It sounds as though this story made the blogosphere rounds a few years ago, but I just read about it and it's far too amazing not to share with Lily blog followers!
William Kamkwamba (pictured above) was a fourteen-year-old Malawian boy forced to drop out of school when his parents could no longer afford tuition in the midst of the 2002 drought that destroyed their farm. Going to the village library to continue his education on his own, he took out a book called Using Energy, which contained a description of windmills in it. He then proceeded to build his own windmill from scraps and bicycle parts!! Amazing! Not content to simply provide his parents with electricity for the first time, he also built a solar-powered water pump to provide his entire village with a steady supply of water, as well as several other "junk" windmills. Wow.
Now that his story is out and he has sponsors supporting his education, it's pretty inspiring to imagine what he will be able to accomplish. I wonder if we should send him a Smoking Lily windmill shirt! You can read more about William at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kamkwamba
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