TED Talk: How I Built a Windmill

In the Ted Talk “How I Built a Windmill” nineteen-year-old William Kamkwamba was interviewed on stage. He talked about how he had this idea when he was only fourteen. He wanted to build a windmill to power his family’s home in Malawian Village. He then went on and talked about his process of going to the library, and finding and reading a book about energy, and seeing how to build one just by looking at a rough sketch. Then, he went home and built an electricity-producing windmill that lit four light bulbs and two radios throughout his home. He made it from spare parts and scraps from around the village, following his rough plans he has found.

Because he had such a thick African accent it was kind of hard to understand him, but I can’t believe that he built a windmill on his own just from looking at a book and using spare parts around his village. That’s amazing to me. No way would any nineteen year old in America would do something like that. We take for granted how spoiled we actually are. Although he was very vague and didn't get to go into detail and explain the process of how he put all the parts together, I still thought the story was amazing.