On Monday, our five trainees showed up to construct our first solar cookers in Atiak.

They were a little skeptical about what this weird cardboard and foil thing could do, but they were happy to try it out.

On the first day, the results were decidedly mixed. We made rice but it didn’t cook all of the way through.

Rice is a little expensive compared to other staple foods anyways, so an expensive food cooked badly didn’t warrant much excitement.

On the second day, we set out a cooker with water (for tea), one for beans, and one for posho. Posho is a staple food (kind of like grits) which is much more common, cheaper, and more popular than rice. It requires constant stirring (which is pretty labor-intensive) but the solar cooker manual claimed that we wouldn’t have to stir it at all.

Our group was skeptical.

By 11am we had heated our water for tea. Success #1!

But the best part of the day was when we checked on the posho…

Not only did the posho turn out well, but the time was comparable to a standard oven and no stirring was required! We realized this would free up tons of time for women that previously had to sit there and watch the posho as it cooked.

We celebrated our solar posho.

Then celebrated some more. I think that’s when everyone really decided the project was worthwhile. I left for Gulu for a few days (where I could better access the internet and get work done for my lab).  Our original goal was to make 10 cookers, but when I got back on Friday they had made 18!

People keep coming by the building and asking about the project. We don’t have a plan yet for how to keep the project going, but it looks like the interest is there. There are great potential outcomes in many domains – from public health (less breathing in smoke all of the time), girls education (more time to study instead of foraging for wood and cooking) and environmental conservation (less deforestation).

If anyone has suggestions for grants we could apply for to keep the project moving forward, please share!