Visiting Kalinzi

For the past five days, we stayed in JGI's field station in Kalinzi. This village with a population of about 15,000 is a one hour car ride north of Kigoma. Although the field station has no electricity or running water, it offers stunning views of the Tanzanian countryside, sunsets, and night sky. Misha was particularly happy to wake up to the sound of roosters and the smell of fresh chapatti each morning. With the help of our amazing translator, Changuvu, we managed to have a very productive few days learning about rocket stove distribution. We met with village leaders, members of the rocket stove cooperative, and other interested members of the community.

We received a warm welcome from the village leaders when we first arrived. They discussed with us the advantages and disadvantages of using a rocket stove along with suggestions of how to increase distribution. They said that the best attributes of the stove are that the stove uses less firewood and that it cooks faster. They said some of the disadvantages were that it breaks easily and very few people know how to build the stove. Because of this, village leaders suggested a demonstration where people can learn about the benefits of using a rocket stove compare to a three stone stove and how to build a rocket stove.

After meeting with the village leaders, we met with five members of the rocket stove cooperative. These members agreed with many of the same benefits as the village leaders including that the stove cooks faster, uses less firewood, and smokes less. They also had some feedback on the disadvantages of using the rocket stove such as it breaks easily. The cooperative members had many suggestions on how to improve distribution as well. One of the key suggestions that many of them mentioned was the need for financial support from JGI or DHE for building the stoves. They said that some villagers are unwilling to pay for the rocket stove because the alternative is free or because they believe that the builders have been already compensated by JGI or DHE. Although they still remembered how to build the stove, each member had only built one or two for their families. Still, they were very excited about the rocket stove but wanted more support so that they could begin distributing more widely.

One member of the village, however, had been building many stoves. Pascal, a high school student, has built over 30 stoves in Kalinzi and surrounding areas. We spoke with him and he repeated many of the same concerns as the women in the cooperative. He also had some technical feedback including the importance of teaching people how to create the proper clay mixture and making double burner stoves. Pascal agreed to do a demonstration for the villagers to show them how to build a rocket stove as the village leaders had suggested. So, on Sunday afternoon, Pascal and Changuvu helped us give a demonstration to 25 villagers. Changuvu spoke to them about the benefits of using a rocket stove as compared to a three stone stove. Pascal then showed the villagers how to build the bricks and how to arrange the bricks and cement them together to make a stove. The villagers were very receptive to the demonstration and many were able to correctly point to where each brick should go. Pascal arranged for a second demonstration the following week to solidify the teaching.

Just as we were about to leave Kalinzi, Revocatus stopped by the JGI Field Station. Revocatus helped DHE students to install a wind anemometer on Kibali Hill last year. Since the equipment was no longer functioning, he invited us to the site of the wind tower and requested that we collect the equipment. We went on a beautiful hike the next morning, picked up the anemometer, and arranged for the tower to be taken down. We thanked Revocatus for his hard work in taking care of the anemometer and told him we were sorry that we wouldn’t be able to continue the wind project with him in Kalinzi. Once we got back to Kigoma, we shipped the anemometer back to Thayer. We were glad we were be able to tie up loose ends in Kalinzi and we feel fortunate to have had such a wonderful visit to this beautiful village.