Keeping My Hands Warm
It’s been getting seriously cold here; the night temps now hover around freezing. Our neighbors are dipping into their charcoal sacks, and I’ve been learning about the unique local heating system. It’s called a kangar. 
The theory here is that heating up a whole house, or even a whole room, takes lots of fuel. So it’s better to simply heat up each individual family member.
The kangar is a personal charcoal heater. It consists of a clay bowl in which coal is burned, set into a holder made of woven rattan. The holder can be carried by its handles, so each person is able to bring his personal kangar with him wherever he goes. Paired with the wool ferrin everyone wears, it’s an efficient system. The kangar can be worn under the ferrin hanging from a cord around the neck. At home in the sitting room, each person keeps his or her kangar close, where it can be used to warm hands or feet. My neighbor showed me how to sit on the floor with the kangar between my knees, then arrange my ferrin over it like a tent. Then I pull my arms to the inside so that my whole body can soak up the kangar’s warmth. Not bad! She told me that she has her kangar with her all the time in the winter; she even sleeps with it under her quilt! (She added that this is only safe if you can sleep all night without moving!) 
It’s a unique and efficient system, but it has its drawbacks. Every child has probably been burned at least once by upsetting a kangar, and the same could probably be said for every rug. The charcoal smoke stings the eyes, and there is a high incidence of respiratory problems among our neighbors. But I find it fascinating to see how people in different places use the resources they have to solve problems in creative ways. The people of this region have been keeping themselves warm with kangars for centuries. Our electric heater only works when there’s electricity, which is around half the time. As the winter closes in, perhaps I’ll be warming my hands over a kangar more and more often!
Posted in Uncategorized and tagged Kangar by Lisa