by
Charles Roring
After visiting Manado, the capital city of the province of North Sulawesi, I did not go anywhere. I only walked around Sonder town with my wife. After walking for around ten minutes, we arrived in a "porno" factory. "Porno" is term that the people in Minahasa use for their traditional stove. This stove is made of gray clay. In the past, Minahasan abandoned their traditional stoves and used kerosene or gas stoves. They thought that those stoves are more practical. They didn't have to chop the firewood into small pieces for cooking their food. It happened when the price of fuel was cheap. The government of Indonesia spent a lot of money on fuel subsidy.
When the Republic of Indonesia was attacked by monetary crisis, the government had to reduce their subsidy on fuel. Now the price of fuel is getting higher. The Minahasa people have to return to their traditional stove again. I took pictures of the porno stove and it was drizzling. So, the workers covered the stones they were drying in the sun. Later I came again to take clearer picture of those clay stoves.
Housewives have to chop firewoods into pieces before they can cook the food. Sometimes the wood doesn't burn well. They usually blow the ember several times until the flame is bigger. The design of porno stoves needs more improvement. The available design does not have exhaust pipe. As the result, smoke will spread all over the kitchen, and the house blackening the cookingware and the cook.
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