The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

I just finished "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" by William Kamkwamba, an African boy who managed (just after a famine) to build a working windmill out of junk from a scrap heap so that his family would have light at night, and a few extra bucks charging peoples cell phones, not to mention eventually irrigation for their crops via a windmill run pump so they could get a second harvest throughout the year (see famine above). This might be the most inspiring story I have ever read. Talk about making lemon aid out of lemons. This guy gets dealt a bad hand in life and turns everything around all by himself, despite ridicule from his fellow villagers. I do get ridiculed sometimes about my project - it seems that no one in my real life is as excited about it as me - so this story really resonated with me. If this guy can build a windmill out of a pile of junk when survival itself was in question, then surely our doubling community can come together and turn a penny into a million dollars. Congratulations Mr. Kamkwamba. Well done.

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