Ponco-pancannagol

This Pular verb means: to play in the mud.  It's the perfect verb for what I've been up to this morning:

This is a foyer ameliore, also known as a mud cookstove.  It's pretty basic: you start with the traditional 3 rocks that are used to hold up the cooking pot, but add a hefty ring of mud that encases the rocks and forms a wall that goes right up to the "ears" (handles) of the cooking pot (visible just behind the stove-- I did get just a bit of mud on the cooking pot during the construction).  You leave an entry for firewood to go in, and leave a finger's width of space between the mud wall and the sides of the cooking pot, for heat and smoke to escape, and voila, a way to cook that uses less firewood, and (I think this is the biggest selling point) is a lot less dangerous for little kids: it's all too easy for a toddler to trip and fall into an open fire, or upset a pot balanced on three rocks; the mud cookstove keeps the fire out of reach of kids, and is a more stable base for a cooking pot. 

The local Eaux et Forets agent for Sebhory, Mr. Sacko, is interested in trying these stoves out in Sebhory, so we've started with this one, at Ayende's house.  She's one of the few women in the tree nursery group that Sacko organized, so he volunteered her as the mud stove guinea pig: once this one dries, she's going to try cooking on it and let us know how it works.  Since it's just mud, we can make a lot of changes in the next generation if this one doesn't work well: we can add smoke holes, make the space for the fire in the middle bigger or smaller, adjust the opening for firewood or add a second firewood opening if she likes, or have the pot sit higher or lower (too low and there's not enough space for a fire; too high leaves too much space for heat to disperse). 

So, wish us luck with the stove design-- I'm hoping I have lots more mud in my future.