<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Stove list:<div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Bob Lange has asked me to forward this as his list specifics seem to have gotten mixed up.</div><div><br></div><div>Ron <br><div><br><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>From: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';"><a href="mailto:rbtvl@aol.com">rbtvl@aol.com</a><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';"><b>did you get this THE BIG DESIGN QUESTIONS: IS TECH APPROPRIATE IF IT VIOLATES CULTURAL NORMS</b><br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';">April 27, 2014 at 5:46:19 PM MDT<br></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px;"><span style="font-family:'Helvetica'; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);"><b>To: </b></span><span style="font-family:'Helvetica';"><a href="mailto:rongretlarson@comcast.net">rongretlarson@comcast.net</a><br></span></div><br><div><font size="3" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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<div>Dear Ron.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>I sent this to the stove list and got the confirmation that it was received but I did not get it myself. Please let me know if you got it as a list member. I am concerned my messages are somehow not making it to the list.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Thanks.</div>
<div> </div>
<div>bob 508 735 9176</div>
<div> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt;">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: rbtvl <<a href="mailto:rbtvl@aol.com">rbtvl@aol.com</a>><br>
To: stoves <<a href="mailto:stoves@lists.bioenergylists.org">stoves@lists.bioenergylists.org</a>><br>
Sent: Sun, Apr 27, 2014 3:05 pm<br>
Subject: THE BIG DESIGN QUESTIONS: IS TECH APPROPRIATE IF IT VIOLATES CULTURAL NORMS<br>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">Cooking is obviously a
central cultural practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we intend
to help change this cultural practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
don’t know if we should call it “changing cultural norms” or not, but we
obviously want to change culture.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">The important thing is to
change it WITH the women. In our work in Tanzania we find all, yes all, Maasai
women want to change this aspect of their culture once they know it is
possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not one woman we have encountered
in the present 11 Maasai villages where we work prefers to keep her three
stones rather than get one of our chimney-based, smoke-reducing, house-cleaning,
work-saving <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>stoves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have 100 percent sustained adoption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri"> </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">Our problem is not changing women’s
attitudes to their culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can be
conservative with respect to some aspects of culture, of course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But they immediately see the benefits of changing
from a cooking culture that makes them and their children sick, their eyes hurt,
and the menial labor in wood gather so demanding.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We find women want to change this miserable
part of their culture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their problem is
getting their husbands to sell a goat or two to get them a stove because their
culture is plagued in general by way too much indifference on the part of men
to the living conditions and health of their wives and children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is a not a stove problem. That is
changing too, slowly, but because of all sorts of interactions not just about
cooking.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri"> </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">We sweeten the stove deal by
selling solar lighting and cell phone charging systems to men who buy stoves
for their wives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, I suppose, is
change in cultural norms too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All Maasai
men and women want this electrification.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Every last one.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri"> </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">Our analysis of public health
statistics convinces us that the deaths from lung disease of between 20 and 25
children per 1000 before the age of five are prevented by our stove.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>measured Carbon Monoxide 24 average levels in
Maasai homes cooking with three stones and it is a few percent points below
what the WHO specifies as the SYMPTOMATIC level for CO poisoning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is particularly disturbing since the
Maasai keep new mothers and newborn indoors for a couple of months after birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our stove brings this CO level down to a
healthy level way <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>below the WHO
standards.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri"> </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">Why are Maasai women to ready
for this change of culture?</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri"> </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">First, we designed the stove
over a year and a half in collaboration with the women, trying out prototypes
in their homes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And women do the brick work and install the
stove. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just a retail commodity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an aspect of women’s work and empowerment.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri"> </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">And what so many of us forget
is that three stones is a good way to cook for some purposes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
great for long term simmering in large pots, like corn and bean stews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is easy to control fire
intensity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you don’t have to tend
the fire all the time and can do other things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So If our stoves make such cooking inconvenient for women they go back to
three stones at least some of the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is not because they love the culture of smoky inefficient three stones.
They are not clinging to a cultural norm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is that they are cooking seven
days a week for from maybe five to ten people, and need convenience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our stove works for these cooking challenges
as well as other types of cooking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So
they never go back to three stones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></font></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></font></span> </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">Yes, rural African women have
cultures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are basically over-worked women who
need change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if we work collaboratively
with them, we can find the changes that they want.</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri"> </font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">Bob Lange</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri">Maasai Stoves and Solar</font></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Calibri"><a href="http://www.internationalcollaborative.org/" target="_blank">www.internationalcollaborative.org</a></font></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">+1 508 735 9176</font></span></div>
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