Flies, germs and Tippy Taps !!

One of the things we learned about in the previously mentioned post about LWI Health and Hygiene class (you know, the one about flies and all the nasty germs they carry)

is the importance of keeping the water safe from contaminants. Germs, germs, germs-those nasty invisible things that wreak havoc with digestive systems, and very often in the elderly and small children can lead to death.

Simple measures such as washing hands before cooking or eating can prevent deaths.

LWI taught us how to make a simple contraption called a "Tippy Tap" out of twine and a empty plastic milk jug. You fill the milk jug with clean water, make a strategically placed pencil hole, and tie the Tap between two trees and then tie a footpiece or loop to the jug.

When you push down on the footpiece, the jug tips and a stream of clean water flows out.

Ta-da !! Now those nasty 'ol flies can't get in your water and make you sick! And for the deluxe version, they have a method of attaching a bar of soap in a plastic cup using an old nylon and then tie it to the Tippy Tap. Ingenious !! My husband Tom, being an engineer who used high-tech solutions for most of his career, is really enjoying finding low-tech solutions to comman problems! Wait until you see how he makes us a high-speed internet center using solar energy, a couple of sticks.......and maybe a little duct tape too!! (move over, McGyver!)

Solar cooking success!

Yesterday was our first experiment with solar cooking. We made our cooker out of cardboard and tinfoil. Then set it out in the sun around 3pm. We decided to keep it simple for our first try and made macaroni and veggies. We actually didn't have much faith that this would work, but shazamm!!!! It worked!! Actually, it was overcooked and the noodles were mush, but the veggies were good.
It only took an hour to cook everything-and done without any fuel source, only by the heat of the sun! We were amazed!
Even though we had researched this whole solar cooking idea on the web and YouTube, we didn't really know if it would work.
But now we are excited about it and are going to try cooking some MEAT-argh-argh!!
This has so much potential for the people of Ethiopia! Women and children spend a large part of their day gathering up wood for their cooking fires. Not only does it prevent them from doing other important things (like going to school or a job) but it depletes an already scarce resource-wood. And in some parts of Africa, it has become dangerous for the women-because they are having to range farther and deeper out into the bush, and many of them are being raped and murdered.
We hope to make many solar cookers and bring them to Ethiopia and show the women how they could use these at least some of the time for their daily cooking. If you would like more info about these Cookit solar cookers go to You Tube and type in "solar cooking' We will post exciting video of Teresa cooking MEAT next week, but until then...bon apetit!!