William Kamkwamba, author, "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind," and Malawi Windmill Maker

Only one cavity

Today I went to the dentist for the first time. First, they cleaned my teeth and then filled a cavity.  It didn't hurt too much, and a well-wisher from Canada named Katherine sent me a electric toothbrush that cleans with sound waves. Every day is something new...

My first physical

Today I went to the clinic next door to my school to have my first medical checkup or "physical," as they call it in North America. Traditionally in Malawi, you only go to the doctor if you are very sick. I learned about blood pressure, diastolic and systolic measurements, pulse or heart rate, and a new word, prophylaxis or prevention. I am healthy and my readings are all normal. The doctor is very kind and explains everything new. I am to take anti-Malarial prophylaxis during the rainy season.

My mentor and I ask the doctor for anti-parasite pills for my whole family. Everyone who lives in rural Malawi is at risk, and it's best if they take the pills once a year to make sure no one has an infection.

After the checkup, I realize it's much easier to prevent than cure illness. I am lucky to be able to go for preventative care.

Tomorrow: My first dentist appointment!

Today was my first day of my new school ABCCA

ABCCA school entrance

Today I began my new educational journey at the African Bible College Christian Academy. The Secondary (High) School started a week earlier because we are using a Distance Learning curriculum over the Internet called North Star, and we're all learning the software together. It's a lot for even the American students to digest and I'm new to computers and typing, but I am determined to learn it.

I'm starting as a freshman with a course load of three courses at first to get used to the new environment. There are currently six students in my class, but more are coming next week and over the coming month. The other students are from multiple countries including America. They, the head teacher Mrs. Maclean and the headmaster Mr. Wilson have been very nice to me.

I'm taking American History for the first time. We have to wear uniforms at school, white logo'd polo shirts and black slacks.

ABCCA garden

Living in Lilongwe

As part of going to my school, I have moved to Lilongwe, the capital city of Malawi. I am staying with Gerry Douglas, the founder of Baobab Health Partnership, where I will be working after school. His wife Thuy, a medical doctor, and their six-year-old boy Ben are visiting for a month. I will live in their guest room for at least a couple of months. Gerry and his wife are very warm and caring, and it is comforting to stay with people who have an interest in my future.  Gerry is building the new offices for Baobab Health in the back of his property. When finished, the NGO will have a lot more space, which they need desperately. They have outgrown their office on the main grounds of the Kamuzu Hospital in Lilongwe.

Gerry also has something very unusual in his back yard: a "jig" for fashioning steel masts from scratch to hold the WiFi communications antennas that they use to send data back and forth from their office to the hospital and nearby clinics. I know how to do some welding, but I'm hoping to learn more from the Baobab team.

In Lilongwe city, the state utility provider ESCOM's power cuts out at least once a day, and we use candles and flashlights.  I want to build a windmill/battery system for Gerry so that he has power backup without needing a generator, which is expensive, noisy,  smelly, and emits pollution.  In Wimbe Village in Kasungu, my family's home has steady power, stored in the deep-power batteries by the windmill.

Reroofing the homes in my family neighborhood

Picture 1: My parents' home before the new roof. Several of the metal sheets had holes in them and they were held on by bricks.

As we redid the power in my parents' home and prepared to bring power to my Aunts' and Uncles' residences, we realized that to protect the lighting we needed to have water-tight roofs. Some of our roofs were metal sheets with holes in them and others were made of grass (straw), which are very vunerable to leaking during the rainy season and more of a fire hazard during the dry season.

Picture 2: The home after the new roof, installed by me and the team at National Solar, led by Alfred Maele

Here are the steps we followed:
1. First, we removed the old roof.
2. Then, we repaired the top of the walls if necessary
3. Next we installed new roof beams make of plywood treated to resist termites.
4. Then, we installed new iron sheets and nailed them to the beams with special nails that have a waterproof gasket around them.

My cousin's home formerly had a grass roof. Here we are installing the new trusses.

My Aunt's home. You can see my home and the windmill in the distance.

Another Aunt's house with the roof in progress

Nice article on MyHero.com

My Hero.com just posted a very nice piece about my work. It has lots of other stories that are quite inspiring.

My talk at TEDGlobal in Arusha, Tanzania, June 6, 2007

Here is my interview with Chris Anderson, curator of the TED Conference at TEDGlobal 2007. Though I was a bit nervous, after I spoke onstage with Chris, I was very happy.

Download the high resolution version in .MP4

See the talk at the TED.com website.

Read my bio on the TED website.

Watch the video on YouTube.