Good News

Before leaving El Salvador for a two week vacation in the good 'ol US of A, I received word that Maria Irene fired more comales in her kiln and they all came out beautifully.

Therefore, work has resumed on all kilns and I will update you as soon as I am back in my little community - approximatly the 3rd or 4th of January.

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays!

Senora Andrea Ramos García

The second kiln to receive work was that of Senora Andrea Ramos García. Her kiln was constructed differently then that of Maria Irene – it is a combination of square and round kilns. The picture below left shows the oven before work while it was in use. Unlike normal square kilns, the wood burns on the ground below – normally this is elevated by iron bars. It is also an unusually small kiln.

Learning from Maria Irene’s kiln, this kiln was given a few more days to dry and then was fired without pieces inside to dispel any remaining moisture. Also, when she was done firing the pieces, the entry to the wood chamber was closed to prevent the chimney from acting in reverse and drawing cold air down.

Thankfully, her kiln worked beautifully and she is thrilled with the results.

We´re still awaiting Maria Irene´s second firing before we proceed further. Andrea´s kiln was done before we fired in Maria´s.

Señora Maria Irene Pérez

The first completed kiln is one belonging to Señora Maria Irene Pérez.

This kiln is used by three artisans to fire their pieces and is a perfect example of its kind. You can see in the photo to the right that the kiln is round, but open on top. When firing the pieces, the kiln was covered by pieces of lamina - which allowed most of the heat to escape and destroy both the lamina put on top and the lamina that acted as a roof.

This is what the kiln now looks like. As you can see, it’s been built up, closed in and a chimney now extends beyond the roof.

Being the first one finished, it was also the first one tried. Unfortunately, not all went according to plan. 40 of the 120 comales (large, clay plates) came out cracked. It is for that reason that we have temporarily stopped this sort of construction. We’re waiting for this artisan to fire again and see if it was a flook the first time.

Possible reasons for the breakage include:

• If the oven was heated to quickly


• If the oven cooled too quickly.


• If the oven wasn’t given sufficient time to dry.

It could be a combination of the three - it’s a new design and thus needs to be worked out. I’ll keep you updated as to how it goes. And don´t worry about the artisan´s loss - I reimbursed her for the lost comales.

This, surprisingly, doesn’t affect the entire project. 4 out of the 9 artisans have chosen to add some material themselves and construct their ovens from scratch - deeming the old ones to worn and need of repair. Of these artisans, some have chosen a different design - a square kiln that has proven to save wood and fire at a higher temperature

Transportation of Materials

Starting on the 13th of November and finishing up on the 19th of November was the delivery of construction materials to 9 different sites.

The process took so long because of the variety of materials needed and the need to buy the materials from various sources. The photo to the right is of sand being delivered to one of the artisans during the early evening.

Each woman was thrilled to be receiving the supplies and quickly worked to bring the materials to her home since they were left on the street closest to each home. But, this sometimes meant that the woman and her family would, in one case, carry 500 bricks up a hill. I never heard one complaint, only words of gratitude.

Work is now beginning on the first oven!

On a different note, I should explain some changes that have occurred. Originally, there were suppose to be 11 sites, but two artisans decided that they no longer wished to continue in the program. The funds that are left over will be used to benefit the association as a whole through training opportunities. I will write about those as they occur.

2nd Fundraiser

The group of artisans decided that making tamales would be their next fundraiser.

What is a tamale? It is a type of food made from corn. Not the type of corn you’re thinking, they take the dried cornels and cook them with cal to soften them up. Then they grind them into something that has the consistency of a sticky dough. They take this dough and fill it with veggies and chicken bits. Then they wrap it in a banana leaf and cook it. How? They fill a large pot with the little tamales and water, stick it over a fire and wait for about 2 hours.

I was pretty impressed by the participants. They worked hard for two days. They even organized to make more the following week since we over purchased on some items. I was particularly impressed by one woman who really took the lead, since she was the one with the most tamale experience.

The following week, they continued making tamales and succeeded in making a larger profit.

To view photos from this event, copy and paste the link below. Unfortunatly, you will have to sign up for snapfish, but at least it is a free service.

http://www1.snapfish.com/share/p=929231195824260788/l=323197639/g=11114116/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Our first fundraiser

Before starting any of the work on the kilns, we arranged to do two fundraisers. The funds raised from these events went back to the artisans to help pay for the labor.

I’ll start this off with a description of our first fundraiser – the raffling of a blender.

The raffle worked as follows – we made up about 25 lists. Each was numbered and on each list were the numbers 1 – 10. The women went to their family and friends and sold a number on a list for $.25.

Yes, I helped sell numbers and I believe I shook down pretty much everyone I know in the country.

On September 15th, we held the raffle in the Health Center of the community. To make sure no one would suspect foul number picking – we asked a doctor to pull the numbers.

At first, my boss in Peace Corps won – but he’s such a great guy that he allowed me to re-raffle the blender….even though he didn’t know it at the time.

The second winner was a little old woman from my community who was thrilled to have it!

Opening

As mentioned in the description of this blog, I’ve created it as a way for people to track the progress of the program and it’s changes.

I guess I should start with a description of the project – to catch everyone up.

In the small town of Santo Domingo de Guzman, in the western department of Sonsonate in El Salvador, works an artisan community. This group of over 60 men and women specializes in red pottery. As this group grows, it is coming across situations that restrict the expansion of their business. These limitations are presented in the form of production capacity and skill training opportunities.

The group concluded that they would focus their attention on improvements of existing ovens, construction of communal ovens and skill trainings. The new ovens will be communally used and centrally located. Existing ovens will be modified to include a chimney and a roof, among other work. Skill trainings would include work on a pottery wheel and painting classes.

I’m working in cooperation with a local NGO (non government organization), the artisans, and the town hall in financing this project. The NGO has agreed to pay for the two new ovens, the skill trainings and all the supplies necessary for the skill trainings. The town hall will help with transportation of building supplies and the artisans, themselves, will pay for the labor. All’s that is left is the construction materials for the improvements. This is where Peace Corps Partnership and all of you stepped in.

You may be asking, ‘what exactly are these ‘improvements’ you speak of?’ Let me explain. Many of the ovens are open on top – we would like to close the ovens, install a chimney and build a permanent roof.

The chimneys will:

A. Funnel smoke away from houses - reducing smoke related illnesses
B. Reduce the amount of wood needed to fire the pieces – the heat doesn’t
escape
C. Prevent destruction of the roof – the lamina roof is destroyed by the
fire and smoke rising from the ovens.

The permanent roofs will:

A. Protect the ovens from the nearly 6 months of rain received by El
Salvador yearly.
B. Expand the lifespan of the ovens – reducing overall costs to artisans

So, now that I have received the funds – the fun has begun!

Ohhh - picture of one of the ovens that will be recieving work.