I was inspired recently to go to Guatemala and experience my first yoga/meditation retreat. This trip, organized by my close friend Stefanie, was also in part a chance to visit a local school and participate in a stove building project for indigenous Mayan families.As mutual members of a business organization called YPO/WPO (Young Presidents/World Presidents Organization), I knew from other trips abroad I had been on with Stefanie, this experience would be a wonderful blend of personal growth-stretching myself physically, as well on an emotional and spiritual level, and also an opportunity to give back to people living in a part of the world who were less fortunate than I.Seventeen of us traveled to Guatemala, all of who practice yoga with various degrees of intensity and frequency. Many of the travelers I did not know personally but were mutual friends of either Stefanie or Cindy (our trip organizers), who are both yoga instructors. We stayed at Villa Sumaya, a yoga retreat center in Santa Cruz de Laguna, a small village on the edge of Lake Atitlan. Little did I know, this trip would be so much more memorable because of my experience with the local people.The ONIL Stove ProjectDuring our stay, we participated in HELPS International's (www.helpsintl.org) ONIL stove project. The ONIL stove is an ingenious super-efficient cooking stove created to help local indigenous Mayan families who live in the hillside and mountainous villages throughout Guatemala and Central America. HELPS, a healthcare charity based in Texas, became concerned by the number of people suffering from burns and breathing problems as a result of cooking on open pit fires. Women in particular, use a centuries old tradition of cooking meals within their homes, using an open fire pit on the dirt floor, known as a "three stone fire". This method of cooking in their homes had no ventilation, causing family members to inhale dangerous fumes. It also resulted in high instances of facial and hand burns due to children falling into these open fires when they were playing and learning to walk.In the 1980's, Engineer Don O'Neal, a medical team leader with HELPS saw that this method of cooking was the problem. Along with his team and Richard Grinnell, the Vice President of HELPS, they developed the ONIL stove; a method to cook that is compatible with traditional methods yet was much safer and efficient to operate. Introducing the ONIL stove to these Mayan families fundamentally changed they way they live. This would become one of the pillars in the HELPS mission to help reduce poverty and introduce programs of social, educational, and spiritual value.Installing the ONIL StoveThe stove components come in a complete kit that contains a clay fired fire-box assembly that burns wood. There are also cinder blocks, a precast concrete housing and a galvanized vent chimney, a bag of sand, an iron cook top, and a preassembled wooden/precast concrete shelf system for holding cooking pots.With a hands-on demo instruction session with the HELPS staff, a level and cordless drill, we broke up into groups of 3 or 4 and ventured out to six homes where the stove parts had already been dropped off. My group went to a home that had multi-generations―from brand new babies to 90 year elders all living together! The entire family lived in one room and often slept in the same room where they cooked with an open fire!We introduced ourselves and were shown the location where the ONIL stove was to be installed. The stove was going to be put in their wood shed. A hole was already pre-drilled into the metal roof where the chimney parts would pass through to the outside. Phew! One of the hardest parts of the job was already done for us.Our awesome assembly team of Dave, Debbie and I, began the job of putting the stove puzzle pieces together. At least one of us remembered a critical step along in the process and thank goodness I took photos during the demo session!First, the cinder blocks were set down on the floor and leveled. Then the heavy precast concrete stove housing was set atop; followed by the clay fire-box parts which will hold the wood. The galvanized vents went in next and sand was poured in to fill up the assembly. A metal cook top sits on top and the shelf unit drops around the whole outside. Of course, we checked for plumb and level along the way, including the chimney. Just about perfect! Bravo, we completed our first stove installation in just over an hour!The best part of the day was showing the "cook" in the house the completed stove (in this case, the family elder Abuela or Bisabuela, which means Grandmother or Great Grandmother). I was touched immediately by her many smiles from ear to ear, words of appreciation spoken, Gracias, Gracias and tears of happiness, as she thanked us for our hard work. I could sense their lives changing as we watched the family stand back and admire the stove. Tears of contentment were shed by our team too! As we ventured to our second home, we realized the impact we had just made in the lives of one beautiful Mayan family. In addition to the ONIL stove, we assembled and gave each family a HELPS gravity fed water filtration system to provide fresh, clean drinkable water. Safe drinking water is often taken for granted and is seldom available in some rural villages where water from rivers, streams, ponds or rain water may be the only sources of water. The HELPS gravity water system provides a micro filter housed in a 10 gallon two-container system. The family just pours untreated water into the top container and it filters into the lower container.We also brought personal care and hygiene items for all of the family members, things not easily found in the village and expensive to purchase, along with crayons and coloring books for the children in the house.The water filtration and stove kits combined cost $250.00. Our group held a yoga fundraiser to raise the money to donate to HELPS to purchase the stove and water kits. Everything we needed to install the stoves and water filtration systems were ready and waiting for us upon our arrival to the village on our project day.Thermador, Viking , Wolf or ONIL? At that moment, the modern conveniences of my own home seemed too easy and not nearly as satisfying. Unfortunately, I didn't get to cook a meal on a new ONIL stove but some members of our group did. They were able to see the stoves get fired up and their "family" cooked tortillas for them. Homemade tortillas never tasted so good!! My fellow volunteers were also delighted to see the difference they made in their family's home. They said the heat and efficiency of the new stoves was amazing to see.Installing a new ONIL stove and water filtration system is truly life changing for these families. If you would like to learn more about HELPS International, I encourage you to visit their website: http://www.helpsinternational.com.How to HelpSponsor an ONIL Product Each stove and water filter combination costs only $250 and can change the lives of generations of people. Each stove you donate will be installed in Guatemala by one of our staff or a volunteer mission team. They make excellent gifts, especially for birthdays or holidays! Click here to make a donation. Participate in a Stove Installation Team Join an existing HELPS stove team to install these products side by side with Guatemalan families inside their homes. Click here to fill out a volunteer application.Or form your own stove team and bring your family, friends, or employees to work together on a project. Call us at 1-800-414-3577 or fill out a HELPS contact form to get started!
