Change the World!!!

I have felt that it should be ingrained into all of us the need to change the world. Not a lot. Your name doesn't have to be in the papers, but change something! I am trying to do my bit here on the property. This is an eco-friendly piece of Iowa. Everything is done by sweat, not by chemicals. I am trying to provide habitat for birds that have been pushed out. I thought I was doing my bit.

For a long time, I have thought it would be a good thing to send seeds to Africa. I don't know why this has been on my mind, but it has for a number of years. I thought if there was a clearing house of sorts, then seeds could be given to postal carriers and when they bicycled into a village he could hand out several handfuls of seed packets. It should be accompanied by instructions for composting and seed saving techniques. It would be easy, as long as you knew who to send the seeds to. Once in Africa, they could get into a distribution pipeline. Then I remembered my husbands cousin. DUH!! He goes to Africa almost every year. They build houses, schools and buy enriched rice shipments for some villages and orphanages. He has taken seed to Africa before and he will take more if I get the seed packs to him. While we were discussing this, I mentioned that it would be good if he introduced the Lorena stove as it takes minimal wood to burn, reduces the need to burn larger amounts of wood to make charcoal and therefore reduces deforestation. He hadn't heard of it.

Now I had a project I could be really useful at. I got on my natural building forum and asked for all the info I could get on the Lorena stove. This is where I had originally heard about it, and I thought the information would come gushing forth like a fountain. It didn't. The response was silence.... until yesterday. Gergo contacted me from eastern Europe. The area where he lives is fueled by natural gas. They are running out. Some days it is there and sometimes not. They need a way to cook and if I could send the information to him, "he would be very much thankful". So I have a project, not that I needed another. But I have been given the opportunity to make the world better. How can you say "no" to that?

I will be compiling information and test building a couple of small cookers, take some pictures and get it off to Gergo. Then I'll tell him to pay it forward. I'll also tell him that he is to remind everyone that for every tree they cut down, plant two, because we all need to change the world.

louie