Week 2 in Addis

More updates from Ethiopia! Where did we leave off? We have now been in Addis for 2 weeks, and time is moving incredibly fast! Our activities in the office have picked up as we are quickly trying to implement the kerosene stove dissemination into the refugee camps. Last week we accompanied Harry and Milkyas for a few hours to a demonstration of the CleanCook stove at the Hilton in Addis. Harry and Milkyas had been attending a conference on biofuels and had many inquiries about the functioning of the CC stove, so they decided to hold a demonstration. The demonstration at the Hilton went really well, and many biochemists and even an ambassador to Brazil attended to see the stove. Harry and Milkyas have been doing great work talking about the lack of ethanol in Ethiopia and are gaining some attention from high officials and other nations. We are currently investigating the possibility of getting ethanol from Sudan, and Harry is talking with ethanol producers in Sudan.
Throughout the week, we have been working mainly on testing various kerosene stoves in order to provide the refugees with the best burning stove. We have three options now: the one that most people use throughout the developing world, a small green stove produced in China, another Chinese stove that is very large and stable with 18 wicks, and a smaller Indian made stove. We are testing each of the stoves with a water boiling test and simmer test to see which stove is more appropriate. The water boiling test allows us to see how quickly each stove brings water to a boil, while the simmer test measures the amount of fuel burned. We are conducting each test three times on the stoves and are in the middle of the testing, and the office constantly smells of kerosene!! We will soon hopefully choose the best stove for our project, although not the stoves we want to be using, and talk to UNHCR to buy the stoves and the kerosene. As soon as this is done, we can travel to the refugee camps and implement our training program on using the kerosene stoves safely, as they are much more dangerous than ethanol stoves.
We have also been working on other small projects around the office including editing and discussing a video made for Project Gaia. We took the video to the UNHCR yesterday in order to have the public information manager review the video and make comments regarding changes.
Overall we have had a good glimpse of development work and the difficulties of trying to get the Ethiopian government to create a larger flow of ethanol. The government, like many other governments, has put all their effort with ethanol into fuel blending for cars. This means that petroleum is now mixed with ethanol, and no ethanol is left for household fuels. It is very difficult to convince the government to move resources that benefit the elites and provide the poorer communities with ethanol. We are trying to import the ethanol from Sudan, but that also proves to have obstacles because ethanol has never been imported for fuel in Ethiopia. There are many barriers, taxes, and ministries that are against the importation of ethanol and do not understand the necessity of ethanol as a household fuel.
Outside of work things have been going very well in Addis. The electricity seems to be getting worse as the guesthouse has only had power at night 1 out of the last 4 nights. Currently we are at the office and we are supposed to have electricity but the power just went out. It seems that days with electricity have been interrupted and are not fully powered, and we just hope that it doesn’t get worse. It’s very difficult to work when laptops can’t be charged! Last weekend we spent some time working in the office since there was no electricity at the house and met with Gaia’s business partner that is working on commercializing the stove. We also visited Addis Ababa University, which has an absolutely beautiful campus. It reminded me of a larger, Ethiopian version of Gettysburg College, with students chatting in the shade under trees. Our other stop for the weekend was the Merkato, which is said to be the largest market in Africa. Since we went on Saturday, we were caught in a frenetic crowd of people buying everything from spices to butter to clothes to mops. Being Project Gaia, we of course stopped to look what kinds of stoves are sold to the local people, but we also explored the spice market, where women sit enthroned on huge sacks filled with any kind of spice or incense you could imagine. You can just see those same spices being brought from China or India thousands of years ago. At the same time, of course, the Merkato is littered with cheap, imported plastic goods. It’s quite a contrast.
Now it’s the weekend again, so hopefully we can have some adventures and possibly go hiking and let you know how the view outside of Addis is!