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June 20, 2007

Kufunda Village, working with Zvimba community

Kufunda works with five rural communities, one of which is Zvimba community, about two hours west of Harare. I went there for a Bira ceremony, an all-night ritual. Here are photos of visiting Felistis, one of the women who has been attending Kufunda workshops.
Some items of note (that she learned at Kufunda and is not only implementing at home but teaching her community) are mulch in her garden, herb gardens, rammed earth buildings and this fuel saving stove.
While this stove is quite useful for reducing the wood you need to cook (the clay walls absorb and store heat, as opposed to an open fire) but Kufundees have learned that the stove is not always the "appropriate" technology they meant it to be. In the winter, the open fire in the center of the hut serves not only as a stove but also as a heater for the family--so they don't want the clay walls to "take" all of the heat! Felistis said that they use the clay stove in the summer when they don't need the heat. For now, it's a nice spot for their "pet" Zebra. ;-)
The item that caught my eye the most, however, was something that Felistis created herself: her dish shelves. She made these beautiful shelves out of clay from ant hills! Somehow, ants seem to find or make super strong clay, great for building!!

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