William Kamkwamba inspires me to fix the toaster.

I am a woman incapable of building or fixing things.  I fear hammers as I fear Jenga towers, which I inevitably bring down upon first touch.  My boyfriend often mocks my attempts to build coffee tables or fix toaster ovens, watching my futile attempts as one would watch a monkey with a plunger.  “No! I can do this!” I shout back, hopelessly gripping a set of pliers that I have mistaken for a wrench. “But WHAT do these Ikea instructions MEAN??”

So imagine my shock when I stumbled upon the story of William Kamkwamba, who is affectionately called “the boy who harnessed the wind.” At the age of 14, William was forced to drop out of his school in Malawi because his parents could not afford the tuition. Frustrated, William visited the local library, where he found a book that described how windmills are used to harness energy.  William wanted his family to have electricity so that he could read at night, so HE BUILT A WORKING WINDMILL OUT OF TRASH FROM THE  LOCAL DUMP.  He literally used items like bottle caps, broken bicycles, and hangers to create a structure that created enough electricity to power 4 lights in his house!  UNBELIEVABLE!  To read more about William, check out: http://gizmodo.com/5370752.

I study my broken toaster with shame and disbelief.  What an incredible kid.  I’m linking to a video of his interview with Jon Stewart.  Highlight moment: when William describes using google for the first time and seeing that thousands of websites explain the construction of windmills.  He says, “All I could think was, where was The Google when I was building my windmill?”

<table style=’font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5′ cellpadding=’0′ cellspacing=’0′ width=’360′ height=’353′><tbody><tr style=’background-color:#e5e5e5′ valign=’middle’><td style=’padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;’><a target=’_blank’ style=’color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;’ href=’http://www.thedailyshow.com’>The Daily Show With Jon Stewart</a></td><td style=’padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;’>Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c</td></tr><tr style=’height:14px;’ valign=’middle’><td style=’padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;’ colspan=’2′><a target=’_blank’ style=’color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;’ href=’http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-october-7-2009/william-kamkwamba’>William Kamkwamba</a></td></tr><tr style=’height:14px; background-color:#353535′ valign=’middle’><td colspan=’2′ style=’padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right’><a target=’_blank’ style=’color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;’ href=’http://www.thedailyshow.com/’>www.thedailyshow.com</a></td></tr><tr valign=’middle’><td style=’padding:0px;’ colspan=’2′><embed style=’display:block’ src=’http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:251740′ width=’360′ height=’301′ type=’application/x-shockwave-flash’ wmode=’window’ allowFullscreen=’true’ flashvars=’autoPlay=false’ allowscriptaccess=’always’ allownetworking=’all’ bgcolor=’#000000′></embed></td></tr><tr style=’height:18px;’ valign=’middle’><td style=’padding:0px;’ colspan=’2′><table style=’margin:0px; text-align:center’ cellpadding=’0′ cellspacing=’0′ width=’100%’ height=’100%’><tr valign=’middle’><td style=’padding:3px; width:33%;’><a target=’_blank’ style=’font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;’ href=’http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes’>Daily Show<br/> Full Episodes</a></td><td style=’padding:3px; width:33%;’><a target=’_blank’ style=’font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;’ href=’http://www.indecisionforever.com’>Political Humor</a></td><td style=’padding:3px; width:33%;’><a target=’_blank’ style=’font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;’ href=’http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/health’>Health Care Crisis</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table>

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