About the team

11th February 2008

Dear SolarAiders,

I am writing from a humid, fairly wet, Mozambique. I am in Pemba on the east coast where I am better off speaking Swahili than English or my fairly poor Portugese. I am here to meet a local NGO called AMA (They're very interested in microsolar and also larger systems) and explore the possibility of SolarAid collaborating with WWF in the region - focusing on the area of the Quirimbas National Park where human - elephant conflict is said to be a pressing issue. More on this at another time!

The latest from Malawi is:
We have a SolarAid team! During my visit, I met up with Fiskani (our local coordinator) and Carl (our new volunteer from Belgium). They are very keen to get the SolarAid ball rolling together with the Centre for Appropriate Technology in Mzuzu and the surrounding area. Luke has already identified a number of community organisations interested in collaborating on the microsolar project; Carl is already happily taking apart electronic gadgets, taking a look at the electronics inside... and putting them back together again (a trait all good microsolar geeks seem to display); and Fiskani (who was involved in the original microsolar research in Mzuzu) has shown that he has knows a lot of things about a lot of things.

I also held meetings at the department of energy in Lilongwe, visited REIMA - the Renewable Energy Institute of Malawi - and met up with a new budding local NGO which is being set up specifically to promote sustainable energy solutions in rural areas. Oh - and I managed to have yet another birthday in Africa. One of these days I'll throw a party in the UK.

I won't keep you guys any longer - plenty of photos to see on my return!

John