The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

they went to work in the gold mines in South Africa

they went looking for temporary "work for food"

they became sick with malaria

they became HIV positive

chickens were distributed to all

no rain came and the maize dried up in the fields causing famine

the government brought in loads of maize for the people

extra maize seed and fertilizer were provided by the government

he powered a small cook stove

he started selling power to other villages

he began to repair people's radios

people lined up outside of his house to charge their mobile phones

lay around the house doing nothing

had to go to work in the gold mines

began going to the library where he found books on physics, English, etc.

work in his chief's fields

a lucrative job in California

a career in software engineering

a chance for him to go back to school, and a way to better his family's life

not lasting long, as interest died down over him

they moved away to a relative's home where there was no famine

their crops did not fail during the famine

they had savings to buy the maize they needed

his mother made little cakes of maize and sold them in the market

the weather patterns

events that they did not understand and feared

why people died mysteriously

why there was a famine

Kamkwamba

Kasungu

Sing'anga

Mangolomera

a water pump for irrigating fields meant year-round gardens

electricity to light their homes

extra food to sell in the market

water to wash his clothes

water falling of the thatch roof

a bicycle dynamo that produced a light when pedaling

finding a working generator in the scrap yard

people walking around with radios