December 2009 Archives

Day 12 of David Fryer and Mason Huffine's Lindi mission

While Mason and I begin training, the installers are still very busy. Sleeping on site with little food or clean water and working from sunrise to sunset, they are starving but never complain - what great guys.

Installers fit a macrosolar system to a school roof.

The next day we bring rice, beans, water, nuts and juice with us. One of the teachers' house-girls uses the ingredients to cook a much needed meal for the Installers. Refuelled, they install six more systems within three days.

Meanwhile, Mason and I get on with installing microsolar study lights in the dormitories. It surprised me how many dead scorpions there were. I was later informed that when Dennis surveyed the school he was bitten by a snake and had to go to hospital

With the installation complete we leave to Mnara. It is raining hard when we hit the road making the off road driving conditions even harder.

It's early Saturday morning. Stephen and I have finished packing and are about to leave for 16 days of school surveys, solar installations and dirt roads. It's a race against time, a race against the rainy season and a race against the schools' Christmas holiday. Mason looks at the map one last time before we set off, "wooooh, now that is one ambitious plan, good luck guys."

A map showing the upcoming installations in schools across rural Tanzania.

As each day rolls into the next we cover hundreds of miles of dirt road, but the enthusiasm, the hope and the pleading of elated teachers at the sight of a SolarAid vehicle keep our focus.

Farm 17 is a school located 7km from the nearest town, Nachingwea. As a converted army base Farm 17 has had to endure tough times since forces left and took the underground water pipes with them. Money and food is tight here. Dedicated teenage boys now cycle back and forth 100 km or more to bore holes and rivers, holding large plastic oil drums to collect water. Food is scarce and most is gathered from the local mango farm.

With the rainy season upon us the adverse effects will cause many mud built houses to collapse. The saving grace is that in three to six weeks they will be able to harvest crops again!

The Times newspaper has chosen to feature SolarAid as one of its three charities in its Christmas Appeal. This is really exciting news.

The Times team landed in Tanzania early in the morning. They were: Matthew Syed; the reporter and Ben Gurr; the photographer. Soon after arriving at the SolarAid office in Dar es Salaam we all set off to Homboza to visit Mshikamo Christian Women's Action for Development (MCWAD). Their mission is to support women with HIV and help put orphaned children into education. Working with SolarAid, the group has set up a micro-solar franchise to increase the profits they can channel into their cause to help more marginalised women and children.

Times journalist Matthew Syed meets villagers in Homboza. Photo © Ben Gurr / The Times.

The leader of the village had called a meeting in anticipation of our arrival. There was a presentation of the Christian organisation after which I was invited to give an unexpected presentation - in my faltering Swahili. This was received with some laughter and was followed by a series of presentations and demonstrations on solar panels.

One lady from the village, Hadija Mohammed, animatedly demonstrated how easy it is to charge and connect the solar kit explaining how excited she is to be using the micro-solar panels. She told us that she had previously spent 300 shillings a day on kerosene. Now she spends nothing on kerosene, so she's saving a lot of money, as well having a strong light in her house at night. Much better than the kerosene lamp. Hadija then demonstrated how the kit can be used to power a radio.

A young girl watches The Times team at work in Homboza, Tanzania. Photo © Ben Gurr / The Times.

The team showed one villager how to attach the leads to extend them in order to light more than one room. A great scheme set up with this particular group is the saving scheme, whereby the villagers can pay for their solar kits in instalments. This is not a service that the MCWAD would normally offer, however the leader of the village has agreed to be a guarantor for the whole village.

Since May, they have sold 80 micro-solar units in this one village. That's pretty impressive.

More updates soon...