Learning From People

A rat proof box

When Dr. Larry Winiarski and I lived for a season at Rancho San Nicolas in Baja California Sur, Mexico we wanted to be helpful. We built cook stoves, solar cookers and other delightful inventions that we found interesting. But Larry was an insightful fellow and he started to listen to folks and ask them what problems they wanted to solve.

We had such a great time at the ranch, people were so nice, but Larry learned more than I did because he was born in Honduras and was more fluent in Spanish. It took me a couple of years to be able to understand what folks were saying. Speaking the language is important for many reasons!

After a while, Larry and I started working with the rancheros making rat proof boxes from available wire reinforced cement. Steel would have been great but was much too expensive and you couldn’t get it anyway. Rats were eating so much food and storage was a major problem. Stoves were great but homemade rat proof boxes took off like hot cakes. 

We started making boxes and became more helpful. Folks loved Larry anyway but now he wasn’t just good company. After a couple of years, I started fixing holes in boats.