Total Page : 288
Publisher : William Morrow
Publication Date : 2009 10 01
>> How Knowledge Can Change the World
William Kamkwamba grows up in a village in rural Malawi where people still believe in the power of magic and access to learning is very limited William s father is a farmer entirely dependent on the seasonal rains to grow the crops to feed his family When a devastating drought and famine strike Malawi in 2002 the crops fail and the family barely scrapes together enough food to survive until the next planting season getting by on one meal a day of corn husks and pumpkin leaves There is no money to send William to school and he must drop out To fill his time William begins frequenting a nearby library really just a few shelves of random donated books from other countries One of the books he finds there however changes William s life The book Using Energy sparks William s mind and excites his imagination about the amazing world of electricity He uses this knowledge to plan a windmill to generate electricity for his home which is only lit by kerosene lanterns and to pump water from a well to irrigate his father s fields so the family will not have to face the prospect of a killing famine ever again Having no money and few resources William scrounges parts for his windmill from rusted bicycles broken tractors and other abandoned machinery he finds in and around his village He has very few tools and must improvise every step of the way The villagers mock William but he pays them no mind as his windmill project comes together and slowly climbs towards the sky
This inspiring true story left me marveling about what may be accomplished through little more than determination inventiveness and a hard working curious mind Highly Recommended
Sample Line On the weekends I walked the old city and learned about its buildings many of them built by hand more than four hundred years ago without the kind of modern technology we have today Seeing this it gave me even more confidence that we Africans can develop our continent if we just put our minds and abundant resources together and stop waiting on others to do it for us
>> His story does not add up
I have read the book but one thing that kept poping in my mind is was it really possible
Here is just one example
He said he extracted a motor out of a radio than built his first generator but as far as i know a radio does not have a motor but a casette player Lets assume it was a casette player and he got the motor but from that small motor you can not generate enough electricity to operate a radio He said he added some blades and rotated manually and touch the wires to his tongue it tickled But if your motor is so small you need to spin it really really fast to get something out of it
His end product may work fine but his book arises more questions that it answers That reminds me memoirs of a boy soldier which turned out to be a hoax
We need scientific check on the story and evidence beyond photographs on the expense of ruining a story of hope and courage
>> What an uplifting TRUE story
Having been to Malawi several times I looked forward to reading this book I wished I could have read such a book before my first trip there This book gives a real picture of what life is like in Malawi I was moved by William s faith in God his hunger for learning and his desire to better the life of his family The portrait of the difficulties faced by the people of Malawi famine corrupt gov t school fees etc is certainly moving and personal It is great reading/disscusion material for anyone A great book to read and pass along
