Mennonite
Central
Committee

Float Pond

 

The Project

In the Bolivian Chaco, a family burns an average of four tons of wood each year for cooking and heating. As each year passes, women and children must walk farther in search of fuel. The Lorena stove reduces the amount of wood needed each day by two-thirds. $100 allows for two Lorena stoves to be installed.

 

The Game

We got FREE blocks of wood from a local wood working shop. On some blocks we painted colors; on the bottom of others we wrote questions about the project in permanent marker. We floated these blocks in a swimming pool.

Beside the pool we constructed a campfire using 5 pieces of firewood, red/orange/yellow flames cut from foam core will stand up between the firewood. "Pretend" smoke was a flexible silver tube that snaked up from the firewood. A silver dryer venting tube was duct taped to a plastic 2 liter bottle. Logs held the 2 liter/smoke tube in place and the foam core flames covered the bottle. A sign "YOU CAN HELP SAVE TREES" is posted near the fire.

To play, children drop their coins into the silver "smoke" vent and listen to the storyteller describe children in Bolivia, the difficulties of collecting and finding firewood, what happens when trees aren't replaced and the Lorena stove that uses less wood. They are then invited to pick a block of wood from the swimming pool and answer the question about the project to receive a small prize (MCC pencil?). If they choose a color block they also win a prize. Of course, the majority of the blocks have a question or a color since we want all children to win.