Training – Field Study:

Our May Field Study is currently being held on SIFAT’s campus May 12-25. Sarah Murphree, SIFAT co-founder Sarah Corson’s great-niece, is a participant this year. She will be blogging about her experience and giving readers a glimpse of what types of appropriate technologies and community development topics are being presented, as well as a look into who some of the participants are.  A 2012 graduate of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Sarah recently directed and produced two short films, one taking first place in the 2013 Nashville Film Festival. She is currently working on her third film, a documentary about Camp Koinonia.

We had the pleasure to spend some time with Dr. Larry Winiarski, inventor of the rocket stove. Larry, a man of few words, is brilliant beyond belief. He dedicated numerous hours, months and years to come up with a solution to build better stoves in impoverished countries. After many years of hard work, he found a solution. He came up with a model allowing smoke to blow away from the stoves, so people aren’t forced to inhale dangerous fumes.

Dr. Larry Winiarski, far right, invented the rocket stove. Larry teaches the concepts of building these stoves and then willingly spends hours letting participants practice making their own stoves.

With Larry’s help, we built durable stoves of our own and got to test them out! A local Guatemalan mother and her girls came down to help us prepare a delightful Guatemalan-inspired meal. We cooked homemade tortillas, rice and vegetables on our stoves. After our meal, we dined under the setting sun on hand woven blankets, enjoying the company of one another and admiring our hard work.

Our Guatemalan-inspired meal included homemade tortillas on one of SIFAT’s model stoves.

Instead of taking our meal inside, we enjoyed the fresh air and SIFAT’s beautiful campus.