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No.
04 July 2004
Dear
friends,
 It’s
wonderful to serve people with the Sun. During a
conference in Thailand we experienced a lot of interest
in solar cooking. Even Thai government officials were
excited and asked questions like “why it was not
established in Thailand yet?”. There is a whole field
open to provide solar cookers in all provinces in this
country. We felt overwhelmed and also helpless because
we are not able to response to this request. If there
were only a few people in Thailand who had a vision for
solar cooking, a whole country lies open for them. There
is a need for solar workers! The past few months has
been very excited for us in Vietnam. We would like to
tell you more in this
letter.
International
day of Environment
May-be you did not know
but June 5th was the International Day of Environment.
We decided to celebrate this day with a demonstration in
solar cooking in front of a People’s Committee building
in Binh Minh village. Our staff asked 50 participants of
our solar cooking course to cook with there newly
provided solar cookers. We also added five parabolic
solar cookers for frying. It was a whole day of setting
up, going to the market, preparing the dishes for
cooking, waiting and eating. At the beginning the
parabolic solar cookers caught a lot of attention when
people could see and smell the cooked food, while the
normal cookers are just sitting in the sun without any
excitement. It was the first time that we used the
parabolic cookers in public and people were standing in
disbelieve when a piece of paper burned in 30
sec.
When we opened the 50
other solar cookers the people changed their mind,
because they were able to see and smell the cooked
dishes in the solar cookers too. And after we ate with
100 people (young and old) there was no doubt anymore
that it was possible to cook with the sun.
A
few days before a film crew passed our house while our
staff were cooking with the cookers. This was so new for
them that they made a short film and a few days later we
were on local and later on national television. Free
advertisement.
The
environment day was a great success and an also
encouragement for our staff. Here are some pictures:
Solar Serve
staff
10 parabolic and 50 solar
cookers
Paper burns in 30 seconds
A large pot of beans for
cooking
Fried (grilled)
fish
Fried (grilled) duck
Time to open the solar
cookers
Also men were
cooking
Checking the food
Delicious solar
cooked
dishes
Enjoying there first solar
meal
Women’s Union thanked our staff
 Minority
group Katu
Last month we
transferred 30 solar cookers to the mountains near
Danang to help the Katu, an ethnic minority group. The
Katu people were headhunters before, but now live and
work in peace. Every day they work in the forest, but we
managed to arrange a time with them. The Katu people
eat, live and behave differently, so it was a challenge
for our staff to adopt their lifestyle. But it turned
out well and our staff felt in love with them. The
people were very simple and friendly and loved cooking
with the sun. When our staff were teaching them, another
film crew were making a documentary about the Katu
working in the field. They could not find them, because
they were cooking with their solar cookers. When the
film crew found out and saw what they were doing, they
became so excited and decided to make a documentary
about this “new” idea. It will be shown on Danang
television soon. It helped our staff to understand that
what they are doing is very valuable. Sometimes people
look down on them. The solar cookers are not high tech.
Vietnam is a poor country and people think that high
technology shows development. But we know better! The
adoption of solar energy will help them a lot and even
the environment will
change.
Solar
beach demonstration
After a few days working with the Ka Tu
people two staff members came  down to Danang. Solar Serve was
responsible to host a group of volunteers working in
Vietnam. We cooked a solar lunch on the beach, and it
was good for them to see our newly made parabolic solar
cooker. Till now we have made 10 of them and we are
trying to find ways how we can practically use
them.
When
we finished our solar lunch a professor from a
University of Sweden saw our staff putting the cookers
away. He was a guest in the hotel but works for the
ministry of agriculture in Hanoi. He became very excited
when he saw the cookers. He made it very clear to us
that he wanted to use them in the north for his project.
If it works well he will contact us for further
co-operation. We had already made a purpose for those
cookers, but we decided to help the professor. The next
day he had already arranged transport. He was very
thankful and called and mailed us a few days later to
thank us again. Our staff was very excited that a
foreigner, who works with the Vietnamese government,
appreciated their cookers. We hope we can serve more
people in Vietnam like this.
A
time to reflect
At
the end of this Summer we would like to have a time
together with our staff. It will help us to understand
our purpose and goal in helping the poor and needy. Last
year we had a small group, but this year we have more
staff. We need the input of all, so that we can work
hand in hand together. It is a privilege to serve the
poor people and we need to encourage each other to keep
that always in mind. This time together will be a great
opportunity to share with each other the wonderful
things of the last few months. May-be small for you, but
for us it was great!
Again
keep in touch
This letter was
written for your information. Please remember us. We
can’t do this work alone. We need you to hold our hands
up. Please keep in touch while we are all serving in the
presence of the Sun.
Greetings,
Solar
Serve Team
Called
To Serve
See
also: No.1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17|18|19|20|21|22|23|24|25|
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