We welcomed Ting Mao and Abir Liben from Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Comprehensive Initiative for Technology Evaluation (MIT-CITE) program in July 2013. They interviewed technology users on the Indonesian islands of Alor and Bali over one month to research case studies on Kopernik technologies. Ting Mao shares her impressions from their field trips.
We made three field trips in July to study the UB.03-1 Biomass Stove and the Nazava Water Filter. With dozens of interview transcripts in hand, fresh memories of the household visits came back to me. Our first interview was with the wife of the village leader in Nyuh Kuning about her experience with the Nazava filter. She patiently explained to us how she installed it and maintained it.
I was thrilled to hear that the water filter helped her family save a handsome amount of money they used to spend buying water every month.
After the interview, she even offered to give us a free motor ride to visit other households. The hospitality we received in other houses in Nyuh Kuning was equally heart-warming.
We learned a lot about the culture and customs of Alor, East Nusa Tenggara, by staying with a family in the mountain village of Lakwati. Kalep, the founder of the village savings and loans group, was also our host. He shared stories with me about how he started the group, and his extensive overseas experience working in the non-profit sector. I was really impressed with the group’s influence and popularity as well as Kalep’s kind-heartedness in returning to Alor to contribute to his community. The local technology agents and Kopernik's field coordinator, Iman, overcame many communication obstacles to connect us with 11 people using the biomass stove on the island.
When the women in the households talked to us enthusiastically about how the biomass stove helped them save a lot of wood and produced much less smoke, I felt genuinely happy for them.
They accommodated our requests to take photos of them and their stoves with no hesitation. At times, the villagers generously gave us local oranges and cocoa beans grown in their own yards, so we could experience the local flavors. We also had our most authentic encounter with freshly ground sambal (chili sauce) made by the women in our host family.
Our final trip was to Desa Ban, another mountain village, however this time we visited school children instead of households. When we arrived, Kopernik's local partner, East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP), gave us a brief introduction to the history of the organisation.
We were shocked by the sheer extent of severe poverty in this isolated part of Bali.
When we arrived at the school, I was pleasantly surprised to see the students looked so happy and healthy as they welcomed us with singing and dancing. Despite the school's limited resources, the children were passionate about learning. We learned from the teachers that since the school started using the water filters, the students are drinking much more water and there are fewer incidents of diarrhea. I was delighted to see how they embraced the technology, and how they would be able to escape the poverty trap with the help of EBPP.
By: Ting Mao 
MIT students Ting Mao and Abir Liben interviewed technology users on the Indonesian island of Alor
Students in Desa Ban, East Bali, welcomed the MIT team
Author:
Sally Bolton
Update Type:
Kopernik in action
Tags:
Indonesia
Bali
water filter
biomass stove
Environment
Health
Children