Solar Roller Safari
June 20, 2010
One of the highlights of our recent trip to East Africa was a weekend trip to Nakuru, about two hours north of Nairobi, Kenya.
Over 300 secondary school students attended the event
After the Lighting Africa conference we spent a day at the office of SolarAid Kenya for a few meetings and to teach an off-grid fundamentals class for their staff and contractors. SolarAid’s Head of Programmes John Keane and Solar Roller Coordinator Courtney Faucett invited us to tag along with them to an ‘International Climate Challenge’ event for secondary school students from around the region. We rolled in the “Solar Roller”, a mobile solar educational roadshow, packed with demonstration products and displays to present SolarAid’s micro-solar product line and spread the renewable energy message.
The "Solar Roller" of SolarAid Kenya
John Keane and Courtney talk 'pico-solar'
We drove up from Nairobi and arrived while the event was already in full swing. Over 300 secondary school students from around central Kenya were there representing their schools environmental groups and showcasing their eco-activities. In addition to SolarAid’s display outside there were ten or more local NGOs there to present about their approaches to environmental protection and sustainability. I kept thinking about hard it would be to get that kind of attendance from US high school students! The irony of the whole thing is that most of these kids families don’t even have electricity in their homes, let alone multiple vehicles per family! Their carbon footprints are tiny. The kids were smart and enthusiastically interested in the information being presented. They were intrigued by the Sunny Money products and wanted to know where they could purchase them.
The Solar Roller mobile educational display
Solar Cookers International sent along a parabolic dish cooker and some simple solar ovens
Secondary school eco-building demonstration
Solar Cookers International's parabolic dish cooker
School group photo poster about their organic farming projects
Display about organic farming
After the event we drove a few kilometers down the track to Lake Nakuru National Park. We got simple cheap rooms at a hostel run by the Kenya Wildlife Service and explored the park by vehicle. Heres a few pictures of some of the animals we got to see.
This rhino walked right past our parked vehicle
A patient hyena harrasses the flamingos
