Isabel de León de Tay’s happiness is contagious. She has lived in Santa Lucía Utatlán, Sololá, for over thirty years with her husband, Eduardo (59), and their three children, Josue, Cecia, and Elia. Entering the community, it is easy to spot Isabel, who waves furiously to someone she may (or may not) recognize.

For this reason, when a group of Habitat for Humanity volunteers came to help her family build their first stove, Isabel says that she was over the moon. “Five people came to construct the stove. It took about fifteen days to cut the blocks. Then about half a day to put them together.” She grins at the memory. “They chatted a lot and played with my children. They were so happy.”

For over thirty-two years, Isabel (50) prepared meals in the ground. Speaking K’iche, an indigenous language to the area, she recounts that her old way of cooking was a nightmare. “I used to cook in the earth before, with no grill atop.” She draws block shapes in the air as she speaks for emphasis. “It was a few bricks stacked on top of one another, then lined with a piece of iron, and that way, I cooked my tortillas.”

She feared for her health and her children. “The stove bothered my eyes tremendously. It cost me so much to cook—my health, my work. Everything took so much more time. I couldn’t leave my children for a single moment, because they would always grab at the pieces.” She giggles, cutting the story short. “Now, they still try to touch the stove, which I let them do, because I’m no longer afraid that they will burn themselves!”

The new stove has made an enormous difference. Isabel holds her arms out as if she were about to embrace a large person. “When I cooked in the ground, I needed this much wood every single day. I had to buy it.” She notes that although the new stove still needs wood as fuel, it uses so little that she no longer has to purchase it. Instead, she only has to look for wood once a week. With the extra money she saves, Isabel can buy maize. “So much more maize!” she beams.

We ask if she has something that she would like to say on the experience. She claps her hands together in appreciation. “I don’t have many words to say in Spanish, but in K’iche, I thank you for your hard work. I’m so happy with the stove. When are you all going to come back to visit me?”

At sixteen years old, Modesta Maricela Jitatz Gui Gui is in charge of the family meals. Her mother, Liliana, just gave birth to her ninth child, leaving Modesta with the challenge of cooking for up to twenty family members, which includes her siblings, parents, cousins, and more when they return from harvesting their strawberry crop.

Despite what seems like a daunting task, Modesta embraces that challenge. She is particularly grateful for the family’s Habitat for Humanity Guatemala smokeless stove. Because of its efficiency and clean burning, the stove allows her to prepare more food for more people in a shorter period of time. Modesta says that she is thrilled that the metal surface heats up quickly to make large quantities of tortillas. Also, she only has to go out to look for firewood once a week.

Modesta says that she doesn’t miss the old stove, which is a complete contrast to her current one. She remembers that there was always a lot of smoke in her kitchen and that the old stove would eat up copious amounts of firewood. “It was two blocks with a grill stacked on top of it,” she explains, putting her hands out for emphasis. “There was all smoke and no fire. And we have to cook for so many people, so it was hard.”

The new stove only took about a day to construct. Modesta recalls that her father helped shape the blocks and that soon after, a group of international volunteers used them to help build the stove. “They spent the whole day working, until the afternoon,” she reflects. “We are so grateful to all that they have done, and we suffer no longer because of their work.”

Elida Crecia’s small kitchen is carefully kept and impeccably clean. Every tin cup, condiment, and utensil has its place, whether it is tucked carefully between the slats in the bamboo walls or balanced delicately on a wooden shelf. In the middle of her kitchen, the very axis of the meal preparation, she has built her smokeless stove.

“We borrowed our last stove,” she quietly tells us, shifting her two-year-old son, Clinton, on her hip. “It was never ours. But this stove, this is something we can call our own. My husband constructed the bricks, and he also helped build the stove. It took about half a day.”

Although Elida is shy, it is clear that the stove brings her a new joy. She reveals that smoke no longer fills her kitchen, making breathing a lot easier for her and Clinton. They also need not worry about the quantity of firewood, which her husband must go out and search for. “Before, he would leave multiple times a week,” Elida says. “Now, it’s just once a week.”

Elida has fond memories of the team that came to help build her stove and is grateful for their dedication. She describes them has very friendly and hardworking.  More than anything, she wants them to know the following: “May they keep fighting for people like us.”