Famine: Extreme and general scarcity of food, as in a country or a large geographical area
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The famine was a detrimental time in the lives of a lot of Malawians. A domino effect was happening; one bad event led to another. People could not grow food and produce crops, leaving them with nothing to sell or any money to spend. The lack of money left families with little to eat. People got sick and weak from unsanitary conditions. The president didn't care. He left Malawi hanging in one of the worst conditions possible. |
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Also with the lack of money children didn't have the funds to go to school. Will was one of those children, but unlike the others Will didn't look at the free time as a time for getting drunk and getting into trouble. Will actually did the complete opposite. He helped out his family during this time of need and thought of another way to receive the same information that the teachers were teaching to the students his age.
The library. This was the answer. Will checked it out and started going there on a daily basis. Reading books with subjects ranging from American history to the study of grapes, William tried to collect as much education through these books as possible. Finding information about energy and science is what got him inspired. While trying to look up an English word he didn't know, William found a book that changed the way he viewed things for the rest of his life. A book on windmills. Looking through the diagrams he thought of it an easy project to complete and make for decoration, but as he read on it was much more important. Diagrams showed windmills pumping water, grinding grains and producing electricity. This was exactly what was needed to end the famine. Inspired, Will made a plan. A plan to create his own windmill, although while doing it he looked crazy, Will was determined to make a Windmill that was effective for his community. Getting dirty looks and being called a madman wasn't always the best inspiration to keep Will going, but seeing his family struggle and people die kept him going. Will looked in the scrap yard for metal pieces to attach to his windmill. This was the easy part, but the hard part was putting on the expensive touches that required money to buy. Luckily, William's good friend Geoffrey believed in him and had his back. Buying him nuts , bolts, screws and a dynamo the windmill was about ready to go. One night Will had a dream that a gust of wind swept in and gathered all the pieces and whipped it right on the windmill making it work. Although this was unrealistic, it showed that Will still had hope after all the trouble he had been through. A couple of days later the windmill was finished. Tall and marvelously structured you could see it from about a mile away. Will had big plans and this was just the beginning. He realized that from his project he could produce electricity. It started out with a simple light bulb in his room and then with great ideas and a wonderful work ethic electricity spread throughout his house. One day his cousin Ruth had come to visit and gave him the idea of using the electricity to charge phones. Perfect. He charged people less than the traders did to use his electricity and charge their phones. This was all coming together perfectly for Will. In his mind it couldn't have gotten any better than this. |
What would happen if energy could come from anything? Or power could come from anywhere? These are probably some questions that rested in Will's head as he built his windmill. Questions that influenced the way he thought like these were one of the inspirations that kept him going.
1.| Early Ages | 2.| Age 13 | 3.| The Bicycle Dynamo | 4.| The Famine | 5.| Dr. Mchazime | 6.| The T.E.D. Conference