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After camping for a couple months in what I later found out to be one of the east coast's temperate rain forest. A dry place to sleep is truely welcomed.
There was no stopping these girls. They took on the challenge of moving topsoil to create additional tent pitches.
Elias, aged 70, has been a tailor all his life, since he turned 18. He's had his business working from his home in the hills outside Arusha, Tanzania since 1979.
But in the last 2 years, he's been able to dramatically grow his income and business, after buying into a Mobisol solar power kit. This means he now has enough solar electricity to power an electric overlocker sewing machine, as well as light several rooms in his home, run a TV and provide a mobile-phone charging service in his village.
"As soon as I saw the Mobisol system, I knew it would make a big difference to my life - so I saved up some more money until I could afford it", he says.
"I bought the 200 Watt system as I wanted to have as much power as possible - not just for lighting but so that I could improve my business as well.
"The electric overlocker makes sewing much easier on my 70 year old legs - as it means I don't have to operate a foot pedal anymore!"
"But to be honest, I now make more money from charging people a small amount each time they need to charge their mobile phone than I do from tailoring.
"We also used to have to pay for kerosene to provide light in the evening, but now the solar electricity is much cheaper and it means we can work later into the evening".
"The money I've saved on kerosene, and the extra income from charging mobile phones, has helped me improve my house and build an extra room which I plan to rent out now as well".
The solar power system Elias has installed is designed more for small businesses and costs the equivalent of about £80 from Mobisol to fit. They also provide 80 Watt and 120 Watt kits which are proportionally cheaper. Customers then pay a monthly fee of between £14 and £23 over a period of 3 years, after which the equipment becomes theirs to keep.
"I make around £36 a month from the mobile phone charging", says Elias
"The market rate for making a pair of trousers is about 1000 schillings (£0.30), and I can only make a few pairs per day. But I can charge up around 20 mobile phones a day, and make about the same amount of money (approximately £1), so it's doubled my income."
Mobisol is one of 10 solar energy companies that are receiving 'results-based finance', as part of a scheme supported by UK aid, being implemented in Tanzania by the German development agency GIZ and the Dutch NGO SNV.
The companies receive financial incentives depending on meeting set targets for increasing the numbers of people who have access to solar energy. Less than 14% of Tanzania's 41 million people have access to the electricity grid - and of the three quarters of the population living in rural areas, only 2-3% have access to electricity - making Tanzania one of the most 'energy poor' countries in the world.
Picture: Russell Watkins/Department for International Development
Overhead building drawing of the Kinney family Earthship. You can see the tires, cisterns and interior layout.
This sequence shows the progression on the east wing of the Earthship, from tires and earth to the beautiful finished natural look of cob. The finish is determined by a very basic iron oxide solution. Photos David Dodge and Duncan Kinney Green Energy Futures www.greenenergyfutures.ca
Made great progress for a weekend warrior. Will spend weekends in the winter building front two windows and misc. framing details on inside.
Please don't use this photo on websites, blogs or other media without my written permission.
(c) Yago Veith www.yago1.com - Flickr Interesting
With up to 30 friends volunteering to help we prepared a plan of action, cleaned and sharpened every available tool and awaited their arrival.
Towards the end of the day the girls team gratefully let the boys hijack the soil moving project - safe in the knowledge that they'd achieved so much already the boys wouldn't be able to hijack the glory too.
D-Day minus 21 Nick and I have to resort to cutting the thick granite kitchen threshold tiles with an angle grinder.
looking towards the kitchen in the main area of the house. cork floor with in-floor radiant heat. salvaged wood stove. the ceiling fans and the majority of the lighting in the house came from the Habitat ReStore.
you can read an article on marilyn pedretti's strawbale home from her local paper here.
seen on the 2007 MREA wisconsin solar tour.
As the day went on more and more tents started to appear as people committed to staying the night. Well they must have been enjoying themseleves - Lovable nutters our friends - one and all!
We drove 3 oldtimer Landrovers from Belgium into the Catalan Pyrenees and back. Off-road, off-grid and with a minimal ecological footprint. Nobody would find traces of us sleeping next to a ravine or in a forest.
I can't praise the girls team enough - they even found time to keep the dogs amused and away from the welders and grinders.
I screwed up the upload order for this batch of pics - To view the stream in the correct order I'd suggest going directly to this set www.flickr.com/photos/full-monte/sets/72157626215861034/w...
Den berating Nicky for accidentally turning off the oven - 4 Times!!!
I probably insulted Tony by suggesting he would be perfect for the job of constructing wooden shuttering for a modification idea I had for the compost toilet chambers. He took to the challenge and even managed to get the mould filled with concrete. Great job!