Smokeless Stove: Hortensia Tubac

Hortensia lives with her five children Vilma (27), Danny (23), Olga (21), Roxana (20) and Wilmer (13) in the village of El Duranzo, Chimaltenango.

For twelve years, Hortensia cooked over an open flame adobe stove, the smoke would fill the air of her kitchen causing smoke to enter her eyes and causing a cough. She had problems with the smoke before because it filled the area. “Now everything leaves,” she says. Hortensia, beams when talking about the new stove she received thanks to the volunteers with Habitat.

She likes her stove because it saves wood—she now uses only two pieces. “It’s good for cooking my food, especially my tortillas and her atol, a traditional central American dish made of corn. Her message for the brigade is this, “it was a pleasure to have you with us –you helped us in this and we never had to wait, thanks to God and to you for helping us with us.”