SunRice Cooker: The Trip - Day Five

The final day of my trip arrived. We planned on visiting four different villages in one day, so we could talk to as many people as we could. Instead of the usual routine of giving a presentation and then setting up the cookers, we decided on a different approach for the most busy day.

We drove to all the villages and quickly set up a cooker at each one, and left. Then, we would revisit each village and have a small Q&A about the SunRice cookers while we demonstrated the devices capabilities. 

At the end of the day Dr. Satish and I resolved to bringing around ten cookers every month until the grant money ran out.

SunRice Cooker: The Trip - Day Four

We planned to go to the fishing villages near the south side of the island. My aunt told me that we would be seeing the families of some of the children that we had met in our first presentation. I was excited to see if the children would remember my presentation and how the SunRice cooker worked.

Setting up the cookers.

Our first scheduled meeting was at 9 a.m. Our car pulled up next to a row of ramshackle huts and as soon as we got out, a group of around ten children ran up to us jumping and yelling about how we were the "solar cooker guys"!

It was nice to see that they had remembered us, so my aunt and I took a bunch of pictures with them.

We set up the cookers, and gave the presentation outside at one of the halls of their temple.

When we finished our presentation we came back to find that the kids had already taken out the cooked rice and started eating it. They were so enthusiastic that we let them show off the cookers to the rest of the people there.

SunRice Cooker: The Trip - Day Three

I have been busy, relaxing in London, where I have been on vacation for the past two weeks. Now that my vacation is over however, I can continue updating the blog!

Early in the morning we set out to our workshop for the day, which was with a women's self help group. The skies were relatively overcast so we were worried that our cookers wouldn't function fully. We arrived at the village and set up the cookers, but the wind was so strong that we could only use the fiberglass one.

There were a little under 100 women, but we couldn't hold the presentation outside because of the wind, so we decided to hold it in groups of around 20 inside one of the houses.

Once our presentations finished, we went outside to conduct the workshops but realized that it was too cloudy for the cookers to actually boil water in a reasonable amount of time. Nonetheless the women embraced the idea, so we left one of our cookers with them to try out the next day.

SunRice Cooker: The Trip - Day Two

We received an invitation from a local mosque to give a presentation of our cookers to the women congregants in the morning. My aunt told me that the local Muslim women were rarely allowed to come to non-religious activities, and that she had not once been allowed to talk to this particular group of women. 

Answering questions about the cooker

After the presentation we held a workshop to show how the cooker worked in real life. The women seemed enthusiastic about using the cooker for their day to day food preparation and asked a lot of questions about the practicalities of our device.

Listening to the women's reactions to our cooker

My aunt later told me that our presentation had been so successful that she had been invite back for a series of followup presentations once I left.

From the left: A local reporter, me, one of the mosque leaders, Dr. Satish

SunRice Cooker: The Trip - Day One

Satish and I arrived at the Rameshwaram Station in Pamban Island, on Friday morning at 4 a.m. (the earliest I’ll get up all summer). We drove back from the train station to my aunt Malli's house, at the central village of Thagachimadam, which means "sister’s place" in the local tongue. We freshened up a bit and got ready for the day ahead of us. 

Making posters for the workshops and presentations

Before I arrived, I had written a bunch of PowerPoints on how the SunRice Cooker worked and we decided to use them during our presentations. Our general formula for each event would be for me to give a presentation about the cooker, with my aunt translating, and then hold a bunch of workshops to let the people see the cookers in action.

The event for the day was at the Yagappa School, a high school that my aunt and I had worked with before on my Laptop Project. We met with the principal at around 9am to go over the details of our day. We were scheduled to speak only with the 10^th graders, and hold two workshops for them. 

Malli and I talking about how the cooker works.

Satish setting up a cooker for a workshop.

Lunchtime was called while we were holding our workshops and the whole school saw our cookers in action. The 9^th grade students were so excited that they requested the principal to let us present for them as well. 

During their lunch period many of the children were excited to get a look at the cookers.

All in all we spoke to at least 500 students, and had left such an impression that some of the 9^th graders decided to use our cooker at the regional science fair.

The principal of the school and I, infront of two 10th grade classes

India in One Week

I've been emailing back and forth with my aunt and Satish, and it looks as if we've figured out the problem with the cooker. My aunt had been trying to use a pot that wasn't painted black, so the pot couldn't absorb all of the suns rays.

Some of the women that my aunt showed the cookers to.

 Satish sent over a new pot and everything seems to be working properly. Good news as I will be leaving for India next week!

My Next Trip and a Grant!

School is finally finished, and with it some good news. Over the winter, I applied for the Winton Scholarship at my school. I was recently told that I had been chosen as the recipient of the prize and a $2000 grant that goes along with it! I will be using the money to fund my next trip to Pamban/Rameshwaram.

At the end of this month, I will be bringing around 30 of the solar cookers to Pamban Island. While there my aunt and I will be meeting with community leaders and having workshops, teaching the villagers how to effectively use the cookers.

For now, I am talking to Satish and my aunt to work out some details on the development of the new solar cooker, as it seems my aunt is having trouble cooking with the one of the prototypes. I will be talking to Satish and hopefully we will have the problem solved soon.

The Redesigned CooKit

Dr. Satish and I have been working together to find the right materials and parameters to make the CooKit work for the Rameshwaram climate. We finally settled on a design... check out the picture below!

We decided to make the cooker itself a little larger as well as add a grease trap. Right now it looks like each unit will cost around 3000 Indian rupees.