William Kamkwamba: The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Posted by carrie_roll
William Kamkwamba is The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.
Growing up extremely poor, as the son of a farmer in rural Malawi (Africa), William had only three books available to him to learn these concepts from.
He built a windmill from the resources of three simple books.
He had no access to Google, no Internet, no Computer, and no Electricity.
He didn’t even have running water.
The books he used are like hundreds of books that are available to anyone with access to a library in the Western World.
These are books about how electricity and windmills work.
The books were in English.
William didn’t speak much English.
William built his windmill from pictures in the books.
He didn’t have a drill.
He didn’t have a wrench.
He found his parts from a scrapyard, and he also hoisted his dad’s old bicycle 30+ feet in the air to make his windmill work. (He had to beg to be able to use the bike.)
The frame for his windmill came from a tree that he and some friends chopped down.
He had to put plastic bags around the base of each of the legs so that the termites wouldn’t eat the legs.
(The termites eventually did eat the legs of the windmill)
William built his windmill from simply trying.
And his entire life is different today because of it.
For someone who had every excuse in the world, William didn’t make excuses.
For someone who experienced opposition at every corner, William remained confident in what he knew would work.
He says, “If you want to make it, all you have to do is try…”
William is one of my new heroes.
More info: http://www.movingwindmills.org
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What an inspirational post. Makes me belive that anyone can achieve their green goal with some determination