Please save any old newspapers and non glossy magazines

Linda Stapleton said:

As I've posted on here before, we support Messef Orphanage in Haiti and one of the very many challenges they face is finding enough firewood for cooking, as the country has pretty much been decimated of trees etc.

We've learned of a method for making small briquettes that can be used for fuel from all kinds of waste, but what we are trying to get in bulk is old newspapers and non glossy magazines. I believe most of the unsold ones have to be return to the supplier but if anyone knows of how I could obtain these or, if you take a newspaper yourself and come into Sosua from time to time, please help!

They can be brought into the West Indies Real Estate office in Calle David Stern, just around the corner from the Casa Marina Hotel and a little way down the street by Hotel Don Andreas.

Many thanks.

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Quick questions:

1. Why focus on burning solid fuel when it is logistically easier (and cheaper) to procure gas?
2. Do you have a sustainability plan for the fuel consumption or is the vision for the future to always rely on donations of paper?
3. What other alternatives have you considered, has bio-gas been an option?

Thanks

Linda,

When we have puppies we also need old newspapers, and I found out the following.

Go to where they sell newspapers and ask for the old ones, they will then proceed to take the front page off, and they will give you the rest. I normally go to Coastal, and always arrive home with a big stack.

What I used to do, in Jarabacoa, was to go to the local funeral home, and I would get all the left-over obituaries. One trip was good for a stack of about 3'.

Good luck.

BelgianK

Just a thought about alternatives (they are very cheap, they work very well, and there is nothing else needed once they are set up) ....

Solar Cooking
Solar Cookers International

You'd be surprised at how many in the US are already using them (including cheap, homemade ones). Just do a Google search ....

Derfish said:

Last year at my restaurant three dcifferent people over the 6 months I was there tried a solar cooker. None of them could get them to work and the haitians I knew who had been given one thought they were quite humorous. They said the kids would have died of hunger before aany thing got cooked. And they also said the thigs were so small that there wasn't enuff room for food for 3 people and everyone's family is at least that big.

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Yep. You're probably right about what you experienced.. Unfortunately they do need to be set up correctly, and at the right size. Probably not for everyone because of that. Just can't slap one together. And the trade off is that they do take longer than a regular oven (more like a slow cooker). New habits are had to adapt ....

But, if I had no other (or limited) cooking fuel ... it might be better than eating raw meat. Check out YouTube and search for solar ovens. You will see what I mean ....

solar ovens - YouTube

Derfish said:

Saw all I needed toi see with the real life experiments with this fantasy. Anyone can make a video.
Der Fish

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Fair enough.

take a look at rocket stoves. they do require wood, but twigs work really well. google will turn up designs by the million.

What is disconcerting to say the least that given the cheap price of natural gas that the Haitian government could not find it important enough to help create the infrastructure so that it's citizens could have a cheap alternative to charcoal that is systematically destroying their environment. That begs the question if their exists another government on this planet that hates it's own citizens than the Haitian one???

I am aware that there are those who disagree with me on this. And I agree that not everyone has had a good experience with solar cooking. It is fair for them to be distrustful of it. Given their experience, I would be as well. I have no argument to make with them. All things considered, they are certainly not wrong to criticize it.

But, there is already some of this activity within the DR and Haiti ... and in the DR, you could probably go and see for yourself. (Some of the "commercial" units are actually made in the DR.) See the following video.

(I am not affiliated in any way with the group in this video, nor am I affiliated with any manufacturer/seller of any solar products.)

Best of luck with your work!

<iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oy02Hjb5Ows?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If you guys are in PP you might try contacting Quisqueya Christian School as they were apparently a center of mission outreach after the earthquake. I was there a week and met Sean Penn there.

Quisqueya Christian School | To Prepare and Equip Students to Transform Their World For the Glory of Jesus Christ

I can probably get you lots of newpapers. How do we go about getting them to you?
And where?

HB

Have Ringo mule them to Sosua, on his next trip back from visiting Santiago.

While Ringo is probably the best of possible mules, he is working on a lot of stuff. I can find a way...just wondering.

Which is not to say if Mr. Starr should wish to stop by when I get them organized....well, we need to do first things first.

Blessings people.


HB

Derfish said:

Wouldn't one use rocket fuel in a rocket stove?
Der Fish

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.

good point, Derfish

Chip said:

What is disconcerting to say the least that given the cheap price of natural gas that the Haitian government could not find it important enough to help create the infrastructure so that it's citizens could have a cheap alternative to charcoal that is systematically destroying their environment. That begs the question if their exists another government on this planet that hates it's own citizens than the Haitian one???

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Thats a tough one! Hmmm, checking the latest on the debt clock in USA-every citizen now owes about 186,000usd as their portion of the national debt and this doesnt seem to be a government concern and will affect generations. So again to answer your question............. U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time

Linda Stapleton said:

The cost of putting them on Caribe Tours might not be worthwhile....

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Not only that.
There may be some very basic physical considerations you may be missing:

Moving newspapers to use them as energy ALSO REQUIRE ENERGY.

In order for the whole thing to make sense, the amount of energy generated by the papers must exceed (by a significant margin) the amount of energy spent transporting them!

I am extremely sceptical that that will be the case (no matter which transportation method is used).
For example, if a person was to attach a trailer to a vehicle in order to transport a sizeable amount of papers from the Dominican Northwest coast to Juana Mendez (where they would be used), chances are that the amount the energy in the ADDITIONAL fuel that the papers would make the vehicle burn (assuming the vehicle would have gone to JM anyway without the papers) will exceed the energy value of the papers (of course it would be crazy if the sole purpose of the trip was to transport the papers). In other words, all parties would be better off if the person who would pay for the ADDITIONAL fuel needed to pull the trailer with the papes, forget about the papers, and instead donate the cost of the (additional) fuel the orphanage.

The whole thing might perhaps make a bit of sense if the papers are local papers delivered to the orphanage by local people (from JM) who would have driven by anyway....