As I'm sure all of you are aware I do not have electricty at my site/house. Therefore, I had to purchase a table-top gas stove. Now, you may be thinking that all table-top gas stoves are the same, but this is not the case. I learned this the hard way.
In Vanuatu there is one (maybe more, it's hard to say) gas company: Origins. At Origins they are completely awesome and very helpful but I did not know this when I bought my stove and proceeded to buy it from a random little store. Had I bought my stove from Origins it would have come with a hose to connect it to the regulator and then to the stove. However, the stove I bought did not come with a hose, so I bought one at Origins when I went to buy my regulator (a devise to make sure the gas doesn't have a surge and explode in your face). I thought I was all set to go and let for my site. When I finally moved into my house it took me about 2 hours to figure out how to connect the adaptor, regulator, and hose together (apparently righty-tighty, lefty-loosey does not apply in this country). At this point I figure out that my house will not connect to my stove and I can't just run up to the store to buy a new one, while the two stores in my village have an abundance in tinned meat and tinned fish they don't carry gas stove hoses. So, I spend the next month cooking over fire, frustrated out of my mind that I have a stove and gas tank but no way to connect the two. I talk to my host family about it and they think it would be a good idea to cut the hose and just shove it on. I had considered this and called my dad back in the U.S. to get his opinion and he said that that would be a VERY bad idea, what with the possibility of gas leaking out of the hose.
Eventually it's time to head back to Villa (the big city), so I take along my stove and hose to see what I can do with them. My plan is to return the stove and just go to Origins to buy a new one because I know that everything will connect just fine. When I get to the little store where I bought my stove and try to return it, they tell me that they will accept it for store credit but they sell 20 of these stoves a day, so there is a connection out there (that was the manager who was not very nice). Before I leave we look at the stove to make sure it has all of the parts and find that mine was missing a piece. I exchange my stove for one that doesn't suck life and I take it to the PC resource room. When I get there I try my hose on it to see if it will connect and it won't. So I decide to take a trip to Wilco, our local hardware store, to see what I can find to try to connect the two. When I get to Wilco they tell me that they don't have parts for table-top stoves only grills and that I should go to Origins. I head to Origins and after talking to them for 30mins. or so (them being extremely helpful) they tell me that I don't need to buy a new stove, I just need to cut my hose shove it on to the stove and put a hose clamp on it so the gas doesn't leak out. So back to Wilco I go to buy a hose clamp.
I think that I'm all set now, but only time will tell. Moral of the story: don't cut corners to try to find a deal go straight to the source; and buy your stove from Origins.
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