The Creation Story

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I want to tell the story of a 19-year old Gambian boy, Ebraima. It's an important story for understanding the importance of of what Agua Campus is doing, and can perhaps provide some insight as to why I am so fulfilled doing what I am doing here. Ebraima lives in the capitol, and has a big passion for engineering. I did not anticipate his thoughtfulness, humor, and great intelligence when I first saw his small frame extend a friendly hand. Ebraima wanted nothing more than to go to an American university. While we encouraged it, we also wanted to show him the power of what he can do in his own country. This was a reason for Agua Campus, to provide a hub for space to identify, and a place to find resources. With the ability to connect him to people like Tom Chi of Google Glass over the internet, mentor him in person with international engineering students, and feed him ideas and tools he may not have in the Gambia is an answer to the frustration that defaults re-locating to an American university as the only choice for further success, education, and innovation.

I showed him MOOC (massive online open courseware) classes in engineering from places like MIT, in any subject he could ever imagine, in addition to applying knowledge from YouTube videos, and presenting him with problems to solve as his learning. His first task was to go through the trash and make something, anything. He came back with a board with some wire leads on it, and after a couple of moments realizing he had just made a phone charger from waste.

We later discussed some problems students have when they graduate; they either have no idea what to do, or they do have an idea, and want to make a difference with it. These people seek jobs that are intended to fulfill, but ultimately needs problems presented to them in order to find their purpose. I told Ebraima that he is blessed to be among so many problems in West Africa, because there are so many opportunities. It is often we say we are blessed to have endless amenities as Americans, but lately I have been thinking we are cursed without problem-driven opportunity.



Another opportunity presented itself; the making of a spinning fan without electricity. This aluminum fan, which I had happened to recently find in the trash, was large enough in diameter to be used in our biochar gassifier, a modified pair of welded 55-gallon oil drums used for the process of pyrolosis, in which we used different organic wastes in the conversion to carbon-rich charcoal. The use of the biochar as an agricultural ammendment, water filtration agent, and a waste management medium is not well-known in The Gambia, and the fact of making organic wastes like chicken poop and dry coconut for valuable outcome is a fascinating social intervention as well as environmental. The fan would improve the process of up-drafting air into the body of the system. When I showed Ebraima a video of a small computer fan moving continuously with only magnets, he watched with silent understanding. When I asked if he could do it, he said "It should be easy." Perpetual motion...easy?!

Regardless, he rallied his mechanic friend, Omar, and the two 19 year-olds moved forward. Stopping at Omar's house to pick up an old stereo, and after talking some Senegalese mechanics into trading us car magnets for education about magnetism instead of 50 Dalasi (about 1 USD). They gathered their parts, and I left them to their work at the Agua Campus innovation space for about an hour. To my amazement, I returned to see them amazingly close, to the point where Ebraima stated he needed just two more smaller magnets from a computer to make it work. Slowly, I also saw the potential for the fan to move as it inched along as we tweaked with the magnetic field. We are still experimenting, but success is within a couple days. It is cases like these where I am happy to know that with guidance and a few resources, it that much more possible to quench a soul thirsty for inspiration, innovation, and accomplishment.

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