, and she yells at the passerby ‘do you have your new stove yet? When should I come by???” We are her employees for the day, so she helps us with respectful greetings. Margaret is intelligent and worldly by Uganda standards, and as all Ugandans, smiling most of the time. We make our way to the Science Center (museum) established by the Kibale Wood Project--Margaret is employed by the project.

All day today we will build stoves with bricks in small kitchen rooms connected to houses. We will stack the brick, then bring piles of red damp clay to use as mortar. This mortar will be slung onto the structure in shfts, taking about two hours to secure the front surfact into a rounded dauber nest and to pat down the top. After this is completed, the concrete-like coating will be put on the front. "Concrete-like" means not exactly concrete. It's make from cow dung and sand that is mixed with the feet. Yeah--luckily we were not asked to participate in that piece. The final product looks great--and locals are really excited about the improved efficiency of the new stoves. It uses significantly less wood.

In the museum yard sits the starter plants for the fast-growth trees. (Acacia, other local varieties) The rains came this morning very hard and fast so we will be planting soon. Heavy drops on the tin ceiling of our rooms—to the point where it sounded like a freight train above us started before dawn. The wind circled through all the rooms through the window screens, and the temperature dropped 15 degrees in 10 minutes. The sounds of the animals stopped, then presently, started again with a different song—now the sound of insects and frogs singing.

Tonight we host dinner for the research students. It is handy to have this community here--as somebody has a bird book, another person has sugar, the next has a flashlight. We are developing relationships with our neighbors too, many of whom also work in the villages when they can.