Field Practice

Last week we had our Tech overnight, which is an opportunity, to go and stay with another volunteer, see what their community is like, and to live with another family, and also to do some kind of work, that you will do possibly as a volunteer. My group went to a place called, Costa Ju'u, in the Department of Paraguari, and our Project was to build a fogón and a Pileta.



A fogón is a large brick, wood burning oven sort of. Its base is 2 meters by about 60cm, and 7 bricks high, then you fill that in, the top past has a hole for wood, and on top or that is a stove top, and an oven (which is just a metal box set into the bricks). The idea is that many women here, cook on the floor over an open fire, and it take a long time to cook if thinks have to be cooked separately. The fire in the fogón heats the entire stove and oven all at the same time.



The pileta is 3 brick columns that you can place a sink on, so that your washing can me done at waist heigh instead of having to bend to was in a basin, and the water in the sink can be drained into a bucket and used for chickens or watering trees, and what have you, if there is no running water.



We build the fogón at a school



This is the beginning step



Then we had to mix the mortar, which in this case was dirt from a hole that the had dug at the school, this is Lauren standing in the hole.



And this is the mortar being mixed, which is the dirt, water, a little bit of cement, and cow manure, which works really well.



This is the finished fogón



And the finished Pileta



We weren't able to completely finish the fogón, which needs a chimney, but while we were building, it began to rain really hard, and you can't lay bricks in the rain.



And finally this is the storm that prevented us from finishing, and prevented me from being able to use the internet last week to post this.



This week coming up is Long field practice, where we go to a different site, for five days, and sort of get and inside look at really being a volunteer. We will be building another fogón, a latrine, and giving talks to a school and a women's group about dental health and nutrition. Should be interesting.