william kamkwamba

[Basil]

Check this guy out- talk about making something with nothing. He had to stop school as a teen because his family couldn't pay the fees, so he started building windmills out of things he found and it led him to the internet, donations for school, and a new life!

Check the archives in june and july for windmill info-

http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/

[Ellsworth]

<a href="http://www.afrigadget.com/">http://www.afrigadget.com/</a>?has a lot of interesting homemade (but very functional) items in Africa.?



Homemade: welder, bicycle driven knife?sharpener, mill, folding metal house, etc.

[rreidnauer]

Yes sir. When you're at the bottom and have nothing to loose, some of the greatest things can happen to those that go at it that way.

[GT.]

http://waterforallinternational.org/videos.aspx

[Basil]

thats what they call flip-flops made with grass string and the tread from used up tires. Cut the tread into the shape of your foot, punch a hole, tie some string. You got a 30,000 miler.

I spent a few months in africa back in '97 and saw all kinds of AMAZING things that remind me of how good we have it, and how necessity truly is the mother of invention.