Newton-San Juan del Sur Sister City Project

BREAKING (GOOD) NEWS, 21 September 2022: The Newton/San Juan del Sur (Nicaragua) Sister City Project has just been awarded a generous grant from the Thoracic Foundation to support our EcoStove Project for two years. The Boston-based Thoracic Foundation supports efforts to combat respiratory illness. Newton’s EcoStove is made with unbaked earthenware bricks and has a chimney to vent smoke out of the house (and out of people’s lungs). Stoves are fabricated by participating families under supervision of Newton’s Stove Coordinator. Domestic air pollution (from cooking smoke) will cause more premature deaths on the planet this year than AIDS and Malaria combined (World Health Organization).

We will have a table at the Green Expo in Newton Centre on October 16, 2022 to explain how we moved away from an older model of our EcoStove, one based on heavy use of cement and iron rebar, to a new approach using Compressed Earth Blocks made of clay-rich soil, rejecting the use of cement entirely, and using only a minimum of rebar to make an embedded support for the heavy pots of rice and beans. One reason for this change is that we know now what we didn’t in previous years: “If Cement were a country, it would the the world’s Third Largest Emitter of Greenhouse Gases, after China and the US.” As much as 8% of all Greenhouse Gases come from the huge amounts of fossil fuels used to bake limestone to make Portland Cement.

Here is a recent video that shows how these earthenware stoves are built:

The countries that are least responsible for climate-changing emissions are often those that suffer the most when climate catastrophes strike. Nicaragua is a case in point. As part of an effort to make all our activities in the San Juan del Sur as “Green” and Climate Friendly as possible (ZERO cement in EcoStoves, COMPRESSED EARTH BLOCKS instead of kilned bricks, BAMBOO instead of iron rods as a structural building material, etc.) we are pleased to support a REFORESTATION project conceived by Board member Eric Olson: THE NEWTON SISTER CITY FOREST which pays local men and women to plant appropriate species of trees in otherwise neglected locations. As you know, trees sequester atmospheric carbon and produce oxygen (useful for critters with lungs).

Eric Olson has been on the Board of the Sister City since 2019.  He completed his PhD in tropical ecology in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste Province, just over the border from the San Juan del Sur area.  Eric and his family lived in Newton for over 20 years, while he taught courses in environmental science at Brandeis.  On two different years he and fellow Board member Ms Aandy Dannenberg took Newton high school students on trips to the San Juan del Sur area, focusing on tropical biology and agriculture.  Eric retired from teaching in 2020 and that same year launched the Newton Sister City Forest Project, using native tree species to reforest abandoned pastures in the township of Ostional, about 25 km south of San Juan del Sur.  A team of Ostional-area women do the planting in lanes machete-cut through pasture brush by a team of Ostional caballeros. See the Tree Planting Team below. 10% of the funds raised to support reforestation is funneled to the FREE HIGH SCHOOL FOR ADULTS. You can give to this valuable effort on our CONTRIBUTE page; just be sure to earmark it for REFORESTATION.

WHY ARE WE WORKING ON A NEW MODEL STOVE FOR RURAL FAMILIES IN SAN JUAN DEL SUR?

Listen to what famed chef José Andrés has to say on this issue:

By José Andrés

Today, nearly half the world’s population still depends on open fires and solid fuels to cook their meals. Millions of people—mostly women, who do the cooking, and their children—die every year because of the smoke and pollution from these fires. Their children, usually daughters, may spend hours each day gathering wood, keeping them out of school and putting them into dangerous situations as they go out alone and unprotected. Cutting trees for fuel leads to deforestation, causing landslides and erosion of fertile land that can run off into the ocean, damaging coral reefs and marine ecosystems. It is a negative feedback loop with huge consequences, and it costs the global economy trillions of dollars annually.

The solution to this global crisis is simple but amazing: clean cooking. If we are able to introduce cleaner, modern cooking energy, and cookstoves for families and communities around the world, we can reverse this negative cycle with a positive one: mothers can cook safely for their families; more daughters can earn an education; forests, soils and reefs can be restored; and the climate can start to heal. Clean cooking is truly the best investment we can make for a healthier humanity and a healthier planet.

Andrés is a chef and the founder of World Central Kitchen

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The twin hurricanes, ETA and IOTA back to back, have the San Juan del Sur region reeling. No deaths in our region (so far) but our friends on the ground are involved in simultaneous Hurricane relief and anti-COVID measures. Nearby Tola was hit by flooding harder than San Juan del Sur proper, but they are neighbors, so it’s all hands on the muddy deck! Our employee Jordan Marín, who along with his wife and two kids was almost killed when a drunk driver hit their motorcycle, has been distributing PPE in the form of masks, alcohol gel, soap, and good advice.

When the land dries out (which in ordinary times it would be doing in mid-November) Jordan will begin an ambitious EcoStove project in several communities along the old “hypotenuse” road to Rivas called La Chocolata (named after the train whose old rail-bed is the road today). Our new stove model, invented by our friend Carlos Vidal Tenorio, uses only a little cement and iron rebar, depending mainly on a mix of sifted clay-rich earth and sifted dried-out horse manure as a “binder” to make our Compressed Earth Blocks, of which the stove itself is constructed. Photos can be found at https://www.flickr.com/photos/gringopinolero/albums/72157712809973683

To help us expand the use of these stoves (with chimneys, to get toxic smoke out of house and lungs) please go to the Contribute page of this website (or just click “Donate Now” to the right of the stove).

Despite political turmoil and COVID-19 (NO cases anywhere in Nicaragua as of March 16) our work has been going forward. In terms of Appropriate Technology, our focus has turned solely to the EcoStove project (efficient smoke-free cooking). In January and February families in the village of Cebadilla worked with us to build and install 16 of these stoves, the bodies of which are made entirely of clay-rich earth mixed with dried horse manure. (There’s a little imbedded rebar frame to support the two “burners” and the chimney uses a little cement and sheet metal.) The mothers (and grandmothers) who have started to use these stoves are delighted to be able to cook without breathing smoke all day. They also had a lovely time working with their neighbors to make the components for the stoves. See photos of the Cebadilla project at https://www.flickr.com/photos/gringopinolero/albums/72157712809973683

To continue this fine project we need your support.  Go to the Contribute page (see above) to make an easy tax-deductible online contribution.

We’ve also begun a series of garden projects using drip irrigation, one at the Free High School for Adults, and another planned for the new Gaspar García Laviana Hospital not far from the Mayor’s office. The focus of this second garden with be on medicinal plants.

The Free High School itself is going gangbusters, with plenty of students coming to the beautiful new campus, and plans afoot to buy a second yellow school bus to bring them from rural communities to the new campus. Photos of the opening day ceremonies at https://www.flickr.com/photos/gringopinolero/albums/72157713037141997

If you like, you can earmark your online contribution to the Free High School.

Please stand by us as we continue our work in the San Juan del Sur region.