The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Bicycle frames, old pulleys, PVC pipes.
Every Miramichier probably has these things cluttering up their basements or backyards, just waiting to be tossed on the junk pile.
But there’s a young man from the African country of Malawi named William Kamkwamba who used these same pieces of junk to build a windmill which brought electricity to his village for the first time a few years back.
William, 22, wrote about his endevour to bring electricity to his village in the new book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
When he was 14, William’s country suffered the worst famine in its history. He had to drop out of school because his parents couldn’t afford the $80 a year it cost for him to go.
Watching people he knew starving to death around him, William wanted to find a way to bring electricity to the village so people could pump water to irrigate crops and to have lights at night.
So he went to his local library and found some books about windmills.
With an old tractor fan, some electrical wire, a bicycle frame and PVC pipes he found in a junk pile, William spent the next three months puzzling out the workings of the machine from a few pictures in books he didn’t even know how to read.
Imagine. One search of the Internet could have told him all he ever wanted to know about windmills. But since no one in his village had ever had electricity, let alone a computer, that was impossible. Still, with only a minimum of knowledge, the roughest of materials and a whole lot of ingenuity, William built not one but two windmills, pumping water from the ground and making electric lights shine in his village for the first time ever.
“A windmill meant more than just power, it was freedom,” William wrote in his book.
Wow.
Though it's easy to forget it, we’ve got things pretty good over here. We live in one of the wealthiest countries on the face of the Earth. If we want water, we turn on a tap. If we want light, we flick on a switch. We have so much in this country and take it for granted everyday.
Consider this, then consider how young William, in the midst of starvation and death, took things most of us would consider garbage and used them to save his village from famine and shine a light in the darkness. It's pretty humbling and pretty awe-inspiring.
Something to think about on this Thanksgiving Day.
Every Miramichier probably has these things cluttering up their basements or backyards, just waiting to be tossed on the junk pile.
But there’s a young man from the African country of Malawi named William Kamkwamba who used these same pieces of junk to build a windmill which brought electricity to his village for the first time a few years back.
William, 22, wrote about his endevour to bring electricity to his village in the new book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
When he was 14, William’s country suffered the worst famine in its history. He had to drop out of school because his parents couldn’t afford the $80 a year it cost for him to go.
Watching people he knew starving to death around him, William wanted to find a way to bring electricity to the village so people could pump water to irrigate crops and to have lights at night.
So he went to his local library and found some books about windmills.
With an old tractor fan, some electrical wire, a bicycle frame and PVC pipes he found in a junk pile, William spent the next three months puzzling out the workings of the machine from a few pictures in books he didn’t even know how to read.
Imagine. One search of the Internet could have told him all he ever wanted to know about windmills. But since no one in his village had ever had electricity, let alone a computer, that was impossible. Still, with only a minimum of knowledge, the roughest of materials and a whole lot of ingenuity, William built not one but two windmills, pumping water from the ground and making electric lights shine in his village for the first time ever.
“A windmill meant more than just power, it was freedom,” William wrote in his book.
Wow.
Though it's easy to forget it, we’ve got things pretty good over here. We live in one of the wealthiest countries on the face of the Earth. If we want water, we turn on a tap. If we want light, we flick on a switch. We have so much in this country and take it for granted everyday.
Consider this, then consider how young William, in the midst of starvation and death, took things most of us would consider garbage and used them to save his village from famine and shine a light in the darkness. It's pretty humbling and pretty awe-inspiring.
Something to think about on this Thanksgiving Day.
posted by Street Wise Guy | 9:56 PM
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