Up until the last few days I've mostly been talking to people on the base about issues with open fire cooking and looking up journal articles that speak to the dangers related to it so I could prepare a thorough and culturally appropriate survey for the village. I'm hoping my results will show that it would be safer and healthier to switch to biogas stoves, which are run on gas generated from human, plant and animal waste. This will help the YWAM base gain credibility in their biogas project and hopefully help them get more funding so they can help more people build the biogas systems. Regular gas stoves are not a great option here because the LP gas is more expensive than most people can afford. I'm looking at things like burns, injuries while gathering firewood, eye irritation, cataracts, and pterygium related to cooking with open fires. Last week I was talking to someone about the issue of finding firewood. They were saying that people will climb up the trees (mostly palm type trunks) and cut it with machetes, which can be dangerous. Some people also do not have any wood on their land and trespass and may be injured if they are caught. You can buy firewood, but it is about $6 a bundle, and that only lasts 1-2 meals.
On Friday, we surveyed a family who had actually come to the YWAM base to see about the biogas because they had heard about it and were interested. They were happy to see us and gave us lemonade and cookies, which is a rarity. The grandmother in the house is on dialysis, so we prayed for her healing while we were there. She was grateful to us for praying and sent us home with a bag of cookies. I think I read only about 50 people in Samoa are on dialysis because they do not have a doctor that is qualified to do the surgery that enables someone to do dialysis, so one comes on mission every so often. There are also no ophthalmologists (eye doctors) here. The people often rely on mission teams for specialists.
Things to pray for: that we are able to survey a lot of households and have the energy to keep walking (and walking) in the heat; that my translator will understand how I need the survey to be presented; that the families we go to will be happy to see us, open to the idea of biogas, and clearly answer survey questions. On a personal note, my eyes are itchy and yucky, so please pray that it goes away.
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