I Suck At The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind

Occasionally, I surprise myself by reading a non-fiction book. Last night, that is what I did, having finished reading "The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind" by William Kamkwamba. Now, I suck at The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind.

The book details the story of a young man in Africa (William Kamkwamba) who perseveres through drought and famine, and the ridicule of his fellow peers as he is inspired to build a windmill. His inspiration was to use the windmill to generate energy to provide light at night... in a village where everyone basically goes to sleep when the sun goes down.

I enjoyed the book. It was definitely worth reading. And the funny thing is, the whole windmill part doesn't even factor into the story until later on in the book. The beginning of the book details the average life of a person in Malawi, how poor the people are, how many of them believe in magic, and how he came to be.

Part of what is inspiring about the book (aside from the fact that the story is true) is the situation of how William Kamkwamba came to even have the idea to build a windmill. The son of a farmer, he could not go to school because his family could not pay the fees required for schooling. So when he was not helping on the farm, he went to the public library and read books about electricity and physics. (Yet another reason why people should enjoy their libraries.) From there, he scavenged a junk yard to find parts... pieced the various parts together with the help of some friends... and voila: a windmill that generated electricity for his family.

It's pretty incredible to learn what he achieved with his limited resources. And truth be told, the story made me want to build a windmill myself. (I'd also want a whole slew of solar panels too, but I think building solar panels would be more difficult.) Unfortunately, I'm not sure what the zoning laws are in my town. So I'm not exactly sure if I could pull off the windmill even if I built one. Perhaps if I attached it to the roof...

Anyway, the story was a good read. I'd recommend the book to anyone. And according to William Kamkwamba, "If you want to make it, all you have to do is try". Those are good words to live by.