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Published: November 4th 2006
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Solar Cooking
Villagers of Kamatane look on as Demba and Kory demonstrate a solar box cooker. The Village Road Show
After the success of the public education and demonstration day (see “sunshine at night”) the group decided that a trip out to some of the villages was absolutely essential to see if the demand they are sure exists is as massive as they believe. The group had already met many people from the villages who told them that their “ASER” (Association Sénégalese pour l’Electrification Rurale) solar batteries no longer worked and that no one was responding to their requests for help maintenance. The panels being made by the group are not designed to replace these “Solar Home Systems - SHS” but it gave them a good idea of what to expect in terms of perceptions of solar. Comes back to what I’d seen in other villages - a poorly implemented solar scheme can do a lot of harm.
We were heading for Kamatane - an isolated village about 20km off the main road between Foundiougne and Passy reached by overgrown tracks through fields of groundnuts, beans and watermelons. We loaded up the 4x4 with the group, solar cookers, panels, tables and Jonas’ HUGE speakers, CD player, amplifier and generator and headed for the bush.
Solar Radio
Kory, after showing this villager an empty battery compartment, demonsrates how a small panel can power a radio. As we rolled through villages off the main road, avoiding cows, chickens and goats, we were chased by groups of screaming kids who gave up chasing only when we had completely vanished into our own dust cloud. We had contacted the village chief the day before and, as we got closer to Kamatane, we were greeted my waving men and women clapping their hands above their heads who then followed us towards the main village.
We set up next to the chief’s house, started the generator, pumped up the Sabar music and started the show. The new wireless microphones were fantastic and there times I had to pinch myself to check I wasn’t’ watching some kind of cable shopping channel. The work we’d done on “Frequently Asked Questions” really paid off as the questions came rolling in - most of them anticipated. The food cooked away; the mobile phone charger worked a treat and the solar radio, although it struggled to compete with Jonas’ “stacks”, had people demanding that we open the battery cover to prove it was empty.
The afternoon session was for tasting our solar food and, as the perfectly cooked eggs, fish and onions came
Eggs
Solar eggs - the way your Mum used to cook them. out of the cookers and was passed around the panel of village tasters, smiles and looks of amazement confirmed that the group were going to busy.
We received copious thanks and got a fantastic send off by the villagers - a send off that had me grinning massively. “This is why I wanted to go on a sabbatical” I reminded myself. Whatever the difficulties with WAAME and the moments of near despair, this is what it’s all about - the look on someone’s face when they suddenly realize that they don’t need to spend hours every day looking for firewood, that they don’t need to slave over a smoking fire for hours risking lung problems for themselves and their family. The tentative tasting and the look of suspicion turning into a huge smile as someone realises they can spend more time with their family and leave the cooker to do its own thing - that’s what makes petty arguments about budgets for fuel to drive to the villages worthwhile.
We stopped at a second village, Keur Yoro, on the way back to Foundiougne and gave a brief demonstration. It was getting late and the sun was getting low
Satisfied Customer
A Kamatane villager gives her reaction to her first taste of solar cooked food. in the sky but the radio still worked, the phone charger still charged and the questions kept coming including from one man who was convinced that we had connected the cooker to the car somehow. “When can we buy one” was a pretty common question and one which the group needed to hear.
The air was cooling and I decided to join Jonas and Omar on the roof of the pickup - ducking under low trees, banging out rhythms on the table tops and singing my head off while Jonas did his Kate Winslet in Titanic impression (arms wide open standing on the roof kind of thing). We picked groundnuts from the roots of the plants we’d been handed as we left Keur Yoro and sang our way back to Foundiogne - A toubab and a nutcase eating nuts on a roof rack.
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Lily
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Q&A
How long does it take to cook an egg in a solar cooker? Hpw long does it need to charge before hand?