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a barbecue pit near the M.I.T. student center, pale blue smoke streams
out of a trash can and twists in the direction of the tennis courts.
It smells of caramel. Shawn Frayne, a gangly guy with a shock of
black hair, sticks a lighter down into the can. He's trying to get
a fire going. He holds up one of his finished products -- a piece
of charcoal that looks like a jet-black hamburger patty. It's made
out of the parts of the sugarcane that aren't edible -- that is,
trash. These humble wads could help to solve a number of problems
in Haiti: poor people would be able to make their own charcoal rather
than having to pay for the prefab variety, forests would no longer
have to be cut down to make wood charcoal and local entrepreneurs
could use the recipe to set up small businesses.
Frayne graduated from M.I.T. last year. He didn't like school much,
except for Smith's design class, to which he is so devoted that
he volunteered to put finishing touches on several inventions the
class started last year. ''I learned in an economics class that
if someone has a good idea and they can implement it in a third-world
country, they can dramatically change the economy of the country,''
Frayne says. ''I was surprised by how much technology can affect
the well-being of a people.''
Smith herself stands by, trying to keep the wind from whipping
her blond hair into her face. ''We're working on a portfolio of
designs like this charcoal that we can show to the Peace Corps or
to N.G.O.'s, groups that are trying to help people start up small
businesses,'' she says.
Frayne ducks down, pointing to the base of the trash can. ''If
we were in Haiti, we'd use dirt to seal up the bottom of the can,''
he says. ''But I couldn't find any dirt around here, so I used duct
tape.''
Smith nods approvingly. ''In Cambridge, duct tape is the equivalent
of dirt,'' she says. She loves duct tape and all it stands for.
She knows how to make a hammock and a kaleidoscope out of duct tape.
It's a very useful material, no doubt, but if she were on her $2-a-day
budget, she'd probably have to buy it on layaway.
Pagan Kennedy is a frequent contributor to the magazine and last
wrote about biodiesel fuel.
