Joel Weber’s trip report about the Tickle College of Engineering Global Initiative’s Alternative Winter Break in Cuzco, Peru, building clay ovens.

Andrew Vick’s trip report about the Tickle College of Engineering Global Initiatives’ Alternative Winter Break in Cuzco, Peru, to build clay stoves.

Andy Skipper’s trip report about the Tickle College of Engineering Global Initiatives’ Alternative Winter Break in Cuzco, Peru, building clay stoves.

Ethan Bowman’s trip report about the Tickle College of Engineering Global Initiatives’ Alternative Winter Break in Cuzco, Peru, building clay stoves.

Quillen Blalock’s trip report about the Tickle College of Engineering Global Initiatives’ Alternative Winter Break in Cuzco, Peru, building cook stoves.

Evans Gritton’s trip report about his experience in Peru as part of the Tickle College of Engineering Study Abroad program in 2015.

Zach Bingham’s trip report about the Tickle College of Engineering Global Initiatives’ Alternative Winter Break in Cuzco, Peru, building cook stoves.

Ben Jacob’s trip report about the Tickle College of Engineering Global Initiatives’ Alternative Winter Break in Cuzco, Peru, building cook stoves.

After touring around the city, we were ready to work on our service project the next day. We built mud-brick stoves for families in a village about an hour’s drive east of Cusco in the Urubamba Valley. The stoves had chimneys which allowed the smoke to clear the room and leave through the roof.

The trip was based around working in rural communities to build ceramic stoves with chimney designs. The chimneys would help alleviate the smoke that gets trapped in houses during cooking, which has caused a tremendous increase in reported lung cancer cases. By helping communities build stoves, the hope is that long-term cancer rates and other respiratory ailments will begin to drop.