Guatemala Stove Project Stove Building Workshop
The Guatemala Stove Project held its second annual Stove Building Workshop on Sunday, January 13 at Algonquin College in Perth for the volunteers traveling to Guatemala for the February 2008 Volunteer Trip. The workshop was attended by over 16 volunteers eager to develop their masonry skills so that they could effectively start building stoves as soon as possible upon arriving in the mountain village of San Francisco El Alto, north of the city of Quetzaltenango. The workshop was led by Tom Clarke, coordinator of the GSP and an experienced stove builder, along with John Scott, masonry instructor at the Algonquin College Campus in Perth. Students of the Algonquin College Masonry program assisted as well. The volunteers worked together to learn the techniques of making mortar with sand and lime, handling the mortar with trowels, leveling the blocks and mortar and building the different layers of the stove frame. The experts demonstrated the filling of the interior of the frame with sand and a layer of dry bricks to make the interior firebox, as well as how to cut a cement block to make the door opening. To finish things off the volunteers practiced parging the block walls of the stove to create a nice smooth finish on the exterior. When it was all over, everyone pitched in to knock down the stove so the materials could be used again next year. Everyone involved felt that the workshop was a great opportunity for team building as well as developing confidence in having the skills necessary for building stoves. The volunteers left the workshop, eager for the upcoming trip where they would be making real, working stoves in the homes of the Mayan families of San Francisco El Alto. John Scott, Algonquin College Masonry instructor (left) and Tom Clarke, GSP Coordinator (right) discuss masonry techniques at the Stove Building Workshop. Article and pictures by GSP volunteer, Liz Ballantyne-Jackson