My foray into foyers!

A few weeks ago, my counterpart, Djida, excitedly came to my house to show me an invitation that had been received by the Lawan (the village chief).  The invitation was from an environmental organization called Environnement, Recherche, et Developpement (ERD).

Top view of our foyer amelioré in Sanguéré-Ngal.

This organization is beginning a counter-climate-change project called “Grandir Avec Son Arbre” (Grow with your tree), and they chose five villages in my subdivision to be the implementers.  Eight members from each of the five villages would unite to form an environmental committee.  ERD would work with each committee to create a tree nursery at the primary school of each school (thus giving children a chance to learn as well), and to create a small vegetable garden for income generation.  ERD would also host a workshop in each village (open to anyone who is interested) to teach about foyers ameliorés, or, improved cook-stoves, that minimize wood consumption.

Well, perfect!  One of the main environmental related issues I’ve heard from people in Sanguéré-Paul is that people are cutting trees faster than they can grow, without planting new ones.  Everybody knows that it’s probably not the best thing to be doing, but nobody sees an alternative.  The vast majority of villagers cook over a wood fire each night.  If not a wood fire, they use charcoal (thus, another wood product).  Many people even cut trees in Sanguéré-Paul to sell in Garoua or other nearby villages.  ERD is proposing activities directly in line with this issue of deforestation.

I emailed the organization’s office in Yaoundé and called their Garoua line the next day.  Within thirty minutes of my call, Samuel, ERD’s Garoua representative was on his way to meet me in Sanguéré-Paul.  Within four days, Jean-Michel, the director from Yaoundé, happened to be up North for business and also came out to meet me.

Though I knew next to nothing about ameliorated cook-stoves, we agreed that this could potentially be an awesome collaboration.  It was decided that I would follow the project in each of the five villages, attending the meetings and workshops, and then help to follow up, ensuring that the committees are actually meeting and effectively delivering their newly learned skills to others.  

While we have decided to wait until the rainy season for the tree nurseries (due to the fact that there is barely enough water left in the wells for regular daily life), we were able to get started right away with the improved cookstoves.  Last weekend, we travelled to each of the five villages over the course of three days to give a theoretical workshop, or rather a “this is what you’ll all be doing next weekend” workshop.  Friday: Sanguéré-Ngal and Sanguéré-Lanavet.  Saturday: Ndiam-Baba and Sanguéré-Paul.  Sunday: Bockle.  Each workshop had between thirty and forty women (and some men too!), except for Sanguéré-Paul, where nobody showed because of a church assembly (frustrating, yes, but this gave me a chance to hang at the bar and bond with my new environmental buddies!).

This Saturday, we turned theory into practice, and got really darn muddy along the way.  Conquering all five villages in one day, we constructed four beautiful foyers ameliorés (this time, Sanguéré-Lanavet didn’t show up).  While I stood on the sidelines and simply watched for the first demonstration, Samuel made sure I was working hard for the rest of the day! 

Pitoa's agroforestry volunteer Clare MacMillen joined us for the Sanguéré Paul demonstration.

Smoothing out the surface.

The goal is to have each woman who was in attendance construct a cookstove at her own home by March 1^st, at which point we’ll travel around to each house, inviting ourselves to a delicious wood-minimizing home-cooked meal!

Women at work!

The women definitely seemed enthusiastic, and weren't the least bit hesitant to get involved during the demonstration.  One woman even approached me at the market today and told me she’s planning to build hers soon!  I told her (and everyone else at Sanguéré-Paul’s workshop) that whenever she is ready, come find me at my house and I’ll be ready to get my hands dirty an instant! 

Our prettiest cookstove was in Bockle, where the our soil was more on the clay side.  Once dry, the wood will be removed.  The two holes on the side will be used for ventilation, and the bigger hole is where the small (and few!) pieces of wood will be placed to fuel the fire.